Michel USA Spezial 2021 - Looking At USA From Different Perspective

I love collecting stamp varieties, and with my work for one of the main online stamp catalogues I've come to learn that catalogues from other publishers can offer different persepctives on what constitutes variants of stamps compared to the "catalogues of record" for a specific country.

Michel of course is "catalogue of record" for Central Europe, but it also produces a USA Specialized catalogue, the latest edition being released in 2021. I decided to get one to see how Michel views specialized listings for USA compared to Scott.

Here is a sample, the start of the listings of the regular issues of 1870 to 1882. Note that Michel does not separate listings sequentially by printer, but rather keeps them all within the same grouping. Below is the introduction to their specialized listings for these issues and the listings for the 1c values. The big difference I notice here is in paper varieties - Michel lists several paper variants on the Continental bank note printings that Scott seems to completely ignore.

Anyways definitely glad I purchased this catalogue, definitely provides some new potential collecting perspectives for variants compared to Scott.

Michel does an incredible job with all of their catalog's IMO. I wish Scott would follow their lead.

What are the "A" and "B" round diagrams? What do they signify and apply to?

Rog, I agree with you. The Swiss Zumstein is in the same league as the Michel, and in my opinion there is not a thing wrong with more than one volume.
Could the A and B "zahnrad stanzung" be different perforation wheels?


Peter

Ah! Perforation wheels. That makes sense Peter.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a total Michel homer.

This entry shows a couple of the things I really love about Michel's catalog system.

First, all the varieties of an issue are under a single major number. No need to hunt through the catalog looking for other varieties of the 1 C from that series -- they're all under MiNr. 36.

Second, the numbering follows a system. Lowercase suffix from the beginning of the alphabet, it's a color variety. Lowercase suffix from the end of the alphabet, it's a paper variety. Uppercase suffix from the beginning of the alphabet, it's a perf variety. Etc. With Scott, a suffix of "a" could be a color, a perforation, a booklet pane, a paper variety, or whatever.

I get that that's likely a function of Michel building their U.S. listings much later, which makes it easier to fit things into an organized system than Scott (which, I assume, has always built their U.S. listings contemporaneous with the U.S. stamps being released/discovered), But man, do I have trouble deciphering Scott listings, even for non U.S. areas.

It's a shame Michel doesn't do more English-language versions, because they have the best system out there.

I agree - my Michel Gulf States (2d Edition 2013 in English) is essential to me. I don't know what I would do without it.

John

I used Michel extensively for my Russia collection and something I really liked was that Michel had detailed listings for things that Scott covered with a short footnote.

The Zahnrad stanzung are two different devices to make cuts into a stamp to make it difficult to reuse without damaging the stamp. The UK reinvented this for some of their modern Machin stamps for the same purpose.

Here is a page from Vol II of The United States Postage Stamps of the 19th Century by Lester Brookman.

Thanks Germania!

Ditto here, Germania


Peter