France What Is A Metallique Color?

Catalogs are not philatelic bibles.
I agree with Cjd that they include 'choices, compromises' but would add that these decisions were/are typically made in a 'for profit' context.
Don

I've posted this before, so it's "free" for our Dear Leader to show it again.

I posted this as quite possibly the most-superfluous certificate I had run across:



"This block of four is genuine." No kidding.

Someone pointed out that, if you wanted to make the claim that you had collected blocks of all of the listed shades, then you may wish to have certificates backing up your claim, and this certificate agreed that you have a block of dull yellow green.

Okay, that made sense to me.

People are going to collect to the catalogue that makes sense for them. Or perhaps more than one catalogue. A few are going to look everywhere for tidbits of additional information. They're going to read 80-year-old journals from specialist societies to find nuggets of data that have otherwise been lost to time.

Put yourself anywhere on the continuum that makes you happy.

Am I missing something? That is about the most common Edward VII stamp. It is the only control. It is a common perforation type. That was a waste of money.

That's what I thought, too, when I originally posted it. Who would bother?

Someone pointed out that there are those who get certs for each shade to establish that they have them all. Dunno...

Anyway, I bought it for a nominal amount as a curiosity. And it does fall in the KGV era, so...the only downside to me is that it's a storage headache.

Don, can you explain this comment?

Why ask £ 3 for a stamp when you can flog it as a rare 'shade' for £ 1,000? But if that is not listed, no one wants to pay extra for it.

Weren't we discussing French stamps at some point in this thread?

Why ask € 3.55 for a stamp when you can flog it as a rare 'shade' for € 1,180? But if that is not listed, no one wants to pay extra for it.

Hi SindDawk,
I think that the catalog 'inclusion' process is undefined and ephemeral across time and across different catalog publishers. Same for color naming. But one commonality is that virtually all catalogs are commercial. (Even 'non-profit organization' catalogs tend to be sold, I am pressed to recall a catalog that was published strictly for altruistic purposes).

As every decade passes, each new collector generation is 'on the hunt' for varieties'. In my opinion, each generation makes more and more stretches for 'new discoveries' and of course these often make their way to catalog publishers. Catalog publishers make decisions to include or not to include. <shrugs>

One possible negative impact of this kind of trend could be that it makes a great hobby more and more complex for new or casual collectors. Stamp collectors are a small percentage of all people. Specialized collectors are a small percentage of all stamp collectors. <shrugs>
Don

Yes, NSK, we were once talking about French stamps and I'm still not sure what to look for when I see a "metallique" listing.

I'd like to again thank everyone for their time, expertise, and consideration and for my own sake, to sum up what I've learned.

Even specialize catalogues leave out listings (that's actually a good thing to know.)
Some catalogues, perhaps all, may list something for commercial gain (I suspected such but didn't want to go there.)
And finally, there is no agreed upon number of shades for some individual stamps. (Hear drumming of fingers on wood...)