Clasic UK Stamp 1865-1887

I would like to show you this group of classic UK stamps that I bought today for 10 cents each... I just got home with them very excited, and even more so when I started to see the catalog values, although the stamps have cancellations very heavy that make them quite ugly, but they are good stamps in my opinion.. historical and in fairly good condition. If you are interested in seeing them in more detail, I will post some more photos as soon as I have time... since in addition to these I bought about 500 more classic stamps from different countries (Japan, Spain, Australia and Saint Pierre et Miquelon) and I will work on classifying them well. A question, some of the stamps have perfins, I haven't seen anything about it in the SG catalog yet, do the perfins subtract or add value?

To be honest,some look quite fine with crisp cancels. Although the cancels do obliterate much of the stamps, they are clean. So, that is not bad at all. The stamps with the higher catalogue values, unfortunately, are the ones with condition issues or multiple cancels.

Normally, the perfins lower the value as postage stamp collectors are not too keen on them. But they add some variety. Try to identify the perfins. Maybe there is a rare one that adds value.

It is a pity your pictures are too unclear to be sure. It looks like you have a very nice example of the 4d 'Lilacs and Greens.' The colour looks fine, The centring looks better than average and the barred numeral cancel is clean. If it is as it appears, that is an excellent buy.

At 10 cents a piece, you did very well.

If I remember correctly, the only perfin mentioned in Stanley Gibbons (GB) catalogues is for the Commonwealth of Australia applied at Australia House.

Stanley Gibbons does not list perfins or commercial overprints for GB.

One of our members is an expert on world perfins. You could separate those, do good scans, put "perfins" in the title and see if he spots the topic.

Don't be tempted to soak the Jubilees, as many have fugitive ink.

Do not be tempted to soak 'Lilacs and Greens.'

For British stamps of Queen Victoria's reign: if there is a green or lilac colour, do not soak the stamp or be very careful. These colours were made with double fugitive pigments to protect revenue income. The reason all 'Jubilees' other than the 1/2 d have either a green or lilac / purple head is that the Inland Revenue required it for the fugitive character of these inks. The 1/2 d stamps served no fiscal purpose (newspapers, printed matter, and postcards).

Edward VII stamps also have fugitive lilac and green inks.

@Murasama, I think GeoffHa is referring to this thread to identify the perfins:
https://goscf.com/t/20188&whichpage=17

Great!!! What great information you have given me!!! This is the first part of the UK that I bought...then come Eduardo and George, I got "sea horses"!! Today I'm going back to the store to continue searching through the huge boxes to see if I can find anything else!!!

@Murasama, that 5d 'Jubilee' stamp comes from two dies. Yours, I am quite sure, is from die 2. You might be on the lookout for an example from die I. But those are expensive.

The 4d in green, second row right, is one of the 'Lilacs and Greens.' Those are extremely difficult to complete with acceptable centring and fresh colours like your 4d. Be on the lookout for the other values from that set.

After a week of going to the Numismatics store every day after work, I spent 2 hours rummaging through huge boxes of stamps. I have been able to rescue, among others from various parts of the world, these classic UK stamps. Except for two or three from George V that I already had, the rest have been rescued… The classification is a first contact, I need to get the specialized catalog…

The specialised 'Four Kings' (Vol. 2) was updated in 2016. There is a limp-bound reprint of it.
The specialised 'Queen Victoria' (Vol. 1), now, is a two-part catalogue. Only part one was oublished in 2020. Part two remains a work in progress.