Southern Rhodesian Stamps - Grandfathers Old Collection

Hi All, New user here. My father recently passed away and left me and my siblings a whole load of stamps that my grandfather collected throughout his life.

When I say a whole load, I mean there could be 20,000 odd stamps it could be double that or even triple that amount, in two old metal school trunks. We spent a few hours just browsing though it all but for someone who knows nothing about stamps we didn't even know where to start. Haha

From full sheets of stamps to individual stamps to post cards with stamps, to letters to companies requesting to purchase stamps from printing companies he kept so much, which was fascinating to go through.

95% are Rhodesian/ Zimbabwean stamps anywhere from the 1890 to early 2000's. Lots with the Queen and King George V and various other royals.

I suppose my first question is there a market for Rhodesian Stamps? (Not Trying to sell anything but just curious).
2 - Does anyone here know much about Rhodesian Stamps or know where I could start learning?
3 - Where is the best place to get a PDF book/(encyclopaedia) on Rhodesian Stamps so if I am looking through the stamps I know what I'm looking at.

If anyone would like to geek out I could possibly upload a few pictures here.

Thanks in advance.

Some observations on what yiou have posted:

1. 90% of 20,000 = 18,000, if the numbers add up, you must have, on average several of each stamp ever issued by Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.
2. There has not been a King Henry in England since 1547. There will be very few Henries depicted on Rhodesia and Zimbabwe stamps.

It might be a good idea to post some pictures of the older stamps. That may give us an idea of what you mean by Rhodesia, as there are several territories that had "Rhodesia" in the name. Not all became the country of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

As for your second question, you might want to see if you can find a Stanley Gibbons Catalogue to start with. Probably, you would be looking for the "Part 1" commonwealth catalogue. Note that the "Commonwealth & Empire catalogue" lists stamps up to 1970, when Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) became a country. So, those might not be in that one. You would need a more recent "Commonwealth" one.

And there is the Rhodesian Study Circle:
https://www.rhodesianstudycircle.org.uk/

Apologies you are completely correct, I meant King George V I think.

Yes there are lots of duplicate stamps in various colours and variations like 1x stamp new, 1x stamp (used) 1x4 stamps, some with edges with the page printing numbers. Some stamps which are just a whole sheets. The lot.

I will try update images shortlly.

That looks like a very good collection with shades. I would suspect your grandfather had a Stanley Gibbons catalogue lying around somewhere.

Rhodesia is one of the most popular countries amongst British Empire collectors and has been heavily studied for the many perfs and shades.

Stanley Gibbons Part 1 would give you the catalogue numbers and you could then search ebay for sold prices.

Even without the SG catalogue, just searching sold values for Rhodesia on ebay UK would show you have a holding with significant resale value. Or even a general google search will return information you may find useful.



Of course, condition is paramount with these issues as collectors who would be interested and willing to pay a significant percentage of catalogue value are usually quite particular about quality.

I do like the shades and it looks like a very nice collection. Thanks to Gpa for putting that together, and I hope someone in your family does more research and continues to improve upon it.

Some outstanding shades! I'd consider getting a bit older Stanley Gibbons catalog (to save money; new ones are expensive). Will provide some guidance on how to recognize and organize your material.

Wad8307

Your grandfather had many enjoyable hours putting this collection together. Hope you and your siblings can enjoy keeping some of them to share with future generations in your families.

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ