Australian Stamp Catalogue / Asc Numbering System

Hello everyone. I recently resumed the hobby after a few years off.

I've discovered that there is little to no information or discussion regarding the Australian Stamp Catalogue that used to be published by the Victoria Stamp Traders.

I believe the 33rd edition was the last which goes up to 2011: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthope...mp-425768113

I have the 28th edition which goes up to 2004.

In the numbering column, stamps are indicated as using the "ASC No."

I have been using this numbering system for all my stamp filing for many years.

An example number is the 1979 $5 Australian Painting which is number 593.

Here is my question... what numbering system is the ASC in this catalogue? I can only assume that ASC stands for "Australian Stamp Catalogue".

My previous older filing in my youth was done using the Seven Seas, Australasian Stamp Catalogue.

In the 23rd edition of the Australasian Stamp Catalogue that goes to 1987, they clearly mention that numbers can be used as a source if acknowledged as "Australasian Stamp Catalogue Number or A.S.C".

So two numbering system both called ASC. Makes sense seeing one is called "Australian Stamp Catalogue" and one is called "Australasian Stamp Catalogue".

The 1979 $5 Australian Painting in this catalogue is both 724 and 474. The 724 is the "individual number of the stamp allocated by the publisher" and the 474 is the "type" of the actual design.

In the 28th edition of the Australasian Stamp Catalogue, the second number is dropped and the 1979 $5 Australian Painting number is 724. In the catalogue introduction, they describe the number as "the catalogue number (ASC number) as allocated by the publishers of this catalogue".

To sum up, it is clear that the ASC numbering system from Seven Seas Australasian Stamp Catalogue has nothing to do with the ASC numbering system of the Victoria Stamp Traders' Australian Stamp Catalogue.

So what exactly is the ASC used by Victoria Stamp Traders in their catalogue? I've read about all the other systems, but there is no reference or knowledge on the internet regarding this "ASC numbering system".

I'd be very grateful if anyone has some insight or information about it.

Have you looked at ACSC? Australia Commonwealth Specialist Catalogue

From what I can find, the numbers mentioned as ASC by OP are from the Seven Seas Australian Stamp Catalogue.

The members from Oz that refer to an Australian catalogue here, mostly, have been referring to the Australian Commonwealth Specialists Catalogue. Does that list issues beyond 2001?

Thanks for the replies. ACSC, while a similar sounding system is definitely different.

For the stamp in my example, I think the Bru:AU 837 is the number for Brusden-White's ACSC.

Here are the full set of numbers that refer to that stamp:

Mi:AU 672, Sn:AU 700, Yt:AU 654, Sg:AU 708, Bru:AU 837, Sev:AU 724, Un:AU 713

Of course none of these match the ASC 593.

Australian Commonwealth Specialist Catalogue is updated every few years, and probably lists through 2024 right now.

The OP appears to be using an app called, Stamp Identifier. I've used it often to help locate the odd stamps or two. It's cross-referencing ability is excellent, though I've never seen it matched to ASC or ACSC. Now I see the Bru notation.

There are more recent ACSC editions, but they appear to only list stamps up to 2001.
The numbers mentioned by OP in his or her last post are from a well-known website as well. The "SN" for US stamps is due to copyright and stands for 'stamp number' and not for "Scott number' at all. Oh no, not at all.

The ASC number 593 could be a number assigned by the website, or it may refer to an image number and not be a number for the stamp itself.

Just to be sure I don't cause any confusion, the number 593 is the stamp number in the published Pocket Edition of the Australian Stamp Catalogue from VST (not Seven Seas). They called their numbers ASC but they have nothing to do with Seven Seas ASC numbers .

I am hoping to find out what this numbering system is. Perhaps it's just yet another system that VST made up and probably doesn't correlate to anything else that exists.

Looking at the Brusden website you see that some volumes of the catalog set have new editions right up to 2025 (kangaroos) but the end date for overall coverage is still 2001 which was obviously chosen as the editorial endpoint in the Decimals Part Two 2nd edition (2002) which was again updated and published in 2021 as edition three. Seems likely that B-W didn't want to keep expanding the scope and adding potentially three to five or more pages per year to deal with new issues so that now, twenty three years after the 2002 edition they would have up to 115 more catalog pages. Scott and others should do the same IMO.

This is the catalogue that I have been discussing.