Do I Have Anything Cool Or Interesting In This Austria Collection?

The 1922 Austria definitives are some of my personal favourite designs. They are so mystical looking. I would like if anybody can tell me anything about these. I am not personally concerned with value, if I was collecting for value, I would likely have nothing, but a family member of mine has repeatedly asked what the value is, so if anybody could provide an estimate so I can answer them, please do. Notice the unfortunate damage to the otherwise mint 75k. This is not my entire Austria collection, just a particular section I am curious about as I love the designs. I should mention, all mint stamps in these images are MNH with fully intact gum.

I struggled to upload this image.

Regarding the 75, those issues happen. An upgrade is out there somewhere if you want it.




Should be an accepted answer by itself. Kind of like asking how much the wedding ring is worth, there's purchase price, selling price and personal value.

Your, " I am not personally concerned with value...." with a Queen Elizabeth stare should work. Anyone who pushes harder has other thoughts, not particularly friendly thoughts, in mind. Another truthful but vague answers is, "Values fluctuate with collector interest,the real value can only be determined when the material is place for sale and sells." If you have a catalog which can provide you with a "catalog value" the selling value is usually 5-17% of catalog except for the upper shelf material not present in most collections, even advanced ones. Still none of a family member's business unless the one is on the hook for for disposing of the material in the event of demise.

@Parcelpostguy I say that I do not care about value, that I collect them because I want to collect them and have no intentions of selling, they tell me they want to know the value for insurance purposes and curiosity. I have recently been focusing on really niche topical collecting. As an antiques collector, I find stamps to be a great cheap way to acquire interesting pieces of history, and maybe, maybe, I can get lucky and have something that I find out to be rare, in which case I will most likely keep it, knowing I have something special, unless it is extremely valuable, but that will never happen.

As to insurance value, if insurance is warranted, it is best to join the APS (American Philatelic Society) and get insurance then with the provider for APS members. It is less expensive than most rider policies on a home insurance policy. This assumes you live in the USA.

I do not live in the USA.

There's nothing here that has any real value for insurance purposes - the interest, as you say, is in the designs.

So, the answer is no, nothing cool or interesting? Nothing anybody can tell me anything about?

Ellie88, here are a couple of links to more information on your Austrian stamps.
https://austrianphilately.com/germa...a-1918-1921/
https://austrianphilately.com/helle...y-1921-1924/

Hi Ellie88,
If you check Austria's history online you will find that the country was going through major changes when these stamps were issued.

The main thing was hyperinflation, when postage rates changed very quickly.

You can see this in the range of the denominations in your collection – notice that they begin in Hellers and ramp up to thousands of Kronen.

The post office printed billions of stamps during this time which quickly lost their purchasing power.

This created a glut of stamps that were never used for postage, so they are still inexpensive today.

This is a fun area to collect because there is still an abundant supply of these issues.

I was hoping there might be an interesting variety present, or a fascinating fact about any of them. Such a shame.

The interest, aside from the designs, lies in the progress that the stamps show from the Habsburg monarchy to the post-war republican government. If you dig a little yourself, you'll find information about the people portrayed, the designers etc.

So, nobody can tell me anything about, for example, those two that I have marked down as "thin transparent paper"? I was looking at them, they are so weird compared to the rest. There is really nothing to it, nothing anybody can tell me?

Or for example, in the second image, out of two 10 heller crown stamps, why is one noticeably shorter than the other?

Ellie88, there is potential to find things of interest in some of the stamps you show.

Excellent, that you have already noted some of the differences on your pages and in your comments.

There are paper, perforation and stamp color differences and cancel interest for some.

But to enjoy, you should do the search. Too many choices, for me anyway, to tell you everyone and then make a guess from photos. The stamps are in your possession. But you will need a decent catalog for a guide, such as Scott, to find what the differences are in the issues you have vs what is 'out there' in the collecting world.

Enjoy the search.

Your pictures are great to see but show little detail. Scans of small groups of stamps or single stamps are more suitable for someone to spot something.

Additionally, pictures do not show watermarks or luminescent characteristics, make it difficult to identify shades and perforation gauges, and, without scans of the backs, do not help identifying paper and gum types.

Also, be aware there is a geographical bias on this site. There is an active member from Austria itself that appears to have in-depth knowledge of Austrian stamps, but I think that member is offline most of the time.

I like the stamps with art-nouveau inscriptions trying to burst out of their frames.

The paper used for the two 5k stamps of 1890 (postmarked 1891) is known as granite paper. You should be able to see tiny coloured fibres in it. These stamps also come with a bewildering variety of perforation types and gauges, including the possibility of different gauges on opposite sides of the stamp. So you might find it interesting to check that.