I Inherited My Fathers Stamp Collection 12 Years Ago.

For the last month I have been going through them and found 2 stamps that I have identified but would like some more information on them. Great Britain stamps #113 and #130 with green omitted on both and canceled by perforation. Not much to look at but can anybody can tell me where to research these stamps?

Thanks for joining in!

Your stamps have been faded by sunlight over time.
The additional perforations you see are not cancellations, but rather they are call "Perfins".
Perfins were use by some businesses organization & governments to principally deter theft of postage stamps.

Thank you, as you can tell I am new at this. If they are faded that bad,
are they still worth saving?

Maybe!

If you can flip them over and scan them again, then we can see what the perfins are. Some are rare and stamp condition may not apply.

A good place to start is your local library. Get out a a catalogue on Great Britain stamps - Stanley Gibbons is good. You will see these stamps listed 1887 for Queen Victoria and 1902 for King Edward VII (I think you scan shows one of each). Photocopy a few of the relevant pages.
Perfins are collectable - there are quite a few to collect with companies from different countries all doing it to prevent theft as Warrehouse has mentioned.

I took pictures of the stamps. I will get the scanner running tomorrow. I have many stamps with perfins,
more reading to do.

The scanner fixed.

nice scanning job!!... I may have to break down and start using mine after seeing the difference!

Mark,

Welcome to SCF and I hope you stick around. Nice people and good to learn from them.

Your Scott 113 is Stanley Gibbons 200 and has a catalog value of £12, without considering the perfins. This stamp was first issued on or around Jan 1 1887. There is a color variety of this stamp that is much more valuable which is listed as green & scarlet rather than your grey-green & carmine. That one is SG199 and has a catalog value of £225, used. Again w/o considering the perfins. But yours looks like the SG200 and would probably be worth less due to the perforation tear at the upper left corner and the faded colors.

The Scott 130 is SG 225 most likely. It was issued on Jan 1 1902. You'll note it is essentially the same design at the SG199, aside from the change in the sovereign's portrait. QV had died and new stamps with the new sovereign were necessary. Many of the first stamps issued for KEVII closely tack to the last QV issue. SG shows many color varieties for this stamp and yours is hard to ID since it is quite faded. And, again, all this excludes considering the perfins.

To get further data on the perfins you'll need access to the Specialised Stanley Gibbons catalog or to someone who knows GB perfins.

Hope this helps.

-Larry

Mark,

Also, check out http://www.angelfire.com/pr/perfinsoc/ The UK Perfin Society. There could be some help there for you.

-Larry

Thank you for the details and the link. I will be busy for hours on two stamps. This place is the best.