Stamp collecting is a hobby! But is it an investment?

Yes, it can be a profitable hobby. But the cost structure of the stamp business does not lend to the rapid run-up in value of a philatelic investment. Consider that at auction the seller generally pays 15% of the hammer price to the auctioneer and the buyer pays an additional 10% over the closing bid. Thus, purchasing a stamp or cover at auction puts one back 25%, requiring a healthy run-up in the stamp market to get back to even.

This evasive nature of profits from collecting often leads the unwary down a path of folly. Take the example of the ‘bargain’ found on eBay for a small percentage of the Scott Catalog Value (SCV). Close scrutiny of the ‘bargain’ too often reveals ‘fakes’. Unlike forgeries, fakes begin as genuine stamps that are then altered to increase value.

Common methods of producing fakes are regumming or perfing/reperfing. There are also the washed cancels producing seeming mint stamps. Regum the stamp and the faker has a Mint Never Hinged stamp. Poorly centered?  The fakers can reperf to produce a better-centered stamp, or eliminate a straight edge to increase the value.

The buyer must also be aware of the valuable Washington/Franklin coils that began life as imperforates. A simple addition of perforations and the common imperforate pair becomes a valuable coil pair. According to 1847USA (a terrific website for the study of U.S. Classic Stamps), the Scott 388 is considered to be one of the most commonly faked stamps in U.S. philately. With a catalog value for the MNH pair of $7,500 and higher still for the guideline pair, this valuable ‘investment stamp’ may be produced by adding perforations to a pair of the imperforate #384 valued by Scott at $22.00.

Pictured above is a Scott #493 line pair valued by Scott at $230.00, with a Certificate shown at the bottom of this page. Without a certificate you could be looking at an reperf of imperf #483 valued at $47.50 if it is truly MNH and not also regummed

We have all seen an attractive stamp with a thin? A faker can use this stamp as an opportunity to regum, thus hiding the thin, and producing a MNH valuation.

But all is not lost. The collector of classics can use a few common sense rules to insure their collection includes genuine stamps of value.

First, know your source. Those of us who are members of the American Philatelic Society (APS) are pledged to uphold a standard of integrity that precludes knowingly dealing in fakes and altered stamps. But even the best of us could potentially pass along a fake or a forgery out of ignorance.

So the second rule is to have your higher value ‘investment stamps’ expertized. I recommend the Professional Stamp Experts (PSE), American Philatelic Society’s American Philatelic Expertizing Service (APEX), and The Philatelic Foundation. There are also specialty groups for the stamps of particular countries and eras.

What these organizations have that the rest of us do not have, in addition to a committee of experts who have collectively seen it all, are tools we would all love to have for measuring and magnifying. But probably just as important are references of the genuine stamps, discovered fakes and forgeries.

It is also worth noting that a dealer or knowledgeable collector will not buy at a reasonable price an ‘investment grade’ stamp that does not carry a certificate from a reputable expertizer.

So, enjoying stamp collecting as a hobby and with some degree of caution and savvy you may over time realize some maintenance of value from the eventual sale of your collection.

Collecting Postage Due Stamps

 Postage Due Stamps came about as a response to mail sent with insufficient postage. The extra postage due is indicated by a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail indicating the amount of extra postage due.

The first Postage Due Stamp was issued by France in 1859. Many other nations followed, including the United States Post Office in 1879.  Postal regulations called for the postal clerk to affix a postage due stamp to an envelope in order to indicate insufficient postage and how much money the addressee had to pay to receive the mail.  Thus came into being the first series of Postage Due Stamps with denominations from 1-cent to 50-cents in 7 denominations.

Since postage due stamps are almost always used only within a single country, they are usually quite simple in design, mostly consisting of a large numeral, and an inscription saying "postage due", "porto", etc.; often there is no country name. As is the case with regular issue stamps, a variety of values may be needed to make up specific amounts.

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) addressed the problem of underpaid foreign mail. The UPU decided that unpaid or insufficiently paid international letters should be marked with a "T" standing for the French word “Taxe,” and from April 1, 1879 the amount missing in centimes should also be indicated in black.

 

 Some argue that postage due stamps are actually a label, as they have no value of their own. Labels have often been used to collect money for other purposes, such as magazine subscriptions. However, in the case of Postage Due Stamps, they are a Post Office issue and are related to the cost of sending letters and parcels through the mails. This certainly qualifies them as an item of interest to stamp collectors.

Printed by the American Bank Note Company, today the stamps have a catalog value of over $3000 in mint condition. Collected used the stamps value $340.00

Actually there is no reason for mint postage dues to reach private hands as they have no use beyond the postal clerks assessing postage for mail received, and are of no value to postal patrons in paying the appropriate postage, but sold to collectors they were. In the case of a special printing of U.S. Postage Dues on soft porous paper, the combined catalog value for these 7 stamps is $86,000, and there are no catalog notes to indicate that they were ever used.

The number of special printing postage dues actually sold into the philatelic inventory is shrouded in mystery. In an article by William E. Mooz, on the 1c appearing in the Philatelic Chronicle No. 170, May 1996, Mr. Mooz offers evidence to support his theory that the actual number of true Special Printings sold was significantly lower than the reported figures. For example, the 1c (J9), Mr. Mooz estimates 500 sold, but suggest that as many as 400 purchased by G. B. Calman were destroyed to reduce the supply and increase the value of his remaining stock. Confusing the matter, it is widely accepted that nearly 9,000 1c stamps sold by the post office as Special Printings were actually regular issues (J1-J7).

The postage due stamp is not always affixed to individual letters. In instances of business mail, the total due might be summed, and the appropriate stamps added to the top letter in a bundle, or to a bundle's wrapper. But most were affixed to individual letters and yet postal covers bearing valid postal-used postage due stamps tied together by a dated cancellation or other postal markings with a postage stamp on cover are somewhat rare and very few have survived on a wrapper.

 Collecting postage due stamps of the United States is relatively simple and quit affordable (outside of J8-J14 as discussed above). The only tools needed are a perforation gauge and watermark fluid. Postage due issues have 5 basic designs as noted by the Scott catalog, with color, perforation and watermark characteristics to add variety, for a total of 104 issues and maybe 30 minor varieties denoting color shade differences.

Postage due stamps were used for just over 100 years. The last postage due stamps went to press in November 1985. Two changes brought about the demise of postage due stamps. The USPS required prepayment of postage in full. Thus, most mail was returned to sender for proper postage. And when mail was forwarded to the recipient, they moved to using rubber stamps and other auxiliary markings to track the postage due.

A second section of U.S. Postage Due Issues is the Parcel Post Postage Due Stamps of 1912. The parcel-post law authorized the Postmaster General, with the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission, to issue special stamps for postage on Parcel Post Mail. Accompanying Parcel Post Postage Due Stamps were a logical accompaniment. What seemed like a good idea was not and in 1913 an ICC order allowed for regular postage to be used for parcels and the Parcel Post stamps were discontinued after the existing stock of stamps was exhausted.

For further exploration of the subject, following is an interesting reference:

A PDF article that includes a section of the Parcel Post Postage Dues

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/symposium2011/papers/charles-postage_due.pdf

The problem of insufficient postage on letters not paying the correct fee had existed since the creation of regular postal systems, it was greatly heightened by the advent of postage stamps, that allowed customers to make their own decisions about the correct amount to pay, without the assistance of a knowledgeable postal clerk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_due

How postage due stamps can spice up a worldwide collection: Stamp Collecting Basics

http://www.linns.com/news/world-stamps-postal-history/2016/november/stamp-collecting-basics-postage-due-stamps-worldwide-collection.html#

Stamp Collecting: From Department Stores to the Internet

What began as a robust philatelic program in a New York City department store continues to have remnants on the modern internet, but only a slice of what was. In what was a major commercial success beginning in 1931 in the Gimbel’s Department Store in New York City, the Minkus Stamp Company opened a small stamp counter that eventually expanded to stamp counters in department stores around the country.

The popularity of the stamp hobby in the first 30 years of the 20^th Century was evident in the hundreds of stamp stores open on Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. The United States Post Office actively promoted the hobby, but the hobby was still not a major factor in American culture until all was changed by Jacques Minkus, known as ‘The Merchant Prince of Stamp Collecting’.

After immigrating to the Unites States from Germany in 1929, Jacque and his brother, Morris, were printing miniature dictionaries for sale in chain stores. They were approached by a stamp dealer regarding a stamp album that was being imported from England at a cost of 65-cents a copy. The stamp dealer asked the Minkus brothers if they could produce the album for less.

They did, selling their albums for a dime and talking the chain stores that carried their dictionary into stocking the albums and accompanying bags of stamps. Soon they were producing thousands of albums for an eager public.

Next stop was a small counter in the rear of the famous Gimbels Department Store. Gimbels was one of the big three that dominated American retailing in the 1930; Sears, Macy’s and Gimbels. Although not a stamp collector himself, Minkus and the company that bore his name had a significant impact on the stamp collecting hobby. His success in large part was founded on his understanding that the hobby must be fun and the entry level need be inexpensive.

At its high-point the Gimbels Stamp Counter grew to a dominant position on the store’s main floor, covering 2,300 square feet of floorspace, with 40 professional philatelists to serve the thousands of stamp collector customers.   At their peak, the stamp department was re-designed by the prominent Raymond Lowey Associates, a project which took over two years of planning to accomplish, and at a cost of over a million dollars.

With this success, the retail model was replicated by Minkus in 38 other major department stores nationwide.  Icons of this success were the publication of the Minkus Master Global and Supreme Global Stamp Albums. Many of these albums continue in use today, having been handed down from father to sons and mothers to daughters. Minkus also published the New American Stamp Catalogue, in competition with the dominant Scott Catalog.

The catalog never overtook Scott, even though it featured more description of the stamp subjects than the more spartan Scott Catalog. Finally in 2004 what was by then Krause-Minkus Publishing was acquired by Scott and the catalog was discontinued. But the Minkus legacy continues on.

While today the Minkus Album is out of print, there are a sufficient number of Minkus Albums still in use that we (iHobb.com) maintain a robust business in annual supplement updates for the Minkus  Still popular are the All-American, U.S. Commemorative, U.S. Regular Issue and the U.S. Plate Block Album plus new binders to replace the worn and the expanding collections in albums begun during this heyday of stamp retailing.

The department store is being replaced by Amazon and the internet and local stamp stores are being replaced by part-time dealers at stamp shows and those of us on the internet. Time marches on. But we stand on the shoulders of companies like the Minkus Stamp Company and its founder, Jacque Minkus.

Chicago Century of Progress Exposition’s Stamp Collecting Legacy

No singular even in America during the 20^th Century had more philatelic content than the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. Originally intended to commemorate Chicago's past, the Century of Progress Exposition came to symbolize hope for Chicago's and America's future in the midst of the Great Depression.

This was Chicago’s second world's fair and as Chicago had done with its 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Century of Progress Exposition responded to  an atmosphere of economic, political, and social crisis, shaped this time by the economic recession that followed America's victory in World War I, the ensuing Red Scare, Chicago's 1919 Race Riots, and Chicago's notorious gangster violence.

Chicago held the Century of Progress Exposition to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of its founding, in 1833.  To mark the occasion, the United States Post Office released two commemorative stamps, a 1-cent stamp (Scott #728) depicting Fort Dearborn an early outpost that was used to protect the area’s first settlers and a 3-cent stamp (Scott #729) depicting the Federal Building, symbolizing Chicago’s place in the future. 

Each stamp was issued in the traditional sheet of 100 perforated stamps. An additional souvenir sheet was issued for each stamp (Scott #730 and #731), consisting of a sheet of 25 stamps imperforate. the second stamp being the purple three cent Chicago Century of Progress: Federal Building stamp.  The exposition highlighted the progress that Chicago and the United States had made in technology and other fields over the preceding 100 years.  The design of the stamp features the Federal Building, one of the iconic structures featured at the Exposition.

 

A third issue for the Century of Progress Exposition was the airmail issue known today as the ‘baby zeph’ Scott #C18, this new stamp had the same dimensions and printing characteristics as the previous three zeppelin stamps issued in 1930. The new 50 Cent stamp depicted the Graf Zeppelin over the ocean, with the Federal Building, in Chicago, on the left, and its hangar, in Friedrichshaven on the right. The inscription reads A CENTURY OF PROGRESS FLIGHT.

The new issue became part of a most notable event of interest to stamp collectors, the visit of the Graf Zeppelin German airship  on October 26, 1933. After circling Lake Michigan near the exposition for two hours, Commander Hugo Eckener landed the 776-foot airship at the nearby Curtiss-Wright Airport in Glenview. After only 25 minutes on the ground the airship departed for Akron, Ohio ahead of an approaching weather.

For some Chicagoans, however, the appearance of the Graf Zeppelin over their fair city was not a welcome sight, as the airship had become a prominent reminder of the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler to power earlier that same year. This triggered dissension in the days following its visit, particularly within the city's large German-American population.

Another interesting event of note for stamp collectors was a new system for the concept of snagging mailbags on the fly, without having to land. Promoted by inventor Lytle Adams and Braniff Airways the system reduced by four-fifths the time necessary for picking up mail from small towns. An exhibition of this improvement in the speed and efficiency of the air mail system was given at the Exposition Lagoon, October 4, 1934. Apparently the idea worked, given the right combination of equipment and pilot.

Another European Aviation visit to the fair that generated a lasting legacy in the stamp collecting world was the visit of the Italian Aviators, led by Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo, to the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition.

  

One of the highlights of the fair occurred when Italian aviator Italo Balbo led a squadron of 24 Savoia-Marchetti SM.55X flying boats in a historic transatlantic flight from Rome to Chicago, landing on Lake Michigan near the fairgrounds.

In honor of his journey to the Century of Progress, Chicago renamed 7th Street Balbo Drive. However, the street name is not the only lingering reminder of Balbo's visit. In an additional gesture of generosity, Mussolini plundered a Roman column, dating from the second century A.D., from a portico near the Porta Marina of Ostica Antica, the ancient port city of Rome. The column was shipped to Chicago and erected in front of the Italian pavilion of the Century of Progress fair in 1934, after Balbo’s flight.

Today the Balbo Monument, as it is known, is one of, perhaps even the only structures remaining from the Century of Progress. It can be found in lonely isolation in Burnham Park, near the lakefront bike trail just east of Soldier Field. The 2,000 year-old column from Ostica Antica stands on a travertine marble base with a fading inscription in both Italian and English that reads, "This column, twenty centuries old, was erected on the beach of Ostia, the port of Imperial Rome, to watch over the fortunes and victories of the Roman triremes. Fascist Italy, with the sponsorship of Benito Mussolini, presents to Chicago a symbol and memorial in honor of the Atlantic Squadron led by Balbo, which with Roman daring, flew across the ocean in the 11th year of the Fascist era."

Balbo’s armada of 24 Savoia Marchetti S. 55X hydroplanes flew from Italy to Montreal, Canada. On July 14, 1933 the armada departed Montréal for their final destination, the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. This Canadian visit is commemorated on an overprint of the Newfoundland Air Post issue, Scott #C18

  

Overshadowed in history by the visit of the Zeppelin German airship  on October 26, 1933, a previous visit by an airship, the United States Airship Macon occurred in the Spring of 1933. Just one more event showing the link between aviation, progress and stamp collecting.

Another even at the Exposition that is commemorated for philatelists is the high altitude ascent of the Stratosphere balloon ‘Century of Progress’. Introduced to the public on August 5, 1933 in the skies over the Exposition, on November 20,1933 the ‘Century of progress’ reached a height of  61,000 feet (18,592 meters). The balloon carried two instruments to measure how gas conducted cosmic rays, a cosmic ray telescope, a polariscope for study of the polarization of light at high altitudes, fruit flies to study genetic mutations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and an infrared camera to study the ozone layer.

All totaled, the Chicago Century of Progress was an overwhelming success, with 40 million visitors and a range of philatelic items that touch nearly every stamp collection today from the novice to the specialists, and particularly in the area of flight covers.

Bob MacLachlan

iHobb.com

Internet Hobby Supply

(NOTE: Some of the scans in this blog are from our stock and some were copied from sources on the internet)

The History of Fancy Cancels on U.S. Postage Stamps

The era of fancy cancels ranged from the first U.S. Stamps issued in 1847 through the 1890’s, when the Post Office Department standardized cancellations and ended the practice of allowing individual local postmasters to express some personal artistry in meeting the requirement to deface stamps to prevent their reuse.

The modern era has produced some interesting cancels, and now the USPS has introduced some very elaborate First Day of Issue Cancels, artistically pleasing on First Day Covers and Souvenir Pages. But the focus of Fancy Cancel Collectors is on the traditional early covers, primarily the cork cancels and the 19^th Century.

lThe earliest cancellations were often ‘pen cancels’ where the postmaster literally defaced the stamp using a fountain pen. While of lesser value to collectors, the upside of these cancels is they generally do not obliterate the stamps the way some heavy cancels do.

Another popular cancellation is the use of a ‘PAID’ handstamp, often left over from the pre-stamp era when the handstamp were applied to the ‘stampless’ covers to indicate the postage has been paid at the post office of origin.

The first cork cancels are mostly tragic obliterations as the cork bottle stoppers dipped in ink were used making the stamp nearly indiscernible. This practice created its own problem, as the obliteration often defaced the stamp to the extent that the denomination paid could not be seen.  In response, postal clerks began to carve a groove across the middle of the cork, creating two semi-circles.

From this point the wheels of creativity began to spin, as four and then eight segment cork cancels appear, and soon designs began to appear ranging from stars and crosses, to geometrical shapes, animals, plants, birds, and even devils with pitchforks.

The developing art of fancy cancels found their high point in Waterbury, Connecticut where new cancels were created for every holiday and special occasions. The "Waterbury Running Chicken" cancel, which was probably actually a turkey since it appeared close to Thanksgiving of 1869, was in use for only a few days and is now the most prized of all 19th century cancels, with covers fetching very high prices.

The Fancy Cancels that we list on our iHobb.com website include some of the artistic high points of stars, cogwheels, crosses, pies, grills, concentric and bull’s-eyes, plus some early, plainer cork cancels and a few pen cancels. These later examples are outside the range of what a purest would call a fancy cancel, but are of the era and we include them, priced accordingly.

Of course, the treasures are the fancy cancels that are intact on the full cover as originally mailed. We are very pleased with the iHobb.com selection of these cancels, but maintaining a fresh stock is difficult as they are in strong demand and not readily available except in the occasion auction. Collect cancels for the sake of cancels, or seek out stamps with interesting cancels when filling spaces in your album and the result is an interesting collection with personality.

Enjoy our complete stock at iHobb.com

THE CANADIAN DOMESTOGRAMME

Canada’s diverse postal history includes a usage of the popular Aerogramme format for postal use within Canada; the Domestogramme. The Domestogramme was a new application of an old idea; an example of the idea that if you wait long enough the old will return again, in a new form, of course.

In the era before the introduction of postage stamps, mailed letters did not include an envelope. Postal markings and franking was applied direct to the folded letter. This same concept was later deployed with Aerogrammes.

An Aerogram, Aérogramme or Air Letter is a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same. The intent of the Aerogramme was to carry a letter on the one page, without any enclosures.

The aerogram was largely popularized by its use during the Second World War (1939–45). Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Evans, Royal Engineers, Assistant Director Army Postal Service Middle East Force (MEF), proposed the lightweight self-sealing letter card that weighed only 1/10 oz for airmail purposes. Evans first saw the air letter form in Iraq, while touring the Commands after his arrival in the Middle East theatre. It had been introduced into the Iraqi postal service in 1933.
The use of the term aerogramme was officially endorsed at the 1952 Universal Postal Union Postal Union Congress in Brussels.

 In 1973 Canada issued a set of 12 Postal Stationery very beautifully depicting flowers of the Provinces and Territories.  The set included 6 Aerogrammes, but also 6 of the new concept that they called Domestogrammes  

The Domestogramme was a totally new concept. Not intended for sending reduced weight mail over oceans via air post, the Domestogramme was for mail use within the issuing country; Canada. More expansive than any European Country and broader than many oceans, the concept was perfect for the vast territory of Canada.

Unfortunately, like so many ‘good ideas’, the Domestogramme was not very popular. Probably the only people who bought them were collectors

Depicted here are First Day Cancellations on the first, error, printing of the set. The ‘s’ was omitted from Postages/Poste(s). There was a second printing that corrected the omission.
Stampless covers, Aerogrammes, Domestogrammes ; postal concepts over time.

Now that was a government shutdown!

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN EFFECTS CALIFORNIA MAIL SERVICE

Now this was the big daddy government shutdown of all government shutdowns. The year was 1861 and Texas had seceded from the Union in February. The results included a shutdown of transcontinental mail service.

Texas immediately appropriated all stock and equipment of the Butterfield Overland Mail within their territory. This action caused the U.S. Congress to terminate the route on March 12,1861. To exacerbate matters, the mail contract with the Vanderbilt steamship lines had expired, and the shipping interests refused to enter into a new contract unless guarantees could be given that their fees for carrying the mail would be increased.

This left California with essentially no transcontinental mail service, cut off from the commerce of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and Canada. Post Master General Holt, and his successor Montgomery Blair, promised Vanderbilt additional funds and convinced Congress to appropriate them. Mail service by steamship was resumed, but overland service did not resume until July 1, 1861, when the new Central Overland Mail began. Mail was substantially delayed, and the daily service was reduced to a thrice-monthly steamship mail via Panama (before the canal’s construction, the mail was transported overland via donkey).

This made for an interesting solution to the mails for a letter destined for Canada West. (No, not Vancouver. In 1861 Canada West was just above Buffalo, New York.)  The cover pictured was mailed from Los Angeles on April 22, 1861 just 8 days after the fall of Fort Sumter and the beginning of the Civil War. According to the backstamp it arrived at its destination on May 25, 1861.

The cover was carried by mail steamship and routed through Panama to New York City, then probably to Buffalo, N.Y. and cross-border to its destination.

The cover is posted with 15-cents rate required for Pacific Coast mail to Canada. The cover is franked with a Scott #30A (Perf 15½, type II, brown – SCV = $325.00 on cover) and a #35 (10¢ green, type V, SCV = $125.00 on cover to Canada).  Markings of note include the ‘UNITED STATES PAID 6’ used by the Exchange Office at Buffalo, N.Y.

Scott Stamp Catalogs

<![endif]>The first Scott Stamp Catalog was published only 28 years after the first postage stamp was issued in 1840 by Great Britain. The original 21-page pamphlet, Descriptive Catalogue of American and Foreign Postage Stamps, Issued from 1840 to Date, Splendidly Illustrated with Colored Engravings and Containing the Current Value of each Variety, has grown with the hobby into the definitive reference for stamp descriptions and values.
Scott catalogs are published in English and directed primarily at the United States stamp collectors. Michel Catalogs in Germany and Stanley Gibbons Catalogs in Great Britain are important references in Europe and there are many specialized catalogs for popular countries, such as the Bale for Israel Stamps.

The publisher, John Walter Scott, was an early stamp dealer in New York City, and purported to list all the stamps of the world, with prices for each. A true business innovator, Scott conducted the first stamp auction and is recognized as America’s first major stamp dealer. Today the Scott Publishing Company, owned by Amos Press, continues with the catalog but no longer sells stamps.

From these modest beginnings the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalog has grown with the hobby to become a six volume listing of the stamps of the world, plus two specialized catalogs.

The ‘Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers’ is the definitive source for information on the stamps of the United States and its Possessions, plus the United Nations.

Another specialized volume is the ‘Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue: Stamps and Covers of the World’ for the stamp issues of the first 100 years; The Golden Era of Philately. Covering the issues of the world from 1840 to 1940 or for the British Commonwealth nations to 1952, with specialized notes not included in the Standard 6-volume set.

The Scott numbering system is the foundation of the Scott Catalog success. Look on eBay or any stamp dealer stock and you find the Scott Numbers in use to identify the stamps. Numbers have been assigned, generally, as stamps are issued. Thus the #1 stamp for a country is the first stamp issued. Sometimes stamps are assigned numbers based on a set they belong to, even if the set took several years to develop. Because numbers are reserved for anticipated additions to a set, gaps develop if the anticipated stamps are not issued. If more stamps than expected appear, Scott will add a capital letter as suffix, or if the change is very recent, it will renumber stamps. Minor variations, such as shades or errors, get a lowercase letter; so the "C3a" indicates a variation (the ‘Inverted Jenny’ error in this case) on the third US airmail stamp.

Capital letter prefixes are assigned for special-purpose stamps. Examples are the Letter "B" for semi-postal, "C" for airmail, “J” for postage dues and “O” for official stamps issued by government offices for official government business . Minor variations, such as color shades, paper types, or errors, get a lowercase letter; so the "C3a" indicates a variation (error in this case) on the third US airmail stamp.

With the prolific rate at which stamps are issued today the addition of a seventh volume cannot be far away. This makes for a substantial investment by collectors and dealers as the catalog has grown not only in size but in quality. Today’s catalogs are printed in color on a quality-grade, slick paper stock.

Available in most libraries, generally in the reference department, access to a set of catalogs is essential to the valuing of a collection. While condition of a stamp is very important to the value of a stamp, the Scott Catalog Value of a stamp continues to be the starting point for valuing stamps. For United States stamps the ‘Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers’ includes a valuing supplement section with a range of 15 values per stamp to illustrate the market pricing for the stamps based on condition (Mint Never Hinged, Mint and Used) and then by centering of the stamp design within the stamp. Even spacing between wide borders on a stamp command a premium and are very rare on some stamps.

Browse the iHobb.com listing of available Scott Stamp Catalogs

Modern stamp issues are collectible

Stand up for modern postage stamps

This blog is a simple plea to those who enjoy stamp collecting: avoid harming the hobby with the popular refrains in complaint of the modern postage stamp.

Imagine going fishing with someone who moans “Drat, another fish!” Wouldn’t be a very enjoyable fishing trip. So with stamp collectors who opine on the modern postage stamp.

To continue with my analogy, not everyone wants to catch the common fish that I enjoy angling for. They use an outrigger and troll for marlin or other big game fish. So some collectors reject modern stamps in favor of the classics, or abandon ‘adhesives’ all together and pursue postal stationery or postal history and covers. They speak with passion of their interest, not diminutive comments about what they chose not to pursue.

Lets look at a few of the popular complaints and see if we can get over them:

Number one seems to be the idea that the Post Office is trying to separate us from our hard earned money. Yes they are! And it seems they always have. Starting with the first commemorative issue from the United States Post Office, in 1894 for the Columbian Exposition.

What possible rational could there be for the $5.00 Columbus issue, Scott #245 with a current catalog value of $10,500 in Mint Never Hinged condition? The answer lies in the Post Master of the time; John Wanamaker (July 11, 1838 – December 12, 1922).

Post Master Wanamaker was the founder of the Wanamaker Department Store in Philadelphia, a retail merchant extraordinaire. He understood that the Columbian Exposition and the stamps issued for the event represented an opportunity for the Post Office to gain some revenue. The result was issuance of what are today some of the most sought after and beautiful stamps in any collection.

Thus it seems that from the beginnings of the commemorative stamp the post office has considered the program to be a source of profit for a service rendered. And yes, the practice continues today, to the pleasure of many modern collectors who still consider a postage stamp to be a bargain.

Another complaint is the number and nature of the modern postage stamp.  The fact is that the Postal Service receives many more requests for stamps than it can fulfill, and thus has as many complaints about the stamps that it does not issue as it does about the stamps it does. Cannot please everyone, and sometimes I expect they feel that they please no one.

For this modern collection, I particularly enjoy the nature of the modern postage stamp subject matter. We have come a long way from the day of stamp subjects being almost exclusively the realm of dead white guy, Martha Washington, an unnamed Indian and a buffalo. I rail against modern political correctness as much and more probably than most, but love it as an integral part of the modern American fabric. Today’s postage stamp is today’s America.

Finally, there is the complaint about the minutia of the modern postage stamp, particularly the definitive issues with their micro imprinting and tagging. How can we study our classics looking for grills, or for secret marks on banknotes, and not embrace the minutia of the modern issues? Is the almost insignificant difference between the ornamentation of Scott #9 and Scott #5A really so important? Someone thinks so, as the catalog value of the #9 is only $800.00 mint compared to the $32,000 valuation of a #5A.

There are no comparable valuation disparities in modern stamps, but there is the same element of discerning investigation required of the modern era philatelist.

So it is that this wonderful hobby of ours has changed very little over the course of the past century, except to the extent that our democracy and technology have changed. This is reason enough for some to reject collecting the modern postage stamp in favor of the treasures of the past, if that is your choice.

But regardless of what we chose to collect, I hope we can all think twice before we curse ‘Drat, another postage stamp!”

For a complete listing of modern United States Postage Stamps, plus many classics too, visit iHobb.com