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Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
When the stamps of same country have the same design how do we know one is older/younger than the other buggers?
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Your stamp catalogue (which needs to be a grade or two more complex than "simplified") will distinguish stamps that look the same by such criteria as watermark, perforation, printer, paper, minor detail or maybe even shade, and assign some sort of date to them. You have to carefully identify your stamp and order it accordingly. Sometimes this is easy enough - at others less so, but a scan and post on this forum will often solve the problem!
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Thanks for the advice mate!
I have already looked at loads of threads on here of blokes talking about watermarks, grids, and similar stuff i couldnt see in a pink fit.
These blokes must have vision like Superman as i cant see what they say that they can see. I didnt realise that beer was a necessary component of stamp verification,and a very attractive element of the art I must say! However, I have just one question, how many beers do i need to consume to observe the subtleties of a watermark?!!!!
I have stamps that would at first glance appear to be worth a few bob however they require confirmation of watermarks(invisible to moi) and grids(invisible to moi).
Anyway cheers for the advice. I think I had better start posting pictures on here as i know not what I see(coming from a bloke with 20/20 vision!)
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It is mostly just getting familiar with the stamps and having a decent catalogue to assist with identification. At first glance, many look alike but takes a decent magnifier, watermark detector fluid, a UV light, and other tools to sort them. You will find some that may be difficult because of condition or cancellation. I am amazed at some who are so sure about some issues with just a glance.
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Stu, join the adventure. The minutiae of details are what make the hobby so absorbing. Dive in to the depth that suits you. I have been at it for 60 years and I keep finding new interesting ways to evaluate stamps.
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The best and fastest way that you are going to be able to answer your question is by looking at single country collections. I believe my site shows more world stamps than any other site on the net. However I have not collected much of recent years. Collecting recent becomes increasing difficult, in no small part due to the huge number of yearly stamp production that were being printed primarily to make money. You can still see some of the recent stamps in catalogs, but not all. There are simply to many stamps from many countries to provide be able to provide pictures.
There is another major world collector who has also scanned his collection and has provided it for reference on the net. He would probably have the best showing of more recent stamps than anyone else, I care much more for the earlier years. A link to his collection is shown below mine, both collections are primarily on Scott Specialty pages. You should study each country you are interested in and after a time you will be able to estimate what period they are from. There is not really not much difference between stamps from the 1980's to present. My site is laid out so you can basically see the whole collection of a country in a few clicks and scrolled, while other sites are very slowing in the showing of their stamps even after the bells and whistles have gone off,
Just stamps nothing but stamps it will very much help you in the organizing of your stamp.
Lots' and lot's of time and then some more and you should get the hang of it.
My collection:
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/indexa-z.html
Chang's collection:
http://worldstampalbum.com/main.aspx?MenuId=1
Mod: Made links clickable.
(Modified by Moderator on 2017-12-17 05:58:16)
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Thanks fellas. This pursuit sure is a bum burner and flattener. Im going to have to get a dedicated stamp chair! Hours seem to fly by. Antonious I just have old stuff so Im going to spend the rest of the day trolling through your site. Cheers!
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Hi Stu,
As others have said, it will be a lot easier for you once you have a stamp catalogue to look the stamps up in. Unfortunately, most new catalogues are very expensive, but you can pick up a slightly older one that will do the job for a much smaller amount of money. I use a Scott 2007 catalogue which does the job most of the time. Ebay is a good source to pickup older catalogues. Your local library will be a good place to look.
Brian, what catalogue is most widely used over there in Australia now? I used to have a Gibbons when I lived over there.
Regards ... Tim.
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Two months ago I was able to obtain all 2016 Scott catalogs for around $15.00 each on Amazon. This by far is the best prices I've ever seen for them. Also got a 2017 A-b for $33.00 which is the catalog that contains the U.S. I figure these will last me about 4-5 years before I replace. Still pretty much any catalog (unless specialized) is not going to show every stamp often times only one from a set That it is why it is better to reference
collections that are nearly complete.
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Thank you for the suggestions! Next stop Catalogues!
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Hi Everyone;
Stu said:
"This pursuit sure is a bum burner and flattener."
This suggestion is for all collectors on here that spend more than 1-2 hours sitting and doing any hobby activities, especially stamps.
You need a office type chair with the gas cylinder "shock absorber" type of support shaft. The part that is attached to the wheels and bottom of the chair. This type of chair is very easy to identify by simply sitting down, which will cause the chair to bounce up and down as the gas in the cylinder adjusts to your weight.
These types of chairs will have at least one lever to adjust the heigth of the gas cylinder. It will cost a good deal more but some chairs have several other adjustments as well; back pad adjust up-down, whole back tilt adjustment, whole chair tilt back adjustment, and arm rests that slide horizontally, for best ergonomic comfort.
It should have a 3" minimum foam pad. It not go to a fabric shop and buy a 3" thick piece of foam rubber and some heavy duty fabric, along with some heavy thread and needles. If you live near a big city next time you go for a shopping trip look for such a shop and you will find these items, or you can order them over the internet.
Almost anybody can show you how to sew, good enough to make a servicable chair cuahion. By making it yourself, you can custom cut to fit the chair.
If you Google "articulated office chairs", you will find dozens offered for $100-$150 or so.
happy sortin'....
TuskenRaider
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Hi
I think most general collectors over here in Australia use Gibbons .I also have Renniks Australian And also Gibbons Commonwealth & British Empire catalogue 2013 which is invaluable for watermark and shade varieties and some printing errors.
Brian
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"If you Google "articulated office chairs", you will find dozens offered for $100-$150 or so."
Ack! Don't do that. You started off well, but as an office chair expert, you hit my pet peeve! Avoid the cheap chairs that places like Staples (office supply superstores to those outside the USA) offer. These are as you can see by price, cheap chairs, that will fall apart with moderate use.
My professional opinion as an office furniture guru who has bought literally millions of dollars in office furnishings for a variety of Fortune 100-200 companies...
For home use your best bet is to buy a used professional quality chair. Name brands include Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll and Haworth. My favorite chair is the Steelcase Leap series. Bullet proof and has enough adjustments to accommodate nearly anyone. Good chairs cost $400-600 new and that was at my discount level of 60/10, so list price is over $1000.
You can find decent used chairs at a used office furniture dealer, on Craig's List or direct from your company when they replace chairs. We used to sell the used chairs to employees for a give away price and donate that money to charity. You will be able to find a great chair for $100-300. It will be comfortable, and most important won't damage you! I have good Knoll chairs in my hobby rooms that I got for free when a company was moving.
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02:42:59am
Yep, Im fresh out of the stamp womb on this. I have bucketloads of stamps. Most dont have dates on them.
When the stamps of same country have the same design how do we know one is older/younger than the other buggers?
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re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Your stamp catalogue (which needs to be a grade or two more complex than "simplified") will distinguish stamps that look the same by such criteria as watermark, perforation, printer, paper, minor detail or maybe even shade, and assign some sort of date to them. You have to carefully identify your stamp and order it accordingly. Sometimes this is easy enough - at others less so, but a scan and post on this forum will often solve the problem!
Login to Like
this post
06:36:44am
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Thanks for the advice mate!
I have already looked at loads of threads on here of blokes talking about watermarks, grids, and similar stuff i couldnt see in a pink fit.
These blokes must have vision like Superman as i cant see what they say that they can see. I didnt realise that beer was a necessary component of stamp verification,and a very attractive element of the art I must say! However, I have just one question, how many beers do i need to consume to observe the subtleties of a watermark?!!!!
I have stamps that would at first glance appear to be worth a few bob however they require confirmation of watermarks(invisible to moi) and grids(invisible to moi).
Anyway cheers for the advice. I think I had better start posting pictures on here as i know not what I see(coming from a bloke with 20/20 vision!)
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
It is mostly just getting familiar with the stamps and having a decent catalogue to assist with identification. At first glance, many look alike but takes a decent magnifier, watermark detector fluid, a UV light, and other tools to sort them. You will find some that may be difficult because of condition or cancellation. I am amazed at some who are so sure about some issues with just a glance.
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Stu, join the adventure. The minutiae of details are what make the hobby so absorbing. Dive in to the depth that suits you. I have been at it for 60 years and I keep finding new interesting ways to evaluate stamps.
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
The best and fastest way that you are going to be able to answer your question is by looking at single country collections. I believe my site shows more world stamps than any other site on the net. However I have not collected much of recent years. Collecting recent becomes increasing difficult, in no small part due to the huge number of yearly stamp production that were being printed primarily to make money. You can still see some of the recent stamps in catalogs, but not all. There are simply to many stamps from many countries to provide be able to provide pictures.
There is another major world collector who has also scanned his collection and has provided it for reference on the net. He would probably have the best showing of more recent stamps than anyone else, I care much more for the earlier years. A link to his collection is shown below mine, both collections are primarily on Scott Specialty pages. You should study each country you are interested in and after a time you will be able to estimate what period they are from. There is not really not much difference between stamps from the 1980's to present. My site is laid out so you can basically see the whole collection of a country in a few clicks and scrolled, while other sites are very slowing in the showing of their stamps even after the bells and whistles have gone off,
Just stamps nothing but stamps it will very much help you in the organizing of your stamp.
Lots' and lot's of time and then some more and you should get the hang of it.
My collection:
http://mitch.seymourfamily.com/mward/collection/indexa-z.html
Chang's collection:
http://worldstampalbum.com/main.aspx?MenuId=1
Mod: Made links clickable.
(Modified by Moderator on 2017-12-17 05:58:16)
6 Members
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09:46:02pm
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Thanks fellas. This pursuit sure is a bum burner and flattener. Im going to have to get a dedicated stamp chair! Hours seem to fly by. Antonious I just have old stuff so Im going to spend the rest of the day trolling through your site. Cheers!
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Hi Stu,
As others have said, it will be a lot easier for you once you have a stamp catalogue to look the stamps up in. Unfortunately, most new catalogues are very expensive, but you can pick up a slightly older one that will do the job for a much smaller amount of money. I use a Scott 2007 catalogue which does the job most of the time. Ebay is a good source to pickup older catalogues. Your local library will be a good place to look.
Brian, what catalogue is most widely used over there in Australia now? I used to have a Gibbons when I lived over there.
Regards ... Tim.
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Two months ago I was able to obtain all 2016 Scott catalogs for around $15.00 each on Amazon. This by far is the best prices I've ever seen for them. Also got a 2017 A-b for $33.00 which is the catalog that contains the U.S. I figure these will last me about 4-5 years before I replace. Still pretty much any catalog (unless specialized) is not going to show every stamp often times only one from a set That it is why it is better to reference
collections that are nearly complete.
Login to Like
this post
07:04:25pm
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Thank you for the suggestions! Next stop Catalogues!
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Hi Everyone;
Stu said:
"This pursuit sure is a bum burner and flattener."
This suggestion is for all collectors on here that spend more than 1-2 hours sitting and doing any hobby activities, especially stamps.
You need a office type chair with the gas cylinder "shock absorber" type of support shaft. The part that is attached to the wheels and bottom of the chair. This type of chair is very easy to identify by simply sitting down, which will cause the chair to bounce up and down as the gas in the cylinder adjusts to your weight.
These types of chairs will have at least one lever to adjust the heigth of the gas cylinder. It will cost a good deal more but some chairs have several other adjustments as well; back pad adjust up-down, whole back tilt adjustment, whole chair tilt back adjustment, and arm rests that slide horizontally, for best ergonomic comfort.
It should have a 3" minimum foam pad. It not go to a fabric shop and buy a 3" thick piece of foam rubber and some heavy duty fabric, along with some heavy thread and needles. If you live near a big city next time you go for a shopping trip look for such a shop and you will find these items, or you can order them over the internet.
Almost anybody can show you how to sew, good enough to make a servicable chair cuahion. By making it yourself, you can custom cut to fit the chair.
If you Google "articulated office chairs", you will find dozens offered for $100-$150 or so.
happy sortin'....
TuskenRaider
Login to Like
this post
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re: How can we date the stamps we have?
Hi
I think most general collectors over here in Australia use Gibbons .I also have Renniks Australian And also Gibbons Commonwealth & British Empire catalogue 2013 which is invaluable for watermark and shade varieties and some printing errors.
Brian
Login to Like
this post
re: How can we date the stamps we have?
"If you Google "articulated office chairs", you will find dozens offered for $100-$150 or so."
Ack! Don't do that. You started off well, but as an office chair expert, you hit my pet peeve! Avoid the cheap chairs that places like Staples (office supply superstores to those outside the USA) offer. These are as you can see by price, cheap chairs, that will fall apart with moderate use.
My professional opinion as an office furniture guru who has bought literally millions of dollars in office furnishings for a variety of Fortune 100-200 companies...
For home use your best bet is to buy a used professional quality chair. Name brands include Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll and Haworth. My favorite chair is the Steelcase Leap series. Bullet proof and has enough adjustments to accommodate nearly anyone. Good chairs cost $400-600 new and that was at my discount level of 60/10, so list price is over $1000.
You can find decent used chairs at a used office furniture dealer, on Craig's List or direct from your company when they replace chairs. We used to sell the used chairs to employees for a give away price and donate that money to charity. You will be able to find a great chair for $100-300. It will be comfortable, and most important won't damage you! I have good Knoll chairs in my hobby rooms that I got for free when a company was moving.
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