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Advice on US Stamps

AOberAOber Posts: 10 ✭
in Stamps Forum

I have quite a few US presidential stamps (and others) ranging from1880's to1930-40's. I basically found and saved them from my family's farmhouse attic when I was a kid and have kept them in albums and baseball card sleeves all this time. I've been doing research over the years, so I'm trying to do my own homework. But some of the one's that "might" be valuable are so tricky that I wanted to see if anyone has advice (like how the heck do you identify grill marks if the stamp was used?). I absolutely love history, collecting, and the detective work. But, I'm at a point where I could use some friendly advice from other collectors. I've been to a few stamp dealers. They offer me $100 for the lot, which is bs. I've posted one of my Green Washington stamps that I'm trying to identify between a 544, 543, 462, etc.

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  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,369 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Seek out a copy of "Scott - Identification Guide To U.S. Stamps Regular Issues 1847 - 1934" by Charles N. Micarelli. It goes into quite a bit of detail on the varieties. My own copy is the 6th edition from 2013. I don't know if there has been a later edition.
    I bought the 6th edition new from a local stamp dealer back in 2015 for the issue price of $39.95. See if you can find a recent edition on Bookfinder.com.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • AOberAOber Posts: 10 ✭

    Thank you! I'll do that. It's such an intricate hobby, and I'm a newbie. I do wonder why they don't have an online edition? But then, I guess, someone would have to upload all the stamps and information from the books.

  • bigmountainlionbigmountainlion Posts: 220 ✭✭✭

    You need a perforation gauge, even if you have a catalog, you can’t tell. 543 is perf 10, 544 is perf 11. Also need watermark fluid and tray. Chance of finding 544 is about 0

  • milbrocomilbroco Posts: 2,735 ✭✭✭

    Try a web site called Stampsmarter.com The site is a little hard to navigate but there is an area that with certain criteria, you can narrow down your stamp to the right number.

    There is also a site called stampcommunity.org with very knowledgeable and very helpful members. They may be able to send you a link to the right area of stampsmarter.

    best of luck, Bob

    ebay seller name milbroco
    email bcmiller7@comcast.net
  • sabersaber Posts: 8 ✭

    Have you tried some mobile applications to check the stamps' value?

  • fysvfysv Posts: 2 ✭
    edited November 5, 2024 7:57AM

    Hello, I can recommend the Scott catalog for a manual search or one of the professional services for expert appraisal. For example findyourstampsvalue.com - they have online catalog with advanced search for manual research and expert support for identification

    Interests: valuation of US stamps and UK stamps

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