Sunday, October 18, 2009

Stamp Catalogues For Beginners.

A postage stamp catalogue is a reference that has all the stamps of a country, region, or even the whole world listed in a consistent fashion. Stamp catalogues provide a foundation of general information that you can use to organise your collection. 

A very important component of learning how to interpret a stamp catalogue is to read the introduction. Most, if not all stamp catalogues, include a foreword/preface/introduction at their beginning that explains the whole kit and caboodle, (abbreviations, icons, what the catalogue contains or doesn't contain, how valuations should be applied etc.)

Their are four major catalogues in use around the world for valuing Australian stamps. In Australia, the most common catalogue used by collectors is Great Britain's Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue. In America, it is the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, France uses Yvert & Tellier, and Germany uses Michel. 

Nearly all stamp catalogues list stamps in chronological order with a picture of each major type, with each type of catalogue having their own unique running catalogue index number. The stamps are usually listed in complete sets, with information like the topic, date of issue, watermarks, perforations etc.

Values are given for mint and used copies with the mint values given on the left column and used given on the right column. Most catalogues give a third value for mint hinged for older stamps. They may also include values for stamps still on their cover, First Day Covers, complete sets etc. Some catalogues even include values for varieties of the same stamp, such as watermarks, paper-type used, printing methods etc.

A simplifed stamp catalogue gives beginning collectors the opportunity to determine the current value of their stamps at the time of the catalogues publication. A simplified catalogue is not a specialised catalogue and does not provide information on perforations, methods of printing, watermarks, varieties etc. What it does do is provide realistic, up to date and accurate values based on information gained from a combination of price lists published by stamp dealers, auction realizations, advertisements and prices actualized through established stamp dealers.

The minimum values in catalogues represents a "cost of doing business" handling fee charged by dealers to maintain and supply a single common stamp without faults, rather than reflecting the scarcity of the stamp itself.

When valuing your stamps using a catalogue, remember that values given are an estimate if you bought each stamp singuarly, and are the price you could expect to pay for a very fine example.


A popular simplified catalogue used in Australia, and available from most Australia Post Shops, is "Stamps Of Australia. The Stamp Collector's Reference Guide" Published by Renniks Publications. This reference gives the values of Pre Decimal stamps in MUH (Mint undamaged and never hinged), MLH (Mint undamaged but lightly hinged), FU (Fine Used with clear, light, round cancellations and full perforations. Decimal stamps are only listed as MUH or FU.

This image is an example from the simplified Australian catalogue mentiond above.
stamps of Autralia catalogue example

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Free Stamps For Beginning Collectors Of Australian Stamps

FREE STAMPS

I know from personal experience as a beginning collector, that receiving small packets of free stamps from other collectors is a very satisfying moment. I've always found the entire stamp collecting community to be very generous and always keen to encourage new participants into the hobby.

Some will even pay the mail costs themselves and have online request forms that can be filled out, but generally you are asked to send a request via snail mail (as opposed to e-mail) and to supply postage stamps to cover the return postage costs.

It is common stamp collecting etiquette to put a nice commemorative stamp on your requesting envelope, as the person giving away the stamps to beginning collectors is always a stamp collector themselves. If you are asked to supply the return postage, again use commemorative stamps (as opposed to common definitives) because you can then add them to your collection.

Here are a few sites that offer Australian stamps for free, and you should be able to find many more with a couple of creative search engine probes. 

http://stampcollectingroundup.blogspot.com/2009/01/free-australian-stamp-offer.html

http://cddstamps.blogspot.com/2009/09/100-free-australian-stamps.html

http://www.freewebs.com/stvincentstamps/freestuff.htm

 http://users.hunterlink.net.au/chasta/freebie.html


This excellent site is dedicated to free stamps and has many free stamp offers from all over the world to choose from.

http://freeusastamps.tripod.com/id5.html

Friday, October 9, 2009

Free Magazines Published By Australia Post For Collectors Of Australian Stamps

Stamp Bulletin

Australia Post has a very good free magazine called the "Stamp Bulletin", issued six times a year. Persons over the age of 13 with an interest in Australian stamp collecting can subscribe to it. It keeps readers up to date with loads of colourful pictures and information on new Australian stamps issues, events and stamp collecting.


http://www.stamps.com.au/collectors/publications/stamp-bulletin


Stamp Explorer

The "Stamp Explorer" is a free fun stamp collecting magazine for young Australian Stamp collectors between the ages of 6 and 13.

http://www.stamps.com.au/collectors/publications/stamp-explorer

To receive either of these magazines, ask your parent or guardian (if you are under 18 years of age), and send your name and address to:



Stamp Bulletin

PO Box 4000

FERNTREE GULLY VIC 3156

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Australia's Favourite Stamp

To celebrate 200 years of postal services, Australia Post invited the public to vote for its favourite stamp, starting from when the first stamps were issued by NSW in 1850. 
150 stamps were adopted to choose from, representing Australian culture, heritage, events and achievements.





favourite stamp for blog
 
The bottom row of stamps show the results in the order of popularity.
(1913-38) £2 Kangaroo and map, (1932) 5s Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge, (1946) 2½d Peace And Victory, (1950) 8 ½d Gwoya Jungarai, "One Pound Jimmy", (1914) 6d Kookaburra.
 
 
 
 
 

Early Australian Commemorative Stamps

Five years after the Universal Postal Union (UPU) lifted its ban in 1922 on commemorative stamps being used on international Mail, the first Australian comemmorative stamp was issued on the 9th of May 1927, celebrating the opening of the Federal Parliament House in Canberra.
This stamp was the first to be issued uniformly throughout Australia, setting a precedence for fixing a uniform stamp issue date.



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The 2nd commemorative to be issued was the 3d blue Kookaburra. The stamp was produce in sheets of four for the1928 Melbourne International Philatelic Exhibition and was only the fourth miniature sheet to be manafactured anywhere in the world. 



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The 3rd commemorative issued on 28th Sep 1929 was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of European settlement in Western Australia



West Aust 3rd comm


Followed by the Charles Sturt Centenary issued 02 jun 1930



4th Aust comm

Friday, October 2, 2009

Australia's First Post Office Opened 0n 28 April, 1809


For the first twenty one years New South Wales was without an official postal system.




First Postmaster


On 25 April, 1809, Isaac Nichols (a pardoned ex convict), was asked by the Lieutenant Governer of the colony, Colonel William Patterson, to establish an office at which all parcels and letters addressed to the inhabitants of the Colony could be deposited previous to their distribution. Nichols was authorised to go aboard ships arriving from England to collect all mail and to give reciept for it.

And so April 28th, Australia's first post office was opened and operated from Nichols' own home in George street, near the hospital wharf on the west side of Sydney Cove.

People were notified via the "Sydney Gazette". They could pick up their mail from Nichols for the cost of one shilling per letter, £0.2.6 for small parcels and £0.5.0 for large parcels. Soldiers of the New South Wales Corps only paid one penny. Nichols himself would deliver mail to the more important members of the community.

Isaac was so devoted and diligent, Governer Lachlan Macquarie confirmed his position as Post Master on 23rd Jan, 1810, giving him authority to handle local as well as overseas mail. It was a position he held until his death in 1819.

Governer Hunter had also held a high opinion of him, describing him as "a most exemplary character", and wrote of his "utmost assiduity, most conspicuous diligence and unwearied attention". Through his "diligence and sobriety", the governor went on, "he has saved enough money as enabled him to build himself a comfortable home for the accomadation of not only himself and his family, but occasionally strangers".

This 1959 pre-decimal stamp shows Postmaster Isaac Nichols boarding the brig Experiment to collect the mail from England.





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This patriotic song, composed by a Mr Jenkins and sung to the tune of Rule Britannia, was reported in a newspaper in Sydney on jan 27 1817, to have been sung during an evening dinner at the house of Isaac Nichols, to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the colony.


When first Australia rose to fame,
And Seamen brave explor'd her shore;
Neptune with joy, beheld their aim,
And thus express'd the wish he bore;
Rise, Australia! with peace and plenty crown'd,
Thy name shall one day be renown'd.


Bright Ceres shall adorn thy land,
And gild thy fields with waving grain,
While roving herds shall o'er thy meads expand,
And range the richs of the plain,
Rise, Australia! &.&.&.


Then Commerce, Too, shall on thee smile,
Advent'rous barks thy ports shall crowd,
While pleas'd, well pleas'd the parent Isle,
Shall her distant Sons be proud,
Rise, Australia! &. &. &.


While Europe's Pow'rs in conflict dire,
Exhaust the Flower of the brave,
Her peace shall flourish, shall flourish - none conspire,
Rise, Australia! &. &. &.






 

Australia Post handled 5.6 billion articles in the year 2007-08

In the year 2007-08, Australia Post handled 5.6 billion articles, seved 1 million customers each day from 4443 outlets and delivered mail to 10.5 million customers.

(Australia Post 2008, Annual Report 2007-08)

Monday, September 28, 2009

What is a cancel?

Cancels
A cancellation is a mark placed on a stamp by a postal authority to deface the stamp and prevent its re-use. If a collection is built on cancellations, then clear, heavy and readable cancellations are sought after to enhance the collection's value.
Some collectors of cancellations collect every calendar day of the year on a particular stamp issue. Some will collect cancellations from all the different post offices with-in a city or country. Others might collect every example of a cancellation device used in a city.
The majority of cancellations are done by machine. A hand cancel is when a postage stamp is canceled by hand, usually with a rubber or steel stamp.


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StampBoards.com Where Philatelists meet

StampBoards.com is a very active forum based Internet stamp collecting site where you can read and write about different topics. It is an excellent board with many forums, where even the beginning collector is treated with respect and will feel at home.

If you post a philatelic question or comment on StampBoards, you will always get a response from other stamp collectors and dealers, who freely share their knowledge. There are forums where you can discuss anything at all to do with stamps, selling/giveaway/trading forums, even humor and recreation forums.

While you can browse the forums without needing to be registered, you do need to register to post. There are certain rules you need to follow once registered. You need to make 20 posts and have been a member for 20 days before you can participate in a few of the forum activities, like accepting some of the freebies members offer from time to time, trading and selling. This ensures that participants in these activities actually belong to the StampBoards community.

While the site is hosted in the US, it is run primarily by Glen Stephens, a very highly respected Australian stamp dealer. Stampboards is very well moderated around the clock by volunteers who come from all over the globe.

Whatever your level of philatelic knowledge, I'm certain you will enjoy StampBoards.

stampboards - the new place to discuss STAMP COLLECTING and PHILATELY!


Sunday, September 27, 2009

Koala symbols on Australian definitives

Australian definitives (usually on sale for several years) range from 5c to $20. As a special feature, Koala symbols are printed on the edge of the stamp sheet to identify the number of reprints. One Koala for the first reprint, two for the second, ect. A Kangaroo indicates a fifth reprint.

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No Living Australian On Australian Stamps Until 1997

The rule used to be, in Australia, that the image of no living person except the monarch and their family, could be depicted on stamps. That rule changed in 1997, when Australia's most famous cricketer, Sir Donald Bradman, was featured in the 1997 "Australian Legends" issue.

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Invisable Ink

Did you know that part of every stamp has invisible phosphorescent ink that Australia Post's sorting machines use to position the stamps for cancellation. The ink can be seen with an ultraviolet light.

ultraviolet light

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Soaking Self-adhesive Australian Stamps Off Paper

How To Soak Self-adhesive Postage Stamps
How to soak self-adhesive postage stamps is a question I often hear beginning collectors ask. A self-adhesive postage stamp is a stamp with a pressure sensitive adhesive. They do not require moistening in order to adhere to paper. Self adhesive postage stamps usually have a backing paper that can be soaked and removed.

I have noticed stamp collectors on some stamp collecting groups asking for information on how to soak self adhesive postage stamps from paper. I have noticed a few other collectors suggesting that to soak self adhesive postage stamps is very difficult, if not impossible. I do note that there are certain self-adhesive stamps from around the world that are impossible to soak, but that is not my experience with Australian stamps.

In response, I have written this article with instructions about how to soak and remove large amounts of self-adhesive postage stamps without damaging them. I have just spent the last 6 weeks removing many thousands of used self adhesive Australian stamps with my 18 year old son, with very satisfactory and almost flawless results. A very small amount of stamps do get damaged in the attempt to get them off, and these I discard instantly so as to move on to the next stamp.


1. Sort your stamps ready for soaking. Remember to separate any stamps that are on coloured paper as the dyes can transfer onto your stamps. Any amount up to about 30 grams at a time seems to work fairly well with this method.

2. Place your stamps face-up in a large container of clean room temperature water. (Water any warmer than room temperature appears to make the self-adhesive stamp paper softer and a bit more difficult to work with). Spread 1 layer and gently submerge them under water with your fingers to get them wet. Repeat until you have put all your chosen stamps in the water. Leave soaking for between 1/2 to 1 hour. Place two more containers next to the first. One filled with clean water to drop the removed stamps into, and another empty for the leftover scraps of paper.

3. The trick to getting self adhesive stamps off paper intact is to gently prise the paper slowly back from the corner of the stamp. You take the paper from the stamp and not the stamp from the paper. Be very careful not to bend the stamp's corner.

4. Pick up 1 stamp at a time and place face down on your extended index and middle finger on your other hand. Gently peel back a corner of the paper, keeping the stamp perfectly straight. If the paper starts to separate from the stamp, you can continue peeling the paper away from the stamp until it is removed and drop into the clean container of water. At the slightest resistance, drop the stamp back in the soak water for a bit longer.

5. You will usually find that stamps that are returned to the water can be processed quite easily after about another 15 minutes. Stamps with a bit of glue left on them can be finished by gently rolling the glue towards the outside edge of the perforations.

6. When all the stamps are removed, carefully place the stamps, one at a time, face-up onto a towel spread out on a table. You can gently pick up about a dozen at a time, and slide the individual stamps neatly into place. Leave to dry until no beads of water are left visible on any of the stamps.

7. Lay the stamps out in single layers between several pages of a large heavy book, taking care when closing very slowly not to damage stamp corners. Weigh your book down and leave to press for a couple of days, or weeks.

8. You should now have some very nice flat self adhesive stamps off paper ready to add to your collection.


Happy Stamping

Monday, March 9, 2009

Stamp Grading For Beginners

Grading Stamps for Beginners

To get the most out of your stamp collection if you are a beginner, you need to have a strong attention to detail. Even if you are just trying to fill a space, the eye-catching attractiveness of your stamps can be the most satisfying part of stamp collecting.

Stamp grading is not a required skill for all collectors, but some stamp grading knowledge is a necessary aspect of the stamp collecting hobby.

Although there is no universal approach to grading stamps, it is important to be able to detect flaws and imperfections that can alter the value of a stamp. Grading stamps is a multi-step process.

When buying or selling stamps, the grade of a stamp is the most significant consideration in determining the price asked and paid.

Stamps can be sound, faulty or defective. A sound stamp is not faulty or defective.

Faulty stamps have minor imperfections like a few short perforations or lightly creased corners.

Defective stamps can have many short perforations, missing perforations, heavy smeared cancellations, heavy creases, tears, stains, missing corners, scuffed designs and thin spots.

When grading stamps, you need to look very closely at the perforations.

Centering of the stamp is one of the most important things to consider when grading stamps.

A perfectly centered stamp is considered to be a superb (S) stamp.

A stamp perfectly centered side to side but slightly off to the top or bottom is an Extra Fine (XF) stamp.

A stamp perfectly centered top to bottom but off slightly side to side is a Very Fine (VF) stamp.

A stamp slightly off in two directions is a Fine-Very Fine (F-VF) stamp.

Stamps that are off center to the point where the frame of the design almost touches the perforations is a Fine (F) stamp.

A stamp whose perforations cut into the stamp's design is an Average (A) stamp.

A stamp with really bad centering, where part of the stamp's design is lost, is a poor (p) stamp.

There is an exception to the rule and that is with very old stamps. They were often printed so close together that the perforations nearly always cut into the design.

Happy Stamping
kerryduck@harboursat.com.au

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Collect Used Aussie Stamps




Stamp Collecting For Beginning Philatelists
To become a stamp enthusiast with the exciting hobby of collecting stamps, all you need to do
is decide on a topic and then purchase some stamps.


If you have particular theme or topic in mind, start with that.

Popular collecting themes can vary from animals, dogs, cats, farm animals, butterflies, birds, flowers, art, sports, Olympics, maps, scouting, space, ships, cars, trucks, trains, planes, caravans, stamps on stamps, famous people, chess, scenery or lifestyle images, pop culture icons, Disney characters, famous individuals, Elvis Presley, Princess Diana, royalty, flags, single countries and/or time periods, historical periods, definitive or commemorative stamps, Worldwide collections, revenue stamps, postal stationery, sheet lets, miniature sheets, souvenir sheets, corner blocks or plate blocks, postmarks, postage due stamps/labels, Philatelic literature, First day covers - (FDCs), counterfeit/forged postage stamps, Cinderellas, Geographic collections and so on.

My suggestion if you are just beginning, would be to focus on the nation in which you live.
That's because your already familiar with your own native country and the postage stamps are
readily available from mail delivered to your home.


The best way to further your love of stamp collecting is to immerse yourself by taking advantage of every possible resource available.

There are many different ways and places to find stamps, for a price and for free, both on-line and off.
Surfing the Internet for good stamp dealers with stamp sites offering stacks of assorted wide-ranging stamps packets for sale, is a good place to start. Most collectors find that the larger packets have the best stamps in them.

EBay is a great resource where you can bid at stamp auctions, as well as buy and sell stamps. On eBay, you’ll find thousands of auctions for affordable, collectible stamps.

You can get stamps through the mail via Web sites, either by approval (the stamp dealer sends you a collection of assorted stamps and you decide which ones to keep) or you can supply a wants list (when a stamp dealer checks his or her stock and quotes prices for specific stamps you want to collect).

You could entrench yourself in the philatelic community to obtain information. There are forums and groups where you can get together with other collectors with much the same interests to yours.

You can trade with other stamp collectors by joining on-line trading lists or requesting trades via trading groups or forums. There are pros and cons to all online trading sites, but sometimes it's just enjoyable to browse what's offered.

Philatelic exhibitions are an excellent place to get superior information and for meeting stamp traders.
You could join your local stamp club. Most regions have stamp clubs that advertise meeting times in national Philatelic magazines.

You could go through Stamp Collecting magazines looking for ads where you can subscribe to
stamp auction catalogues. National Philatelic magazines are a terrific resource for all things philatelic.


Lots of stamp collecting books are available through public libraries and bookstores. Information is freely available on the Internet.

To assist your collecting, you can check the values of your stamps in the most current Catalogue.

A cardboard shoebox is a good place to store your stamps where they will be safe and not
damaged when you first begin to collect stamps.

When you begin to accumulate a large collection, you'll need to put your favourites in some sort of logical order in your stamp album.

Whatever storage system you decide to follow is up to you, as long as you display and continue to build up your Postage Stamps Collection.
Happy stamping
kerryduck@harboursat.com.au