Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Guidelines On How To Identify Rare Postage Stamps

By Scott Wagner


Over the years, stamp collectors continuously dream of finding valuable stamps. They focus more of their energy and time towards getting them. However, to find and identify Rare Postage Stamps is difficult. It requires one to have skills and knowledge of philately. It is important to note that they are becoming rare due to various factors like errors in printing, content and perforation.

One needs to as well understand that age increases the value of a stamp. Most of those used in the early periods have become rare as compared to the rest. Many collectors are focusing their time towards getting them even though most of them were collected and kept in permanent collections. These are very most valuable and expensive up to date.

One needs to differentiate each stamp from others. This requires one to identify the mint and used ones. A mint or unused stamp is considered to be fine and best condition. Such a stamp is rarer and has a greater value as compared to the used ones. You should closely examine a stamp to differentiate them. A mint stamp will have no defects and should have the original gum. This makes them cost expensively as compared to the old ones.

It is important to use a perforation gauge to help in taking measurements the number of perforations on the edge of a stamp. Those which look nearly identical in most cases have different perforations. Some of these perforations may be infrequent which leads to an increased value of a stamp. Therefore, it ought to cost more than you would have expected after identifying it.

It is necessary for you to conduct research on each stamp you have. You will understand whether it is common or rare through checking from relevant sources like the Scott catalog. Checking on the resource material carefully, you will understand that the rarest stamp was used a very long time ago. It is the rarest in the world and most valued.

It is necessary to check the printing errors. There are some which are printed mistakenly baring some mistakes which were not noticed until they were released. A good example is the inverted Jenny which is an airmail stamp. It had a pane of one hundred which was printed upside down. Due to the mistake, it became among the rarest stamps and increased its value.

It is necessary for one to check the content error. Take time to compare the content of your stamp with what is provided on the Scott catalog. For example, there are some sheets that were mistakenly printed with images of rodeo star Ben Pickett issued in year one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four. They were required to have the image of his brother Bill which as well increased their value compared to the rest.

One is encouraged to use the Scott catalog to confirm any information on a stamp you might be having. This is a relevant reference material that is updated every year making it possess updated details. This makes its information to remain useful to date. You can, therefore, get any details needed based on the value and price of a collected stamp.




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