Stamp Collection
Bill "Lars" Colp

Summary

Quite simply, my collecting philosophy, which I call "format-different collecting", is an extension of a face-different approach that includes format variations such as booklets, coils, imperforates, and self adhesive versions of the stamps. Excluded are variations of paper, watermark, press type, perforation, grills, secret marks and other minor variations or "types" that often daunt the average collector because they are often rare and expensive. Also excluded are micro-printing variations, plate numbers in the margins (coils), and dates in the margins - even if the position changes or the COLOR of the date changes. Micro-printing is just another secret mark. The plate number is something that traditionally resided outside the individual stamp. Now that some coils have a plate number in the margin doesn't warrant collecting a stamp with and without the coil number, although I do generally display a Plate Number Coil (PNC) strip for se-tenant issues. Dates in the margin are treated the same as plate numbers. DENOMINATION color and value variations, of course, require inclusion.

Secret marks and micro-printing can be useful for IDENTIFICATION. I would theoretically only need ONE submarine sheet single (#3372) since this stamp has USPS microprinted below the sail and the booklet single does not. However, I show a plate block of #3372 so you don't have to reach for a magnifying glass to see that it's a sheet stamp.

Goal

My goal is to help develop a set of guidelines for those collectors who want to pursue a U.S. stamp collection, but they find the "simplified" pages - well, too simplified - and the "complete" pages too daunting to come anywhere CLOSE to completing. This is the mission of the "format-different" philosophy. The possibility of actually COMPLETING a reasonably comprehensive stamp collection in your lifetime!

Errors

Excluded are all production errors, such as inverts, double impressions, missing perforations, paper folds, cracked plates, etc. When a machine malfunctions or the paper is loaded incorrectly by a worker, the result is just a sloppy job, IMHO. Even though the inverted Jenny (C3a) is a striking error with the plane flying upside down, it is just another production flaw. (Examples of many types of production errors, including a different well-known invert, can be found in the Beyond BOB album). Design errors, however, ARE included, such as the 5c red (page 11d), the Legends of the West error sheet (page 355a), and the Southeastern Lighthouses error (page 494). These are errors where sheet after sheet after sheet were churned out by the presses with the stamps exactly as designed but they were designed wrong.

1875 Reprints

Most of the 1875 reprints are ineligible as alternates since they were not valid for postage when they were issued. (The Union de-monetized the pre-war stamp issues shortly after the Civil War started, so any reprints were not valid for postage).

Commemoratives

Many otherwise excluded issues are included in the Commemoratives pages. For example:

• bluish paper variety of the Lincoln Memorial Issue (#369)
• perf 10 Panama-Pacific Exposition stamps (#401-404)
• rotary press Harding issue (#612)
• rotary press Edison issue (#655)
• flat plate press version of Mothers Day (#738)

These stamps were included, to be honest, because there were spaces for them in the album pages, but also because these were good examples of how slight some of the differences are between stamps with different major catalog numbers.

Second Bureau

Without a doubt, the Second Bureau is the most challenging for this philosophy. Although there is no conflict with a "face-different" approach, excluding the experimental coils (316, 317, 318, 321, 322) seems to violate the "format-different" philosophy. Although it was a painful decision, with a total catalog value of over $300,000 just for singles, there really is no choice other than dismissing these coils as merely experimental and not a common format variety. I suppose you could get ONE of each denomination in coil format without breaking the bank. 317, 318, and 322 have a combined CV of $19,000, so although it would practically DOUBLE the cost of the collection, it would be a nice goal once all of the other spaces are filled.

314A is even more interesting. The 4c was never released as an imperf and I don't collect third party (e.g. Schermack) perforations, so 314A is excluded as an imperforate that was not a normally released issue.

Back of Book

Another challenge is deciding what needs to be included in the "back of book" section. This is a collection of Postage Stamps of the United States, after all. There are 7 categories of items that are excluded:

1. It's not a Stamp (e.g. Postal Stationery)
2. It's not the United States (e.g. Canal Zone)
3. It's not Postage (e.g. Revenues)
4. It's not about the stamp design (e.g. Precancels and Perfins)
5. Errors, Freaks, and Oddities (other than design errors)
6. Fakes, Forgeries, and Facsimiles
7. Computer Generated Postage - this was another borderline area since a few of these issues look just like other stamps. A case could be made for a few of the CVP numbers, but I elected to simply exclude these and put a few illustrative examples in the Beyond BOB album.

The Beyond Back of Book album provides lots of details about what is excluded.

Here is what you will find in the BOB album for this collection:

• Postage Due
• Parcel Post
• Parcel Post Insurance
• Parcel Post Postage Due
• Special Handling
• Special Delivery
• Certified
• Registered
• Officials
• Newspaper stamps
• Express
• Priority

That's right, Express and Priority mail stamps are in the BOB album. I think they should be with the Special Delivery stamps.

A good argument can be made that Postage Due isn't really postage at all. A similar argument can be made for Registered, Certified, and Insured stamps. I disagree, however, and choose to include those stamps in the main BOB album because they are directly tied to the delivery services provided by the Post Office.

All Documentary stamps are excluded, even though some were required as a postage tax on domestic Parcel Post circa 1918 to 1922. That type of usage is left to the specialists.

Conclusion

My collecting philosophy is no better than any other so I have no intention of trying to defend it on principle. I am merely presenting a philosophy that allows a collector to have a reasonably complete collection without over-simplifying the collection on the one hand, and without chasing down prohibitively expensive rarities on the other hand.