Used for me, as I'm focused on the three p's,,,,postmarks, precancels and perfins presently, oops, that's 4 p's My stamp club duties involve sorting through lots and lots of used stamps of minimal value, so naturally postmarks provide an opportunity to find items more nearly unique.
For a long time I could not pick between them and took whichever was most available, cheapest, and least likely to be faked.
As I begin to specialize, I am starting to regret not having been more consistent, depending on the collecting area.
For topical collections and for a collection of the work of one stamp designer, mint matters, and am now replacing used examples.
For French General Colonies, Prussia, Austria-Hungary, and Thurn % Taxis, postmarks are the more interesting story. For French Colonies, the postmark tells which colony a stamp was used in. For Prussia, Austria, and certain German states, the postmarks tell the story of German unification and Austrian disintegration.
For a worldwide collection for which I want every country represented, a postmark with a location in that country adds a level of meaningfulness. I am gradually replacing mint and CTO stamps with postally-used examples.
I collect each country, dead or alive, but focus on France, French African colonies, older German area, allegorical men, carnivorous plants, Vikings, rock art, engraved pictorials.
stampie78
Stamp Bears Posting Guru Stamp Bears Supporter
Active collector from Canada. Collect Worldwide. Specialize in nothing.
poppaxxxx, Hi, welcome to the club. It's a personal choice I guess. If you are collecting for future nesteggs, I suppose Mint NH would probably be the best choice. (depending on the time period of course) I neither specialize or collect for retirement money. I collect whatever comes along Mint Used or CTO in some countries. I collect for the fun of it. Have been at it since I was 7. That would be a few decades ago. I am a space filler and I use Steiner pages for most countries and print pages as I need them. Mixed in with the basic stamp are perfins, pre-cancels, varieties, pairs, blocks and mini panes. So mint or used is of no concern to me at all. Only stipulation I have is that the stamp has to be in good condition with no damage and not too heavily cancelled. Main thing is to have fun with your stamps. Happy stamping.
Used, without any doubt. Postally used to be specific.
A mint stamp is just an expensive colored paper, issued by a postal authority. A used stamp is an object, used by a real person in a specific period. It has an history. There is a story behind. The postmark will tell you where the author lived, where the addressee was supposed to be, what day, sometimes what hours the postman worked,....
I used to not bother with the difference and just collected them all. For a long time my main interest was U.S. stamps. As I pursued new issues as they came out, I'd make an effort to get them fresh from the post office. That made most of my collection since the 80's consist of mint stamps, and up to that point was used. Over the years, I've come into mint examples of older stamps, so I've been swapping them into my album. Now, a good portion of my U.S, collection is mint/unused.
Worldwide, I'm fine with used. I started a Canada collection a few years back, and recently I began a Great Britain collection. Although there are a few mint stamps in each, mainly because someone picked them up for me, I'm totally fine with used. Seems to give the collections a bit of character.
Most of my collection is used. Stamps are intended to be licked, stuck to an envelope and sent to its destination. I feel, "Whats the point of collecting a bunch of pretty colored paper, if it wasnt used for what it was intended for?"
Now I do have some mint stamps in my collection. If that is all I have to fill an empty spot, I will save them.
Post by zepherusbane on Jun 30, 2018 12:29:39 GMT -5
I like both!! I have never really set myself on one or the other. I tend to just use whichever I find first, and if I later find the other I often will put both in the collection.
Worldwide collector of stamps and covers! I gave up on limiting to only certain countries.
I collect both, also. Most of the time, I prefer mint copies. My main interest is in stamps as cultural artifacts and miniature pieces of art. As such, I would much prefer to look at clean, undamaged, well-centered examples, especially the beautiful line-engraved issues.
Some stamps I want to collect used, for various reasons. If a stamp catalogues at a much higher value as used than as mint, I like having the more valuable version. Or, with classic-era stamps, a clear, distinct (but not too heavy) cancel showing the city and date adds to the collecting pleasure. Or, if it has a particularly distinctive, historical type of cancellation, I will collect them. Examples of these are the US time-on-bottom cancels, and the German horseshoe cancels.
Another type of used stamps I like are fore-runners. For example, Germany issued overprinted stamps for their offices in China. But there are also fore-runners - German stamps used by their offices in China before any overprinted stamps were issued. The only way of identifying these is by the postmarks from China.
Another example is for Panama. When Great Britain was operating out of Panama, the British used GB stamps, but they were postmarked with a numerical cancel that identified its origin from Panama. These used British stamps make a nice adjunct to a Panama collection.
Then there are some issues where I want to collect both mint and used examples. This happens mainly with my favorite long definitive series, such as Germany's famous women, and Ireland's birds and wildflowers sets. It's easy enough to obtain a mint set, but it can be a challenge to complete a used set that looks nice, with undamaged stamps and nice neat cancellations. Irish stamps, in particular, are rife with ugly spray-on and stamped-but-smeared postmarks.
So, in short, collect whatever gives you collecting enjoyment. Remember, the only rule in stamp collecting is there are no rules.
I like both and it is a case of each to their own but for country collections I think I like a stamp to be used. I like the idea that is has travelled and has its own secret history. For topical collecting I like mint because in that case it is the image on the stamp that tells the story
Already suffering from a bad case of collection creep as I am currently collecting Used only - Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Western Europe, and Scandinavia, from 1900 to date. Oh and I am interested in Artists and Art on stamps ... Trying to avoid becoming a WW collector.
Post by oldtriguy1960 on Aug 22, 2018 11:41:52 GMT -5
Here's my 2 cents on this: I prefer used because they are usually less expensive and I don't have to worry so much about the gum becoming damaged. Although with the new self adhesives I don't have to worry so much about the gum. However for some stamps, there was a difference in the gum that requires collecting a mint or at least an unused copy. I'm talking about stamps that came in shiny and dull gum varieties, etc.
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