Post by darkormex on Aug 7, 2013 21:02:16 GMT -5
Originally posted by Global Philately,
Wherever you got your stamps from, a shop, an estate, or the old album you had as a child, knowing how to correctly identify, store and care for them is all part of enjoying the hobby.
Having the right "tools of the trade" for your hobby is key. Like anything in life, using bad tools causes problems. My advice is always to invest in the best you can afford, just like you should do when buying stamps.
Please note that I have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the manufacturers of the products I mention. I'm just a collector passing on his experience!
The basic tools are:
tweezers (also called tongs)
a magnifying glass
albums
catalogues
a watermark detector
a perforation gauge
A good pair of tweezers is the most important tool you will own as a philatelist. Your fingertips, regardless of how clean you think they are, are coated with natural excretions of grease. Every time you touch a stamp with your fingers, you're transferring that onto your stamps and damaging them.
Invest in a good, branded, stainless pair. Visit a stamp dealer and try some out. I prefer Prinz "spade-end" tweezers, although other philatelists use pointed or round-ended types. It's a matter of personal preference, but I find that the pointed tweezers can "stab" stamps if you don't take care.
Use them all the time and using them will become very easy and second nature.
A good magnifying glass, with magnification of at least x6, is a tool that takes you "into" your stamps, and helps you to identify them correctly.
There are numerous types from basic magnifiers, to jeweller's glasses, which magnify to x30. Again, a matter of personal preference!
The usual way to start storing stamps is to put them into stockbooks. Cheap stockbooks, often made in China, are to be avoided at all costs. The pages are made of cardboard and both the pages and plastic strips are acidic and will damage your stamps.
I use Lighthouse black-page stockbooks. The strips are crystal-clear and neutral, and the black pages are acid free and show stamps beautifully. They aren't the cheapest stockbooks you can buy, but, in my view at least, they are the best.
Further into your collecting, you may wish to mount your stamps into pre-printed albums. These are available from many manufacturers, including Stanley Gibbons and Scott, but can be prohibitively expensive. An alternative is to subscribe to www.stampalbums.com and print your own from the excellent templates they have available. You will need to buy acid-free paper, in at least 120gsm weight, and stamp mounts or hinges for your stamps.
Identifying your stamps is impossible without a good catalogue.
The two most widely recognised and used catalogues are the all-world catalogues produced by Stanley Gibbons in the UK and Scott in the US. The catalogues are lavishly illustrated and provide a catalogue number for each stamp, although these listings don't meet the needs of specialists.
The sets of catalogues are expensive, and the new collector is advised to check their local library first. Most libraries hold at least some of them.
Catalogues, and other specialised publications, are available for virtually every country and area of collecting, and many bibliographies are available online.
The watermark of a stamp (an impression made in the paper) can vary dramatically. Many stamps look the same, but were produced with different watermarks. Some are extremely scarce. Watermarks can also be found inverted, reversed, sideways and combinations of all three.
There are many detectors on the market. Some are excellent, and some are rubbish.
I use the Stanley Gibbons Detectamark. Again, not a cheap unit, but finding one scarce watermark can pay for it!
There are possibly more perforation variations than watermark variations.
The perforations of a stamp, whether produced by a line or comb perforator, a pin perf or a roulette, can vary significantly. Accordingly, finding an accurate way to measure the perforations is important. The perforations are measured by counting the number of holes evident in 2cm.
As perfs can be measured down to one decimal point, an accurate gauge is well worth buying.
Again, some are great, some are rubbish. By far the most accurate is the Stanley Gibbons Instanta. A little practice will go a long way. Over time, you WILL find the elusive stamps using this tool
Wherever you got your stamps from, a shop, an estate, or the old album you had as a child, knowing how to correctly identify, store and care for them is all part of enjoying the hobby.
Having the right "tools of the trade" for your hobby is key. Like anything in life, using bad tools causes problems. My advice is always to invest in the best you can afford, just like you should do when buying stamps.
Please note that I have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the manufacturers of the products I mention. I'm just a collector passing on his experience!
The basic tools are:
tweezers (also called tongs)
a magnifying glass
albums
catalogues
a watermark detector
a perforation gauge
A good pair of tweezers is the most important tool you will own as a philatelist. Your fingertips, regardless of how clean you think they are, are coated with natural excretions of grease. Every time you touch a stamp with your fingers, you're transferring that onto your stamps and damaging them.
Invest in a good, branded, stainless pair. Visit a stamp dealer and try some out. I prefer Prinz "spade-end" tweezers, although other philatelists use pointed or round-ended types. It's a matter of personal preference, but I find that the pointed tweezers can "stab" stamps if you don't take care.
Use them all the time and using them will become very easy and second nature.
A good magnifying glass, with magnification of at least x6, is a tool that takes you "into" your stamps, and helps you to identify them correctly.
There are numerous types from basic magnifiers, to jeweller's glasses, which magnify to x30. Again, a matter of personal preference!
The usual way to start storing stamps is to put them into stockbooks. Cheap stockbooks, often made in China, are to be avoided at all costs. The pages are made of cardboard and both the pages and plastic strips are acidic and will damage your stamps.
I use Lighthouse black-page stockbooks. The strips are crystal-clear and neutral, and the black pages are acid free and show stamps beautifully. They aren't the cheapest stockbooks you can buy, but, in my view at least, they are the best.
Further into your collecting, you may wish to mount your stamps into pre-printed albums. These are available from many manufacturers, including Stanley Gibbons and Scott, but can be prohibitively expensive. An alternative is to subscribe to www.stampalbums.com and print your own from the excellent templates they have available. You will need to buy acid-free paper, in at least 120gsm weight, and stamp mounts or hinges for your stamps.
Identifying your stamps is impossible without a good catalogue.
The two most widely recognised and used catalogues are the all-world catalogues produced by Stanley Gibbons in the UK and Scott in the US. The catalogues are lavishly illustrated and provide a catalogue number for each stamp, although these listings don't meet the needs of specialists.
The sets of catalogues are expensive, and the new collector is advised to check their local library first. Most libraries hold at least some of them.
Catalogues, and other specialised publications, are available for virtually every country and area of collecting, and many bibliographies are available online.
The watermark of a stamp (an impression made in the paper) can vary dramatically. Many stamps look the same, but were produced with different watermarks. Some are extremely scarce. Watermarks can also be found inverted, reversed, sideways and combinations of all three.
There are many detectors on the market. Some are excellent, and some are rubbish.
I use the Stanley Gibbons Detectamark. Again, not a cheap unit, but finding one scarce watermark can pay for it!
There are possibly more perforation variations than watermark variations.
The perforations of a stamp, whether produced by a line or comb perforator, a pin perf or a roulette, can vary significantly. Accordingly, finding an accurate way to measure the perforations is important. The perforations are measured by counting the number of holes evident in 2cm.
As perfs can be measured down to one decimal point, an accurate gauge is well worth buying.
Again, some are great, some are rubbish. By far the most accurate is the Stanley Gibbons Instanta. A little practice will go a long way. Over time, you WILL find the elusive stamps using this tool