Collecting : My collection 04 c

The last digit in my qualification system...

I told you earlier about the X-factor (perforations), the Y-factor (margins or centering), and now the final and maybe most interesting Z-factor...

For unused stamps we will use it to give a qualification to the gum, for (postally) used stamps, the quality of the cancel.

Let's first talk about unused (MNH) stamps

The Z-digit:

"5" MNH  means Mint, never hinged. *** or ** in catalogues
stamps have the original gum, no spots, no mark of any kind (except an expert's mark - for professionals)

"4" MLH menas Mint, lightly hinged. * in catalogues
The original hinge was removed or a small part remains on the stamp, furtheron no defects to the gum, no spots

"3" MH, Mint and hinged.
The hinge mark is still visible, or is removed but a larger part of the stamp is affected

X Y 5                                        X Y 4                                        X Y 3

 "2" Mint (as in 'unused'), minimum 50% of the original gum is still on the stamp

"1" Mint (unused) less then 50% of the original gum is left on the stamp

"0" MNG (mint no gum) (*) in catalogues
Unused stamps, but no (original) gum left - can be a used stamp without any cancel

X Y 2                                        X Y 1                                        X Y 0

For the qualification of cancelled stamps, see next article ...

Collecting : My collection 04 b

The next step in my XYZ-qualification is the Y-factor
As told in my previous article, I give a qualification 5 - 0 for 3 mayor aspects of my stamps:

X : perforation quality
Y : centering, margins
Z : gum or cancel quality

The Y-digit:

The second digit is for centering or margins
Some people will consider a good margin (of an unperforated stamp) equal to a good perforation.
In my opion, broad margins on an unperforated stamp doesn't mean the stamp is good quality.
And even stamps with broad margins, can be awfully decentered as well.
This is why I keep perforating as one item, and margins (centering) as the second qualification.

In this second item, again, I give scores from 5 (perfect) to 0 (defect)
But ... this time the 'zero' score, doesn't have to mean the stamp is worthless, on the contrary.

"5" for a perfect centering

X 5 Z

"4" nearly perfect centering, slightly decentered if you measure it

X 4 Z

"3" decentered but still 'acceptable'

X 3 Z

"2" obviously decentered, but image isn't touching the perforation

X 2 Z

"1" the stamp's image is touched by the perforation

X 1 Z

"0" part of the stamp's image is repeated on the other side, due to bad perforation

X 0 Z

If even worse, the stamp becomes interesting again, as then we're talking about a 'perforation error'

For 'margins' of unperforated stamps, the same classification stands,
"5" goes for 4 wide margins,
"4" for 4 normal margins
"3" is for 1 or more narrow margins
"2" when the image touches the border
"1" when the border has partially cut the image of the stamp
and "0" when more then one side is cut off, or the image is repeated on the other side

to be continued ...

Collecting : My collection 04 a

Collecting can be fun, but fun alone is not lasting forever.
There has to be some "excitement", or at least "temptation"  as well.

When you have a copy of a stamp/coin/note, and you're satisfied, fine with me.
But for me, the whole idea of collecting doesn't stop there.
In fact, it just started.

I would suggest each starter to buy a lot.
It doesn't have to be 'expensive', but it has to be enough to become tempting to investigate.

I use a 3-digit system to qualify my stamps.
XYZ

The first number (here X) stands for the perforation (or the margins for unperforated stamps)
The second number (here Y) stands for the centering
The last digit (Z) stands for the gum quality - or cancelation for used stamps

Each number is a scale from 5 to 0 (with 5 for the highest quality - 0 for the lowest).
In total a scale of 216 levels (555 to 000).
It's obvious that stamps labeled with 000 are more or less worhtless, and '555' stamps are ready to be shown in exhibitions.

The X-digit:

"5" is for perfect perforated stamps, all teeth are present, even the corners are there.

5 Y Z

"4" is for nearly perfect stamps, the corner teeth might be a bit shorter, but present
"3" is for good stamps, perforation is nerly perfect, at first sight no teeth missing,
      some might be a bit shorter

4 Y Z                         and                          3 Y Z

"2" is for stamps with several shorter, but no missing teeth
"1" is for stamps with several shortened teeth, torn teeth or missing teeth
"0" more teeth are missing

2 Y Z                                   1 Y Z                                 0 Y Z

... as a good collector, anything below "3" isn't worth the collection (some exceptions for very rare stamps)

How about specific perforations?

For unperforated stamps, the so called 'perché en lignes' ...
Here it's a bit more difficult to determinate the quatlity of the 'perforation, but again, the better the quality, the better the qualification you can give.
Again, a good stock to select from and some good samples of each type will help a lot.

to be continued...

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 20

When you collect very common themes, as flowers, insects, animals, famous people, ... your collection can be extended nearly every day.

Choosing a less common theme, or a very specific theme (like my Volkswagen Beetles) has a limited number of issued stamps, but whenever something new appears, the pleasure is double.

So for my next item from Spain.
A souvenir sheet of 4 stamps was issued in 2013.
Each of the stamps shows a 'classic' car.
We see a Mercedes Benz 190 (1962) - a Citroën 2CV (1948) and a Seat 1500 (1963).
The fourth stamp shows - of course - a Volkswagen Beetle.
Although each other model shows us the car from the mentionned year, the Beetle stamps indicates : "Volkswagen Beetle (1938)".
The first "Beetle" may then have been produced around 1938, under the name of KdF-wagen, the car depicted in the stamp is a 1966 model.

full sheet Spain 2013

In my - humble - opinion, a missed chance to depict a real old model, as the subtext is suggesting.
Or at least the marked year of 1938 could have been adjusted to the depicted model.

detail of the sheet, with left corner

Finally the choice of the colours of this sheetlet disspaointed me a little bit too.
The print under the stamp (back side of a red Beetle) is the only highlight in the rather tasteless design.
I think there was more creativity possible in creating this sheet.

Nevertheless, a nice new item for my theme collection.

Theme : Tintin (Kuifje) 09

It has been a while again, but today I'm happy to add a new item to my theme collection.

This time, the postal services of the Pricipality of Monaco, issued a stamp on Tintin in 2012.
Besides French, the official language, Italian, Occitan and Monégasque are spoken in Monaco.
The reason for this issue is, that the editor of the Tintin comic books has issued it's third album in Monégasque language.

The album "de schat van Scharlaken Rackham" or "Red Rachham's Treasure" was issued in 1944, as the 12th Tintin album. The story is the second part of the two-part adventure 'The Secret of the Unicorn" (1943) and it's the album where professor Calculus is introduced.

Tintin and Red Rachham's Treasure (1944)

The Monégasque version of the album Red Rachham's Treasure (O Tresoru de Rakamu u Russu), is the third album issued in this language.
Previously also "The secret of the Unicorn (Le Secret de la Licorne)"
and "The Castafiore Emerald (I Ori da Castafiore)" were translated into Monégasque.

Stamp and left hand corner of the sheet (Monaco)

The stamp was issued on November 21, 2012; but the stamp self mention "2013" several times, as can be seen on the left hand corner of the sheet.
Also the micro text under the central image refers to 2013:

issued in 2012 ...

I hope many more translations will follow, and more nice Tintin stamps as well...

Odd stamps : 06 i Stamps on cotton / silk

For my next item, we go to Taiwan.
Officially, Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China.
Many Taiwanese people consider themselves however as being citizens of the 'independent' island of Taiwan, or the so called Republic of China.

Map of PR China, Taiwan (R.O.C. in red)

For any political interpretation, you'll have to search elsewhere, here I'm only talking about the beauty of the stamps, issued by this country.

And this truly is a beautiful stamp/sheet!

Most stamps/sheets printed on silk are already an example of exquisit printing.
Here, the stamp is superb.

silk sheet / stamp of Taiwan

If we look in detail, we see a beautiful bird, printed in embossed silk, with gold overprint.
To see the embossed printing, a picture of the back side shows us more :

back side of the sheet, bird and chinese characters are embossed

On the border of the sheet, we see some fibers hanging loosly.

loose fibers

If we zoom in into the stamp, we'll discover the fine design and embossed printing, together with the gold print on the back ofhte bird.

stamp out of the sheet

detail of the stamp

This sheet is truly a piece of art and as far as I'm concerned, to be nominated for the most beautiful stamp of the year.

If any Taiwanese reader of my blog, is willing to send me a postally used copy of this sheet, I'd be very happy.

Theme : Zodiac signs 13

The theme of zodiac signs has always been popular.

The fact that there are 12 zodiac signs (which is an easy number to make sheets) - gives lots of possibilities for stamp designers.

Canadian postal services once more made a lovely sheet on this topic.

full sheet zodiac signs Canada

Each of the 12 stamps are printed in black and one colour.
If you'd put each stamp next to the other, they form the colours of the rainbow.
(how convenient for my blog).
Starting with red (Aries) to violet (Pisces)

zodiac signs Canada, detail

But there is more to discover :
If we look at the designs line by line, we see the same backgrounds :

Row 1 : element Fire

1st row : signs related to the element Fire

Row 2 : element Earth

2nd row : signs related to the element Earth

Row 3 : element Air

3rd row : signs related to the element Air

Row 4 : element Water

4th row : signs related to the element Water

Let's pic out my sign to show in detail:

On the stamp we see a picture symbolizing the zodiac sign and a picture of the star constellation.
The same picture of the star constellation is repeated in the border of the sheet.

Gemini constellation in the border of the sheet

Another 'must have' from Canada.