What sources can I turn to find out how many stamps were printed for any particular issue? I'm most interested in the stamps of Great Britain, but any insight into general resources not limited to GB would be of interest. I apologize if this is a topic that's been dealt with elsewhere on Stamporama (the search function for the Discussions isn't very "surgical" so I don't know).
The Stanley Gibbons Great Britain Specialised Catalogs list number printed or sold, but I don't see that listed in the Concise. I don't know of an online resource.
SG publish a useful booklet, Great Britain Numbers Issued 1840 to 1910, which lists the numbers of sheets and stamps issued in this period where these are known:
I use a set of three Michel Europa-Katalog volumes from 1998/99 that cover the whole of Europe and they list numbers of stamps or sets issued for most countries and issues.
Stampworld (www.stampworld.com) has distribution figures for a number of nations, including Great Britain. For Canadian stamps, the Unitrade specialized indicates the number of stamps produced in a run. I would assume other specialized catalogues do as well.
Thanks for the additional good leads. StampWorld is useful though it doesn't have numbers for many issues. I wasn't familiar with the Michel Europa-Katalog and will pursue that as well.
You have to be careful how you use this information. Some references show number printed, some number sold - that is number printed less those returned and/or destroyed. Only the latter indicates subsequent scarcity. Even this does not indicate relevant scarcity of mint to used.
As a general rule you can only make a comparison with mint stamps. The use and survival of used stamps is a whole different ball game. In general more stamps per 1000 mint will survive for commemoratives as opposed to definitives, and for low quantity definitives mint can be quite scarce. However whatever the survival rates for used stamps tends to be irrelevant as the number ( as opposed to percentage ) of used definitives is usually far in excess of that required by collectors.
Of course having put down these sweeping generalisations - it is important not to generalise !!
Case in point would be the USA Zeppelin stamps. The sales were a small fraction of anticipated sales because nobody had the 4.55 face value to spend on a set. Note that you could buy a new car for $455 back then, to appreciate what those stamps cost! Thus the majority of the printing was returned and destroyed. So if you look at the printing numbers they appear fairly common, but look at units sold and it's quite another story!
Login to Like this post
Please Note: Postings that were loaded from the old Discussion Board cannot be edited.