Hello, new collector here. Retired Engineer. Always had an interest, dabbled a bit when I was a young man . . . fast forward.
I have an Aunt who is 87 yrs young (I can barely keep up with her). She has a huge 65 year collection (World . . it fills several rooms) which I will inherit some day :O
She recently decided to gift me a huge collection of US Revenues she had acquired. Five or six large boxes of Revenues she had acquired over the years through auctions etc . . . many are unsorted, none are in albums, about half are in Stock books and many are in glassine envelopes by type, color or Scott illustration number . . a few are actually catalogued (Maybe 20%).
I purchased a 2010 Scott Specialized Catalogue on eBay for few dollars and have been working my way though them and learning a lot along the way . . . included with the collection are several books on Revenue Stamps:
- "An Introduction to Revenue Stamps" by Castenholz
- "The Morton Morton Dean Joyce Collection of US Revenue Stamps" by Kelleher Co., Inc, 589th sale, June 4-5, 1991 ( has been a great reference )
- "The Revenue Stamps of the United States" by Christopher West
I am about 2/3rds through what I have but the first 60 - 70% has been basically a huge learning curve. I will definitely be going back to the beginning and through to the end at least one more time. Learning about Perfs, Watermarks, Grading, Colors (oh my) etc. etc.
I have so far found some real gems in this collection $$ . . . and about 237 quadrillion dupes of low value documentary stamps . . anyone need some Battle Ship Documentaries??
I recently ordered the full Revenue set of albums from Palo $$ very nice. I decided to go with Palo after seeing my Aunts Newfoundland (Pre Dominion of Canada) collection in the Palo Album. However . . . I will be beginning my actual mounting in the printable albums for revenues found online. I will be saving the best examples in this collection for the Palo albums.
Well, that is about it for my intro. Look forward to continual learning here from the experts.
hello doug. welcome on board the people on this site are the best, i have learned a lot from there knowledge, when i got things wrong someone was there to put me right, without ridicule, so have fun and enjoy collecting. all the best ken.
Welcome Doug!
It sounds like you have a great start with your US Revenue collection. There are lots of folks here with a ton of knowledge. I would like to see some scans of your collection.
I echo Vin's comments in every way: great start; good planning; it's worthwhile retracing your steps; then getting into the weeds of perfs, color, paper, etc. And yes, show us.
There are lots of revenuers here (guys who hinge and a few who keep still)
And I think Grannie did you a great service by giving you a piece.
Congrats indeed
David
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