Monday, October 15, 2012

Another complete (almost) Scott Volume I

My thank to fellow blogger Jim Jackson for alerting me to a collector whose Blue Volume One is only a few stamps from being complete. The collection is the property of Dilip R. Limaye who has been building it over the past 25 years. Mr. Limaye has just begun a thread on the Stamp Community forum, "Collecting the First 100 Years - Scott Intl. Junior Album." He seems very willing to share information about putting together a Volume One collection and this thread has the potential to provide Blue collectors with much to think about.

Incidentally, two stamps he has been searching for over the last many years are Cape Juby, Scott #48-49 (Edifil #64-65). I'm certain Mr. Limaye would be very happy to hear from anyone who can help him locate these two stamps.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Changes in the Scott Classic Catalogue for 2013

We're coming up on another November so it must be time for a new edition of the Scott Classic Catalogue. The October 15, 2012 Linn's has a brief article on what will be the 19th edition. There are more than 21,000 changes in value from the previous edition, 8,000 of which are unique to the Classic Catalog. One area of particular interest for the editors has been to reexamine stamps cataloging more than $2500. This project has made it through Fiji for 2013 and will be completed by 2014.

I'm always more interested in improvements in coverage than valuations and this year Portugal's Ceres stamps have been reorganized (which has involved some renumbering). The 2014 edition will extend this treatment to the Portuguese Colonies. I remember early on finding some marked differences in coverage for the various colonies so this is good news. (This is of some importance to the Blue Volume 1 collector as it helps explain the differences in what is included in the album.)

Along with Portugal, there are also improvements in the Tiger Heads of Afghanistan. Airmail semi-Official stamps for Bavaria and Germany appear for the first time, as do the five-ring numeral cancellations for Baden. New Zealand has 45 new minor varieties, Alaouites 37 and Bolivia 22.