Friday, November 22, 2019

Les Classiques du Monde 2020

GeoffHa on the Stamp Community discussion group alerts us that Yvert is publishing the third edition of its Les Classiques du Monde 2020. Cost is 89.00€. Dedicated classic era collectors will remember that Scott, Yvert, and Michel all have relevant catalogs, which suggests to me the continuing interest of collectors in this field. I think Scott could take a cue from how Yvert ends their list of improvements in this edition: "Et bien d'autres surprises!" You can find detailed spoilers on the Yvert website.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

What's New in the 2020 Edition of the Scott Classic Catalogue

Even though I rarely have anything useful to say these days, you can always count on me for at least two posts per year: April Fools and the release of the latest Scott Classics catalog.

The publication of the latter has been delayed this year from early to mid-November 2019. Here is a summary of the notable changes for 2020 according to the Linn's website:

There are new sections for perforated Official stamps from Switzerland and Venezuela.

BOB listing for Switzerland have been expanded and reorganized by type and frame varieties.

There are new listings for the Danube Steam Navigation Company which are found under Austrian Offices Abroad.

Special attention has been made this year to helping collectors identify the 1892 Thailand surcharged high-denomination stamps with low denominations.

Many minor varieties are included for the 1931-32 wet and dry printings of China.

Notes and new varieties were added to Western Ukraine.

According to the editors, "overall value changes in this year’s catalog reflect a mix of increases and decreases." Countries with many changes include stamps of India used in Aden, Austrian offices for Lombardy-Venetia, Heligoland, classic issues of Eritrea, and the Italian states of Modena and Parma, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Fiume, Western Ukraine, Egypt, British Offices Abroad, Iraq, Madagascar, and Somaliland Protectorate, among others.

[If you want an overview of changes in all the editions since 1995, type the words "classic catalogue" into the search field in the upper left corner of the screen.]