Stamp Catalogs and Their Value




Hard to believe, but stamp catalogs can identify nearly every postage stamp that's ever been issued throughout the entire world. Not just recent stamps, but all the way back to the first stamp, issued in 1840 by Great Britain. There are so many stamps - probably around 500,000 or so - that Scott, a popular stamp catalog publisher and the accepted stamp catalog authority in the US, requires 6 very large volumes to list and describe all of the stamps. Each volume contains stamp listings for countries that are arranged in alphabetical order, by country name. Many other catalog publishers arrange their catalogs in the same way - alphabetically by country - but there are also specialized catalogs that identify only the stamps of one particular country, such as Japan or Great Britain. And still other catalogs list and identify stamps by topic or theme, which is obviously extremely helpful to topical stamp collectors.



Catalogs assign what is called a "catalog number" to each stamp, and those catalog numbers are then used by stamp collectors. For example, you may see something like Scott US no. 285. That particular stamp can be identified by Scott catalog users as the 1 cent Trans-Mississippi Exposition commemorative stamp. Or another example: Stanley Gibbons (SG) Great Britain no. 671-678 is the Battle of Britain stamp set issued by Great Britain. Other stamp catalogs, such as Michel, Yvert, the JSDA, etc. also use catalog numbers, although they're not interchangeable (they all use different numbering systems).



In addition to describing and listing stamps by their catalog number, stamp catalogs also provide estimates of values for the stamps. In general, the value listed for a specific item approximates what a stamp dealer would normally charge a customer who wanted to buy that stamp or stamp set.



Specialized catalogs provide more detailed information than standard catalogs. They list more known varieties and errors as well as providing additional information about stamp issues. The US Specialized Catalog also provides information about plate numbers on coil and booklet stamps.