A stamp catalog (or stamp catalogue) is a catalog of

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

types with descriptions and prices. The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and

stamp collecting Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study (or combined study and collection) of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteent ...

. Stamp catalogs are part of philatelic literature. Similar catalogs of other collectible objects. such as matchboxes (

phillumeny Phillumeny (also known as phillumenism) is the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc. Matchbox A matchbox is a box made of cardboard or thin wood and designe ...

) and postcards (

deltiology Deltiology (from Greek , , diminutive of , , "writing tablet, letter"; and , ) is the study and collection of postcards. The word was first coined by Professor Randall Rhoades of Ashland, Ohio, in 1945. However, it took about twenty years for ...

), have also been issued.

History

The first stamp catalog was published in France by Oscar Berger-Levrault on 17 September 1861 and the first illustrated catalog by Alfred Potiquet in December 1861 (based on the earlier work). The first catalogs in Great Britain were published in 1862 by

Frederick Booty Frederick William Booty (1841 – 13 October 1924)Schofield, Brian. ''Who Was Who in British Philately''. London: British Philatelic Trust, 2003, p.10.Online version here was an English artist from , who was also the author of the first postage ...

,Phillips, Stanley. ''Stamp Collecting: A guide to modern philately'', revised edition, Stanley Gibbons, London, 1983, p.243. . Mount Brown, and Dr.

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

. The first in the United States was ''The Stamp Collector's Manual'' by A.C. Kline (a pseudonym for John William Kline), also 1862. Originally catalogs were just

dealer Dealer may refer to: Film and TV * ''Dealers'' (film), a 1989 British film * ''Dealers'' (TV series), a reality television series where five art and antique dealers bid on items * ''The Dealer'' (film), filmed in 2008 and released in 2010 * ...

s' price lists, though today that is less common. The catalogs of some major publishers continue to serve as an official price list for the publisher. For example, Stanley Gibbons in the United Kingdom specifically states in the catalog that the price listed is the estimated selling price by Stanley Gibbons Ltd. On the other had, Scott in the United States does not sell stamps. Rather, the Scott catalog serves as a reference document for expected prices used by buyers and sellers. Over time, as philately developed, catalogs tended to accumulate additional supporting details about the stamps, such as dates of issue, color variations, and so forth. As their use by collectors became widespread, the catalogs came to define what was and was not a legitimate stamp, since many collectors would avoid stamps not described in the catalog. In recent years, the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

has become a common resource for information about stamps. Some catalogs have an on-line version while others are available only on-line.

Current catalogs

The following catalogs have a worldwide coverage: * Michel - printed, software and online * Scott - printed and online * Stanley Gibbons - printed and online *

Yvert et Tellier Yvert et Tellier is a postage stamp dealer and a philatelic publishing company founded in 1895 in the northern French city of Amiens, where the head office is still located. The logo is a circle divided into a snowflake and a smiling sun. It is a ...

- printed only These are large undertakings, since there are thousands of new stamps to describe each year, and the prices of all stamps may go up or down. For publishers that are not dealers, the prices are estimated by data from dealers and auctions. In addition, the catalog publishers usually put out specialized volumes with additional details, generally by nationality: Michel has a specialized German catalog, Scott a specialized US catalog, and so forth. Many countries have their own "national catalogs", typically put out by a leading publisher or dealer in that country. Postal administrations may themselves put out catalogs, although they tend to be aimed at less-experienced collectors, and rarely provide fully detailed stamp data. Some notable country catalogs include: *ABDA (Philippines) *Aerophil (Switzerland) * AFA (Denmark) *AFINSA (Portugal) *Brusden-White (Australia) *Edifil catalogs (Spain and its former colonies) *

Facit Facit (''Facit AB'') was an industrial corporation and manufacturer of office products including furniture. It was based in Åtvidaberg, Sweden, and founded in 1922 as ''AB Åtvidabergs Industrier''. Facit AB, a manufacturer of mechanical ca ...

(all countries of Scandinavia) *

Fischer Fischer is a German occupational surname, meaning fisherman. The name Fischer is the fourth most common German surname. The English version is Fisher. People with the surname A * Abraham Fischer (1850–1913) South African public official * A ...

(Poland) *Hellas (Greece) *Hibernian Catalogue and Handbook (Ireland) *

JB Catalogue ''The J.B. Catalogue of Malta Stamps and Postal History'' is Malta's leading stamp catalogue. It was first published in 1984 and is published bi-annually by Joseph Buttigieg of Sliema Stamp Shop. It is currently in its twenty-second edition (2014) ...

of Malta Stamps and Postal History (Malta) * JSCA catalog (Japan) ( ru) * JSDA catalog (Japan) ( ru) *KPC- Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue (Korea) *

Lamy Lamy is a German pen manufacturing company. Josef Lamy, who was a sales representative for Parker Pen in Germany, founded the business in 1930 by purchasing the Orthos pen manufacturer. Lamy was a pioneer in the use of moulded synthetic pla ...

(Peru) *Ma catalog (China) *Chan catalog (China) *Yang catalog (China, published in Hong Kong) *Phila India - Manik (India)Phila India 2011-12 Guide Book, PHILATELIA, KOLKATA, INDIA
RHM (Brazil)
*Sassone (Italy) * Sakura catalog (Japan) *NVPH catalog (Netherlands) * Zumstein (Switzerland)

Online catalogs

Colnect
1,255,939 Stamps by themes, years, countries, free, with values
Find Your Stamps Value - US, GB, Russia, Germany
fee based membership, search by photo
Freestampcatalogue
240,539 stamps worldwide, with topic lists
Italian Stamps Catalog
24,807 stamps, website in Italian
StampData
736,486 stamp items, free
New Zealand Online Catalog
by themes, years and face values
Stamps of the World Wiki
464,520 pages containing 360,483 images, free
StampWorld
820,712, free, with values * The WikiBooks Worldwide Stamp Catalogue Stamp counters updated from the respective websites on 2022-12-05.

References

External links

* {{Postal system Stamp collecting Books by type Philatelic terminology

History

Current catalogs

Online catalogs

See also

References

External links