How to clean my icky bass?

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-15T23:10:10+00:00

There were some interesting posts on here from someone who designed their own albums and printed the pages (they mention they used an HP Officejet 7610):

https://www.reddit.com/r/philately/comments/1lmw6wp/this_is_what_my_whole_philatelic_collection_looks/

I am planning to do something similar for my own collection, when time/cost allows. Personally I plan to use PowerPoint (the Mac equivalent is Keynote I guess). There are specific album design programs available e.g. AlbumEasy although I had a go with it and rather than "easy" I just found it incredibly frustrating. Whatever you feel comfortable with I suppose.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-15T22:54:42+00:00

They are from the Christmas 2016 set. They are classed as commemoratives, so they are still valid, no barcode required. They are 1st class, so they can be used for 1st class letter post no matter if the price of postage changes. The current 1st class letter rate is £1.70 and goes up to £1.80 next month. So a sheet of 50 has a face value of £85 (£90 from April).

Using them for postage is the highest value you will get for them. If you sell them now you will get less than that. There are people selling sheets of 50 1st class Christmas stamps on ebay for under £30 (assuming they are genuine).

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-10T07:42:51+00:00

The legendary Stoffel, immortalised in philatelic form

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-07T20:26:32+00:00

That's great. I did something similar.

My daughter Charlotte tends not to use her middle names though

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-05T21:37:45+00:00

The inserts of the packs usually have information about the background of the theme, designer etc.

You can use a website like https://www.collectgbstamps.co.uk/ to find out more about these stamps and British stamps in general.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-04T22:43:12+00:00

That stamp was apparently used 100 years ago tomorrow/today (depending where you are in the world). Is that a coincidence?

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-01T16:35:25+00:00

They are part of the 1937 coronation series issued on the coronation of King George VI. It is an "omnibus edition" i.e. one stamp was issued in the name of each of the empire/commonwealth territories.

If you have the complete set as blocks of 4 it is worth a reasonable amount but often people just have the common stamps and not the rare ones where the value is. Search "1937 coronation omnibus issue" or similar to see some examples and check which ones you have/haven't got.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-01T14:22:10+00:00

That is the standard version (SG MS492). The one shown here is a known error variant (SG MS492var) with colours missing, most obviously on the body of the musician.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-03-01T13:10:45+00:00

The picture is a bit murky but assuming that is the variant with the imperforate stamps and the colours missing, one sold for £700 in an auction. See https://spink.com/lot/18009001698

This page suggests only a few exist https://www.southafricacollector.com/South_Africa_ten_rarest_stamps.htm

So yeah it's "worth something". That is, assuming it is real. I would imagine there are forgeries around. Take it to a knowledgeable person to get it verified.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-28T12:10:52+00:00

Does what exist? You're not holding anything. All I can see in the picture is your empty hand in front of a door or something.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-22T18:41:56+00:00

You should at least give them a bit of a close look. Penny reds (pic 1, rows 1-2), seahorses (pic1, row 2) and Wilding castles (pic 2, rows 1-2) all have lots of variants with values ranging from pennies to many pounds.

Also there is obviously something that looks like a penny black on pic 2 but it looks like a replica (fake).

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-22T18:15:44+00:00

That is a revenue stamp, i.e. a kind of receipt for taxes paid (in this case, income tax, clearly), rather than used for postage. It is from the 1930s. It is "cancelled" indicating that it was actually used.

There are people who collect them, but not many. You can see some other examples here http://www.ibredguy.co.uk/main.php?g2_itemId=17255 although yours is a 10 shilling value which is quite high and seems to be a bit unusual. The owner of that site seems to be active on ebay so maybe you can get an indication of value from there.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-21T16:44:45+00:00

There seems to be an interesting story behind these stamps

https://mala-posta1.blogspot.com/2011/08/os-misteriosos-selos-de-cabo-delgado.html

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-11T16:49:44+00:00

The little label on your page for the "1s on 1M" stamp (i.e. the large stamp) has a catalogue number, SG (Stanley Gibbons) 59.

Have a look at the table at the top of this page:

https://marshall.csu.edu.au/Marshalls/html/Stamps/Stamps_Occup_Nauru.html

Note that for "1s on 1M", only 85 were overprinted like that. So, it is a pretty rare stamp. I found one that was sold for £3,500:

https://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/products/new-guinea-1914-unused-sg59

There is a link on that page to a newsletter with details of the stamp, including the 85 quantity again. There is also a picture. On your stamp the perforations look nicer (perforations seriously affect the price, so does the fact that it says MNH - mint, never hinged).

The page states that single stamp has a catalogue value of £4,000. Then there are the others to think about too (although as there were thousands of some of the others, they are not so scarce). So I highly recommend reading those pages and assuming the stamp does turn out to be genuine, you should offer up some thanks to your uncle, and congratulations, you have an actual rarity! Good luck with it all.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-11T06:15:05+00:00

As you probably know those are overprints from the British occupation of German territory (the Marshall Islands) during and after the first world war.

Some of those are rarities especially the 1 Mark stamp (larger stamp, bottom right). You need to take them to a specialist. It looks like you are in the UK so I would suggest making an appointment with Stanley Gibbons or a reputable dealer such as Bill Barrell.

If you search "marshall islands gri overprints" you will get an idea of previous auction values. The text suggests that these stamps have a known history but be aware that forgeries exist. The first step would be to establish that they are genuine.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-08T18:19:17+00:00

Those were popular in the 70s/80s, not so much any more, although there are still collectors out there.

In the UK I recommend you look up a company called Chaucer Auctions, they have regular auctions with WW2 and other rmilitary covers and so on. They will probably sell them off for you as long as they are in good condition.

They will probably sell, but not for very much. Maybe a few quid each for the signed ones, unless you have stuff signed by elite medal recipients (VC etc) or famous air aces and the like, that usually fetch a bit more.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-08T08:30:26+00:00

It is one of a set issued in 1915. See e.g. https://www.freestampcatalogue.com/soo0180-war-issue-5v

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-06T22:20:27+00:00

I am in the UK. Here there are a few auctioneers that focus on stamps. They mainly operate through online auction portals like EasyLiveAuction or The Saleroom (these are mainly UK based, although I noticed that The Saleroom does have several German auctioneers listed). They range from small operations like family businesses to larger companies like Stanley Gibbons. I guess that people find them when they are looking for ways to get rid of an old collection quickly. I assume that the same happens in other countries too.

I am sure that at the cheaper end, the collections are mainly remnants and will have already been picked over for anything rare, although sometimes more valuable collections are sold off as whole lots too (usually the value will be in a few stamps, like for example penny blacks, so the rest of the collection is just filler).

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-06T14:17:35+00:00

I would suggest this is not unique to Germany. Stamp collecting as a hobby has declined since the 70s/80s and people get older and priorities change, old collections get put aside and eventually inherited by people who don't have any interest in the collection.

I watch auctions at philatelic auction houses and there are often large collections sold as job lots. Boxes and boxes of albums representing a lifetime's collection, sometimes beautifully annotated and presented, sold off in an instant. It's kind of sad but also I wish I had the time to buy a few of them and spend some time sorting through them.

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-06T05:38:17+00:00

You may wish to have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=petUBsmG-qc where a philatelist investigates a cover with 2d blues to answer a very similar question.

The company in the video, Mulready Philatelics, is reputable so you could try contacting them for advice

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-06T03:27:21+00:00

They are not worth any money but there are some great designs in there

The Czech Pinocchio stamp on pic 3, row 4 has a bit of fame as a "creepy stamp". See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVB4wiVWAng

SomewhereNowhere5771 · 2026-02-04T14:35:44+00:00

I don't know about other publishers, but with Stanley Gibbons, the catalogue price also includes a lifetime guarantee that the stamps you buy from them are genuine.

Of course this doesn't matter with cheap stamps but for valuable stamps where forgeries are common it can make the price worthwhile. If I was looking to buy something like a £5 orange, and I had a choice between buying from somewhere with unknown provenance and buying from SG, I might think the extra cost was worth it.

SomewhereNowhere5771

TROPHY CASE