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 Replies: 22 / Views: 5,172 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4868 Posts |
Can we use older stamps as long as we put the correct postage amount?
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Valued Member
United States
393 Posts |
You can use stamps as old as you want as long you use the correct postage amount. I received a letter sometime back that had stamps issued in the 1960's. I've got a few stamps that I picked up through the years and they're not really worth much more now than when I got them. Don't plan on collecting anymore as a priority.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9406 Posts |
I enjoy collecting both and have done for 40 years. Once you have a large collection, they can both be hard to store. If you buy stamps wisely, they can appreciate in value as well as any coin. As for selling them I don't know, I have never sold any of my stamps or coins. When I look in the newspaper, I see both Stamp and Coin collections for sale at about half of catalog value. The thing I hate about both hobbies is the fact that the Mints and Post office produce too many new items each year, just to try to fleece from our hard earned cash. That's why I tend to stick to circulated coins and used stamps. Coins are at face value. Stamps, someone else has paid for them. One good thing about stamp collecting, is grading. Basically used or mint. Coins are much for difficult. Steve  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Pretty much already said. I too USED to collect stamps. I noticed over the years as I told people they would give me boxes of stamps that they said they were planning on doing something with someday. Almost all were just stamps. I still have boxes of those that I have no idea what to do with them. One person from Europe I know gave me a complete Hitler Stamp series on sheets of paper from some album. They to just sit. I've been to many, many coin shows but can't even find one stamp show. I've checked with stamp/coin shops and they were in the market to get rid of stamps and only if I gave them to them free would they even bother. I too spent many of the stamps that were usable from back when I collected entire sheets. It is just difficult to put about 5 to 10 stamps on a letter to make the .39 now due for postage but that is where most have gone. Once cancelled they are basically paper. With coins you can always spend them as money also but would you get some strange looks trying to use a .20 piece somewhere. I've already had people tell me I'm using play money when I try to spend a $2 bill or a Kennedy half dollar. Regardless, remember that at one time Beenie Babies, Hot Wheel Cars, Stamps, 45 RPM records and many other items were the hot things to collect. So it may go to pass with coins. Although they have been a item to collect for thousands of years now, the craze may end any day now. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1031 Posts |
It's always fun to see the reaction of someone when you give them a fifty cent piece. Personally, I'd rather collect coins than stamps just for the fact of the materials that they are made of. I do have some stamps but I prefer coins and only will spend money on coins.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
9406 Posts |
To those of you who would rather collect coins than stamps, I am offering foster care to unwanted stamps. Here they will be loved and cared for and never sold. LOL Steve |
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Moderator
 Australia
16830 Posts |
Ksyim asked for pros and cons of coins versus stamps. Here are two, one "pro-coin" and one "pro-stamp", from a "world collector" perspective:
- Coins go back further than stamps. The postage stamp was invented in the mid-1800's. If you want to go back further in time than that, you'll have to switch to coins. There's simply no such thing as postage stamps of Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry VIII, the Crusader States or ancient Rome.
- Not all countries make coins - most make stamps. This is linked to the first point ksyim raised - that stamps are a lot cheaper and easier to produce than coins. For many smaller countries and territories such as Liechtenstein, Tonga, Norfolk Island and Hutt River Province, the sale of postage stamps to collectors are a major source of revenue.
In the British and French empires, "monetary unions" comprising several nearby colonies were normal - it was cheaper to make a large batch of coins for "those colonies over there" than to make tiny batches of coins for each separate colony. Thus, there are no coins for Upper Volta, Tanganyika, Northern Rhodesia and many others, and very few coins from places like Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, Dahomey/Benin and Antigua. These colonies used coins in the name of entities such as "British West Africa", "East Africa", "British Caribbean Territories" or "French West Africa".
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Edited by Sap
04/07/2007 01:54 am
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Moderator
United States
23516 Posts |
Practical Side
I collected mint (unused stamps) cost a premium
I tried to sell them some went back 20 years.
I had a very hard time getting even face value for them - then I sold them at face value minus a percentage to a friend who whould use them as postage.
I collect coins and banknotes - Mostly foreign (Australia) and USA
I have never sold a coin or banknote for less than or even exactly what I paid for it.
i have made a profit on each one I chose to depart with.
I do presentation for youth groups also work with retail shops to educated employers on counterfeiting.. I have given many coins and a few banknotes away to these folk and it always put a smile on their face even to receive what would be termed a foreign junk coin.
My coins/banknotes hold their value and although there are some beautiful stamps out there
I stick with coins
But you should see my lovely collection of PNCs (both coins and stamps on one envelope) These are by far my favorites and on these the price almost always goes up.
just one mans opinion
rggoodie
aka Richard
"catch em doing something right"
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Pillar of the Community
Belgium
2078 Posts |
I have a 35 year old stamp collection I once tried to sell it at face value and they laughed Well it will get a lot of work to sell at a minor discount to what I paid 35 years ago for it  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1106 Posts |
In 2001 The Royal Canadian Mint combined the two hobbies and issued this set to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canada first postage stamp. The Three Penny Beaver was also the first stamp in the world to have an animal on it. in the set there is a 2001 stamp which commemorates the original stamp. There is also a gold plated copy of the original stamp, and Gold plated silver 3 cent coin which is legal tender is you were crazy enough to try and spend it :)   Edited by chrycopaul
04/07/2007 8:12 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
As others have mentioned, a stamp loses its" face value" once it has been "used". A coin does not ... Here in Europe, quite a few government numismatic offices are also philatelic offices - that is, they sell both coins and stamps. That is particularly true for small countries/areas such as San Marino, Vatican, Ĺland. But in Germany for example the largest postal service recently won the government contract regarding the distribution of collector coins. And every occasion that a silver piece commemorates is also honored by a stamp. Fortunately that does not work the other way round. And that (the number of issues per year) is another reason why I am not really interested in stamps. Sure, many are very nice to look at, but from my POV that is about it. Christian |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
655 Posts |
I tried collecting stamps for a short while when I was a kid. Most of my relatives were collecting them at the time - they seemed all the rage but I just couldn't seem to get into it even though there were some very pretty ones out there. Coins held more attraction to me for some unknown reason.
This time I seem to be back into coins for investment, but I'm double backing it by taking an interest in silver and gold coins. If collecting coins loses appeal for some reason, thereby losing resale value there's still the silver and gold content so at least they will be worth something. Unless gold and silver become worthless. What's the chances of that happening?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2703 Posts |
Why does it have to be one or the other? both hobbies have a lot to offer!
The cost of either hobby is completely scalable. You can loads of fun spending almost nothing, or you can bid for the rare items in the most high end auctions. Most of us fall somewhere in between.
Nearly all my stamps are used revenue stamps from the US Civil War period. Many are on receipts, documents, stock certificates, photographs, even some on old medicine bottles. I have a number of handstamp cancels from various firms in business at the time. The usage is what makes them interesting and valuable to me! Yes they are just paper, but so are all historical documents.
The key is to have fun whatever you decide to collect, and branch out into a new area from time to time.
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Valued Member
United States
62 Posts |
stamp collecting can be very profitable if you get the stamp with the upside down aieplane on it--anyone remember that one
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Valued Member
United States
414 Posts |
Or you were a FBI agent, who had a candle light misprinted on a $1 dollar stamp.
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Replies: 22 / Views: 5,172 |
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First Page
Posted 04/06/2007 9:05 pm
