Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers

This volume features US Stamps & Covers, Confererate States, Canal Zone, Danish West Indies, Guam, Hawaii and United Nations. Almost 99% of the stamp illustrations appear in color.

There are a number of significant editorial changes and enhancements that have been made in this year’s U.S. Specialized catalogue. One of the most important changes is the raising to full major number status the perforated 12¢ black Washington stamp from plate 3 issued in 1860. This stamp was minor-number Scott 36b until this year, but it is now major-number 36B. The reasoning behind this change appears in the first of two Special Feature articles in this year’s edition. “The different plate-making techniques created significantly different stamps visually, and these differences are at least as important as the long-accepted differences between many of the 1¢, 3¢ and 10¢ stamps of the same series. The new listings bring the treatment of the 12¢ stamps more closely into line with these other denominations,” according to Scott Catalogue Editor James Kloetzel. A second Special Feature article, by collector and respected philatelic researcher Edward (Ted) Liston, explains the editorial decision to delete from the Scott catalogue the so-called “China Clay” Washington/Franklin stamps, formerly accorded minor-number status as Scott 331b-332b and 333a-340a. A great deal of research and testing has led to the inescapable conclusions that the stamps formerly listed as “China Clay” varieties have nothing to do with China clay, were not a paper experiment similar to the Blue Paper experimentation that created Scott 357-366 and 369, and were not a paper-making error (except to the degree that the paper was somewhat to quite a bit under the Bureau of Engraving and Printing specifications). The Booklet Panes and Covers section has been revamped to make it easier to use. The section was upgraded in three ways. First, the illustrations of the complete booklet panes are now shown, rather than the small portions of the panes shown previously. Second, the listings for each booklet immediately follow the illustration of the booklet pane(s) involved, making it easy to match a pane or booklet to the illustration and going directly to the appropriate listing. Third, the booklet covers have been integrated into listings and pane illustrations, so it is no longer necessary to page back to a separate booklet cover section. Other editorial changes have been made in the 2009 U.S. Specialized including new earliest-documented-use dates, as well as new varieties listed in the 1934-44 Overrun Countries issue, Scott 909-921. There are new, major numbers in the R.F. overprints section following the Air Post listings, in the Local stamps section, in the Stamped Envelopes, in the Revenues, in the Essays and Proofs, in the Post Office Seals, in the Test stamps, and in the Confederate States Postmasters’ Provisionals. Observant collectors may remember that last year a number of listings and footnotes concerning imperforate or part-perforate items from 1979 to 1993 were either deleted or had their footnotes changed, indicating that the stamps were actually proofs from the American Bank Note Co. archives that had been sold into the marketplace. This year a new group of listings appears in the Die and Plate Proof section chronicling in detail these interesting items. There are 14,600 value changes in the 2009 U.S. Specialized Catalogue, and more than 4,800 of these changes are in the Postage section and more than 4,600 in the Revenue section. There are some very large value increases among the rarer stamps in the Classic period, including rare 1867 Grills, later Special Printings, Inverted Centers including Scott 121b, Scott 296a and Scott C3a. A few lower-value Classic stamps also rose in value, including the 3 cent perforated type II, Scott 25A, which climbs to $450 used from $375 last year.