Old French Stamps ~ Need Help

My wife found a stamp french collection that her grandfather had given her as a child. I am wondering if thees stamps hold any monetary value. I laid them out on a white sheet of paper to give contrast, and I took a picture. The picture is attached, if you can help me, I would be grateful.

Thanks!

Here is a link to a huge size picture:

Without a catalog, at 12o'clock at night I would say most likely no. However, I imagine that there are rare varieties, etc. that would increase the value. Oh, by the way you posted the image twice.

Regret I do not see any stamp worth over 10 cents net, especially in view of the many badly-damaged stamps.

Hello dbmiller5, welcome.

I, also, see nothing of major value. I do like the hexagonal cancel on the airmail stamp that is damaged because I collect hex cancels from around the world.

Please review the rules.

People do collect France hex cancels but I would think they would want them on entires of postal stationery and envelopes and lettres or complete stamps. Not completely sure about that though. The marcophilatelist (stamp's cancels collector) is a breed unto himself I am thinking at times.

Otherwise, there may be varieties on the stamps perhaps, I don't know either, wish I did to tell you.

Did your wife's grandfather indicate there was some value here? It could be that the stamps were just to interest your wife in stamp collecting and worldwide history and art and all the things that stamps have at the time she was young and were included in his behest as more of a memento rather than something of monetary value. Something to remember the good times.

A link to the French site (in French) of cancel collecting which shows the cancels and usage periods and more info than you would ever want:
http://marcophilie.org/index.html

Look at the section lower down about 'la forme' or 'by shape' to make it easy to find things.

After you get hooked please send me a postcard from Paris.

More thoughts:
You would need a specialized France stamp (timbres) catalogue to delve into any varities that may or may not exist. Names are Yvert et Tellier or Maury or oh I forget, sorry, but if a library has any here I would be pleased but surprised.

Wow, so much info, thanks all. We were cleaning out some old boxes and we found thees stamps. I am sure that the stamps were given to my wife to educate and inspire, with little to no monetarily intent. Which one is the hexagonal cancel? I posted here primarily because the stamps looked old and some have very old postage dates. I did find out that the single figure lady stamps are literally worthless. I also found out that the double figure (1 up from the bottom right) would have value if they were if the condition was acceptable.

It has been fun exploring this very enduring niche hobby. I might head over to the big library here in Portland and see what I can dig up.

I figured out which one is the hexagonal cancel. I was planning on putting the whole lot up on eBay. I managed to find a few of my stamps in some picture archive. Is there any way to evaluate the price from the stamp name?

http://www.timbres-de-france.com/co...p?ligne=1330
http://www.timbres-de-france.com/co...p?ligne=1438
http://www.timbres-de-france.com/co...hp?ligne=213

The figure in the bottom right is the cancelled value. I don't know how accurate or upto date these are though.

Please bear in mind that nearly every item in your picture has a fault of some kind such as a tear or fold which reduces the value significantly so unfortunately these are practically worthless.

Hi dbmiller & welcome to the forum

What you have scanned are ordinary tamps, even though some are quite old. These are not worth big $$. On another note, may I offer some advice? Some of the stamps you scanned are in poor shape with tears and chunks out of them. This would drastically drop any value any stamp might have. The be all and end all is condition. This holds true for stamps and practically any other hobby.

Also, should you have more stamps, you might want to check in to your local library and look up a set of Scotts Standard Postage Stamp Catalogues (6 volunes) and this will give you at least an idea.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Sorry DBMiller5, I don't think its worth putting them on ebay, too much damage to most of them. If there are some more not shown which are undamaged, then you might get a small lot out of them. But you might be lucky to get a few cents for them. Why not keep them as a curio? Who knows, you might get hooked!

Well, sometimes. You can get the series or issue by the name, like the Sower stamps are the lady sowing grain (French Le Semeuse), possibly the Greek Goddess Ceres? Or a year date and a description. Most all stamps have a catalogue number, as they have been issued in a specific year and date and have certain denominations, etc, etc about them that can be described and that differentiates them from other stamps. paper, perfs, colour, printing style or type, subject, watermark, gum, usgae, etc.

But, as Bujutsu mentioned, the condition of a stamp determines it's value to a great degree. There are some (Rod222 on here for example) who say to not throw out damaged stamps as then you at least have a copy and it may have a colour variation or perforation variety or cancel of some rarity or something. You never know.

But that is more for a philatelist type of stamp collector, one who enjoys the study of the stamp and everything to do with it. Or at least some aspects.

I think not too many on SCF here have studied French stamps. A few with the classics, before yours, yes, but I have not seen a study of the Sowers or other stamps. No doubt there are many varieties that may be of interest to only the specialist of these stamps.

I put the stamps on eBay, if you want them, contact me for info.

For some reason I have missed your last post (y fault).
What is or what was the eBay item number please?
You will not be allowed to post a link.