How to identify a stamp

Step by step

1. 1

   Establish the country or postal administration

   Most stamps name their country, but the earliest British issues famously do not, and colonial, occupation and local post issues name an administration rather than a state. Read the currency and the script as well as any name.

   • Country name, or the absence of one
   • Currency unit, which often identifies the administration
   • Colonial, occupation, local or official issue rather than a national one
2. 2

   Place the issue and its date

   Match the design to a named issue or definitive series, then date it by the series rather than by the postmark. A stamp can be used years after it was issued.

   • Definitive series, commemorative issue or provisional
   • Design changes within a series: portrait, frame, inscription
   • Reprints and later printings of the same design
3. 3

   Check the watermark

   Hold the stamp face down on a dark surface, or use watermark fluid, and describe what you see. Watermark type and orientation separate printings that are otherwise identical, and an absent watermark is itself evidence.

   • Present or absent; if present, the device and its orientation
   • Sideways, inverted or reversed watermarks are distinct varieties
   • Never record a watermark you have not actually seen
4. 4

   Measure the perforation

   Use a perforation gauge and record the measurement for the horizontal and the vertical edges. Imperforate, rouletted and part-perforate issues are separate types, and trimmed perforations are a common way a cheaper stamp is passed off as a scarcer one.

   • Gauge figures, e.g. 14 × 15, not “perforated”
   • Imperforate, roulette, pin-perforate or syncopated
   • Straight edges from booklet or coil production
5. 5

   Determine the printing method and paper

   Line engraving, typography, lithography, photogravure and offset each leave characteristic traces under magnification. Paper thickness, colour, surfacing and gum type are recorded alongside them.

   • Raised ink lines (engraved) versus flat, even ink (litho)
   • Screen dots under magnification (photogravure)
   • Paper: wove, laid, chalk-surfaced, coloured; original gum or regummed
6. 6

   Read plate, marginal and cancellation evidence

   Plate numbers, check letters, marginal inscriptions and cancellations can fix a stamp to a specific printing or date of use — and, on the classic issues, they are often the whole point of the study.

   • Corner check letters and plate numbers where used
   • Marginal markings if the stamp is from a sheet edge
   • Cancellation type and date: evidence of use, not of issue

Worked examples from the catalogue

Each example is a real catalogue record with its sources, confidence level and the questions still open on it.

Common mistakes

• Dating a stamp by its postmark rather than by its issue.
• Recording a watermark from a catalogue rather than from the stamp in front of you.
• Missing reperforation or a trimmed straight edge, the most common alteration in philately.
• Assuming regummed gum is original: original gum is part of the identification, not a detail.
• Treating a forgery or a facsimile of a famous rarity as the genuine issue — the great classic rarities are forged far more often than they are found.

Identifying the issue is not the same as authenticating a particular stamp or grading its condition. Famous rarities in particular require expertisation by a recognised body; this catalogue describes the issue, not your copy of it.

Practise on these records