What we collect!

 

Stamporama Discussion Board Logo
For People Who Love To Talk About Stamps
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Stamporama Discussion Board Logo
For People Who Love To Talk About Stamps
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Stamporama Discussion Board Logo
For People Who Love To Talk About Stamps



What we collect!
What we collect!


General Philatelic/Identify This? : Japanese stamp identification, please help

 

Author
Postings
dmil44

19 Nov 2017
03:57:21pm
Hello, I'm just trying to identify this stamp Happy

Image Not Found

What I've been able to find on my own is that apparently the first two characters on top say "Japan" Image Not Found, although I don't know what the other two characters mean, and possibly it is from around the 1960s, as it looks somewhat similar in style to the one here


I'd appreciate if you could help me out any further. Thank you!



Like
Login to Like
this post
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

19 Nov 2017
04:15:06pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hi!

You are correct that the stamp is from Japan, and the two characters you've shown are, indeed, the characters for "Japan"! The other two characters next to it mean "post". ("Nihon (or "Nippon") yuubin.")

As for the Scott number, let me check and I'll get right back to you, if no one else answers first.

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

19 Nov 2017
04:20:34pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

I think it's Scott 748, issued in 1962 as part of a definitive series.

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

19 Nov 2017
04:24:01pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Your stamp itself has a slightly more purplish tint to it than in the scan, right? (I've found some purples and blues are hard for a scanner to pick up correctly.)

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
dmil44

19 Nov 2017
04:30:22pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Yes, it is purple Happy!! Wow, thanks so much for your help Happy

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

19 Nov 2017
04:34:56pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Great! Glad to help!

(Japan has occasionally gone through periods where it didn't write something in Roman letters to indicate that it was from Japan.)

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Strider
Members Picture


09 Dec 2020
03:24:44pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hi everyone

How do I find a relatively recent Japan stamp catalog pref with colour illustrations? I've decided to give Japan a go, and bought a pack of 300 different - but now I find Gibbons doesn't do a current Japan cat, so I'm floundering about trying to find a catalog that won't cost more than my budget for the stamps! I've actually bought what I hoped would be a nice recent Gibbons with colour, but it arrived today and .. it's 1992, and black and white. I rang Gibbons and a lady told me they have no plans at present issue a new Japan cat - and if they do, it'll cost an arm and a leg. I expect!

There's a bloke selling pages cut out of last year's Scott - and somebody in Eastern Europe selling what appears to be an on line Japan catalog. I feel a bit leery about that. Maybe Yvert? or Michel? Or Sakura, if it's affordable.

So, what to do?? For the moment I have to bite the bullet and rely on my 1992 one. The more recent issues will just have to wait!

Like
Login to Like
this post
egertoni
Members Picture


09 Dec 2020
03:54:50pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

If the "bloke" you are referring to is on eBay (seller name is chirokmd), he offers a useful service providing just the pages you need from the latest Scott catalogue. I turn to him as my interests expand. And, no, I'm not the seller in question. If you're not in the States, the shipping costs may be an issue.

Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
PeatedMike
Members Picture


09 Dec 2020
04:35:32pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Take a look at your getting your hands on the Sakura. It's mainly in Japanese but some of the data is in English. I just got hold of the most recent version and was quite impressed. Like you, I am just starting out in this area and this will be a useful catalog to get me up and running.

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

bigbluecollection.blogspot.com
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

09 Dec 2020
05:40:48pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

I've recently picked up a little bit of experience with this.

Japan is my primarily collecting interest, and I actively collected new issues up until 2001, when I just hit the wall with the preponderance of stamps Japan Post was pumping out. If I'm recalling correctly, in recent years, it's more than 700+ face different stamps each year. It's just insane.

So I took a couple of decades off, but recently decided, during this pandemic, that I'd try my hand at recent used.

I have new Scott and Sakura (2021 for each), and each of them misses the mark in some way. I'll explain why I think that, and then I'll recommend a slightly different strategy.

Scott *still* does not always show all images, particularly when the designs are similar, but sometimes not similar enough to identify the right set, although Scott is better than it used to be about this. But even then, on panes where 10 or more stamps are face different, a lot of times the image shown is too small to be able to figure out what you have.

Sakura has that same problem with the pane stamp images -- often, in my opinion, too small to be able to discern well the designs of individual stamps. There's also a compounding problem. Sakura categorizes stamps into more categories than Scott, so, in addition to looking in the 'commemoratives' section, you also need to look in the prefecturals ('Furusato' in Sakura) as well as the 'Greetings' stamp section.

It used to be that you could tell the prefectural stamps by the different font, but that's not true anymore. So, unless you get good at figuring out what's greetings, what's prefectural, and what's just a commemorative, it means you need to look in 3 different sections. It can get frustrating. And it's time-consuming, whether using Scott or Sakura.

What I accidentally stumbled on is a tool that I haven't seen mentioned as much as I would've thought.

I found that using the smartphone app for Colnect (called 'Stamp Identifier' on the Android platform) turned out to be great first start. You take a pic of the stamp, crop and orient it, and then hit search. If it can find it, it'll give you a Colnect number, the Sakura (for Japanese stamps), and often the SG number and the 'Sn' number, which basically correlates with the Scott number.

I've found that the app is correct and successful maybe 85-90% of the time. The remaining 10-15% still require pouring over the catalog, but it's a real time-saver for that 85-90%.

I'll just add that I used to think that Stampworld and Colnect were pretty much equivalent, but I've found for recent Japan, Colnect is more complete with images and cross-references to the major catalogs.

I think there's a way to use the stamp image search with Colnect on a regular computer, but I can't speak to how that works. It would require at least a couple of additional steps to get the stamp image onto your computer, but if a smartphone weren't available, that seems like a viable alternative.

I hope this helps a little bit!


Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

09 Dec 2020
05:48:10pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Let me add that the guy who sells genuine Scott catalog pages is legitimate. I've used him in years when I didn't think I could really afford to update the Scott's.

Here is his listing for the 2021 Japan pages.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japan-2021-Scott-Catalogue-Pages-19-220/383630808071?

I see that his shipping to the UK is not as bad as I thought it might be: $13.00. Domestic US shipping is $6.50, so that's really not too bad (plus it has to ship as a package).

(I have no connection with him, other than as a satisfied customer.)

Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

09 Dec 2020
05:51:43pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

And this dealer in the UK has the Sakura (and other Japanese catalogs), where shipping would be more reasonable for you.

https://japanphilatelic.com/product-category/japan-catalogues/

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
Strider
Members Picture


10 Dec 2020
03:20:30am
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Wow - those are really helpful responses! Thanks to all of you, especially Philatarium, for all your advice.

Like 
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Philatarium
Members Picture


APS #187980

10 Dec 2020
12:38:08pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Terrific! My fingers are crossed!

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/store/the-philatarium
cdj1122
Members Picture


Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..

11 Dec 2020
09:42:48am
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

" .... Terrific! My fingers are crossed! ...."

Not only hard to type that way, but handling
tweezers appears to be near impossible.

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Strider
Members Picture


11 Dec 2020
02:44:19pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Following Philatarium's advice, I've ordered a 2015 Sakura catalogue from the UK's Japan Philatelic Society. I'm rarin' to go!

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Strider
Members Picture


20 Jan 2021
02:35:08pm
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

And the Sakura catalogue has finally arrived (seller said his stuff was all in storage pending a premises move). I now have to find my way round it - happily, while 95% of the text is in Japanese, there's an index in English. And the dates are almost in English - day/month/year.

So I'll now arrange the job lots of Japanese stamps I've so far accumulated into Sakura order. Commemoratives, Prefectural stamps, definitives, airs, national park stamps amnd greetings stamps. That'll keep me quiet for a while!


Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
cdj1122
Members Picture


Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..

03 Feb 2021
04:24:43am
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

" ... So I'll now arrange the job lots of
Japanese stamps I've so far accumulated
into Sakura order. Commemoratives,
Prefectural stamps, definitives, airs,
national park stamps amnd greetings
stamps. That'll keep me quiet for a while! ..."


Good Luck with that.

Like
Login to Like
this post

".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Strider
Members Picture


04 Feb 2021
09:28:19am
re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hmmm ... I see what you mean, Charlie. Still, it's good clean fun.

Neville

Like
Login to Like
this post
        

 

Author/Postings
dmil44

19 Nov 2017
03:57:21pm

Hello, I'm just trying to identify this stamp Happy

Image Not Found

What I've been able to find on my own is that apparently the first two characters on top say "Japan" Image Not Found, although I don't know what the other two characters mean, and possibly it is from around the 1960s, as it looks somewhat similar in style to the one here


I'd appreciate if you could help me out any further. Thank you!



Like
Login to Like
this post
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
19 Nov 2017
04:15:06pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hi!

You are correct that the stamp is from Japan, and the two characters you've shown are, indeed, the characters for "Japan"! The other two characters next to it mean "post". ("Nihon (or "Nippon") yuubin.")

As for the Scott number, let me check and I'll get right back to you, if no one else answers first.

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
19 Nov 2017
04:20:34pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

I think it's Scott 748, issued in 1962 as part of a definitive series.

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
19 Nov 2017
04:24:01pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Your stamp itself has a slightly more purplish tint to it than in the scan, right? (I've found some purples and blues are hard for a scanner to pick up correctly.)

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
dmil44

19 Nov 2017
04:30:22pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Yes, it is purple Happy!! Wow, thanks so much for your help Happy

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
19 Nov 2017
04:34:56pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Great! Glad to help!

(Japan has occasionally gone through periods where it didn't write something in Roman letters to indicate that it was from Japan.)

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Strider

09 Dec 2020
03:24:44pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hi everyone

How do I find a relatively recent Japan stamp catalog pref with colour illustrations? I've decided to give Japan a go, and bought a pack of 300 different - but now I find Gibbons doesn't do a current Japan cat, so I'm floundering about trying to find a catalog that won't cost more than my budget for the stamps! I've actually bought what I hoped would be a nice recent Gibbons with colour, but it arrived today and .. it's 1992, and black and white. I rang Gibbons and a lady told me they have no plans at present issue a new Japan cat - and if they do, it'll cost an arm and a leg. I expect!

There's a bloke selling pages cut out of last year's Scott - and somebody in Eastern Europe selling what appears to be an on line Japan catalog. I feel a bit leery about that. Maybe Yvert? or Michel? Or Sakura, if it's affordable.

So, what to do?? For the moment I have to bite the bullet and rely on my 1992 one. The more recent issues will just have to wait!

Like
Login to Like
this post
Members Picture
egertoni

09 Dec 2020
03:54:50pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

If the "bloke" you are referring to is on eBay (seller name is chirokmd), he offers a useful service providing just the pages you need from the latest Scott catalogue. I turn to him as my interests expand. And, no, I'm not the seller in question. If you're not in the States, the shipping costs may be an issue.

Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Members Picture
PeatedMike

09 Dec 2020
04:35:32pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Take a look at your getting your hands on the Sakura. It's mainly in Japanese but some of the data is in English. I just got hold of the most recent version and was quite impressed. Like you, I am just starting out in this area and this will be a useful catalog to get me up and running.

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

bigbluecollection.bl ...
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
09 Dec 2020
05:40:48pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

I've recently picked up a little bit of experience with this.

Japan is my primarily collecting interest, and I actively collected new issues up until 2001, when I just hit the wall with the preponderance of stamps Japan Post was pumping out. If I'm recalling correctly, in recent years, it's more than 700+ face different stamps each year. It's just insane.

So I took a couple of decades off, but recently decided, during this pandemic, that I'd try my hand at recent used.

I have new Scott and Sakura (2021 for each), and each of them misses the mark in some way. I'll explain why I think that, and then I'll recommend a slightly different strategy.

Scott *still* does not always show all images, particularly when the designs are similar, but sometimes not similar enough to identify the right set, although Scott is better than it used to be about this. But even then, on panes where 10 or more stamps are face different, a lot of times the image shown is too small to be able to figure out what you have.

Sakura has that same problem with the pane stamp images -- often, in my opinion, too small to be able to discern well the designs of individual stamps. There's also a compounding problem. Sakura categorizes stamps into more categories than Scott, so, in addition to looking in the 'commemoratives' section, you also need to look in the prefecturals ('Furusato' in Sakura) as well as the 'Greetings' stamp section.

It used to be that you could tell the prefectural stamps by the different font, but that's not true anymore. So, unless you get good at figuring out what's greetings, what's prefectural, and what's just a commemorative, it means you need to look in 3 different sections. It can get frustrating. And it's time-consuming, whether using Scott or Sakura.

What I accidentally stumbled on is a tool that I haven't seen mentioned as much as I would've thought.

I found that using the smartphone app for Colnect (called 'Stamp Identifier' on the Android platform) turned out to be great first start. You take a pic of the stamp, crop and orient it, and then hit search. If it can find it, it'll give you a Colnect number, the Sakura (for Japanese stamps), and often the SG number and the 'Sn' number, which basically correlates with the Scott number.

I've found that the app is correct and successful maybe 85-90% of the time. The remaining 10-15% still require pouring over the catalog, but it's a real time-saver for that 85-90%.

I'll just add that I used to think that Stampworld and Colnect were pretty much equivalent, but I've found for recent Japan, Colnect is more complete with images and cross-references to the major catalogs.

I think there's a way to use the stamp image search with Colnect on a regular computer, but I can't speak to how that works. It would require at least a couple of additional steps to get the stamp image onto your computer, but if a smartphone weren't available, that seems like a viable alternative.

I hope this helps a little bit!


Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
09 Dec 2020
05:48:10pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Let me add that the guy who sells genuine Scott catalog pages is legitimate. I've used him in years when I didn't think I could really afford to update the Scott's.

Here is his listing for the 2021 Japan pages.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japan-2021-Scott-Catalogue-Pages-19-220/383630808071?

I see that his shipping to the UK is not as bad as I thought it might be: $13.00. Domestic US shipping is $6.50, so that's really not too bad (plus it has to ship as a package).

(I have no connection with him, other than as a satisfied customer.)

Like 
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
09 Dec 2020
05:51:43pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

And this dealer in the UK has the Sakura (and other Japanese catalogs), where shipping would be more reasonable for you.

https://japanphilatelic.com/product-category/japan-catalogues/

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...
Members Picture
Strider

10 Dec 2020
03:20:30am

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Wow - those are really helpful responses! Thanks to all of you, especially Philatarium, for all your advice.

Like 
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Members Picture
Philatarium

APS #187980
10 Dec 2020
12:38:08pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Terrific! My fingers are crossed!

Like
Login to Like
this post

"You gotta put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone. (Hoots the Owl -- Sesame Street)"

www.hipstamp.com/sto ...

Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
11 Dec 2020
09:42:48am

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

" .... Terrific! My fingers are crossed! ...."

Not only hard to type that way, but handling
tweezers appears to be near impossible.

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Members Picture
Strider

11 Dec 2020
02:44:19pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Following Philatarium's advice, I've ordered a 2015 Sakura catalogue from the UK's Japan Philatelic Society. I'm rarin' to go!

Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Members Picture
Strider

20 Jan 2021
02:35:08pm

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

And the Sakura catalogue has finally arrived (seller said his stuff was all in storage pending a premises move). I now have to find my way round it - happily, while 95% of the text is in Japanese, there's an index in English. And the dates are almost in English - day/month/year.

So I'll now arrange the job lots of Japanese stamps I've so far accumulated into Sakura order. Commemoratives, Prefectural stamps, definitives, airs, national park stamps amnd greetings stamps. That'll keep me quiet for a while!


Like 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
03 Feb 2021
04:24:43am

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

" ... So I'll now arrange the job lots of
Japanese stamps I've so far accumulated
into Sakura order. Commemoratives,
Prefectural stamps, definitives, airs,
national park stamps amnd greetings
stamps. That'll keep me quiet for a while! ..."


Good Luck with that.

Like
Login to Like
this post

".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
Members Picture
Strider

04 Feb 2021
09:28:19am

re: Japanese stamp identification, please help

Hmmm ... I see what you mean, Charlie. Still, it's good clean fun.

Neville

Like
Login to Like
this post
        

Contact Webmaster | Visitors Online | Unsubscribe Emails | Facebook


User Agreement

Copyright © 2024 Stamporama.com