Joe, when i think about Ireland stamps i remember a fellow who was a club member for a while and very serious into Ireland...well he got taken on a stamp from the 1920s where the overprint could be black or blue black...of course i would not be in that position but i still think of him and that situation.
Thanks for the warning Phil, It seems that whatever country I collect you have to worry about fake overprints. I'm trying to be careful, but I've decided that as long as I pay a fair price and buy from someone I believe to be basically honest, I'm not going to worry about it any more. I'm sure we all have fakes in our collection and it really p***es me off. But as long as we don't get too maybe we can concentrate on enjoying the great hobby and stay .
I've collected Ireland for years and at a certain point gave up on trying to identify those blue black overprints. Supposedly you can identify the blue dots in the overprint if you look at the overprint with 100 magnification and a light source behind the stamp. However, I was never able to do it, and finally just decided to leave those spaces blank in my album. Honestly, I think it's one of those cases that pops up from time to time where Scotts should not have assigned separate numbers.
It's a shame someone was taken by an unscrupulous collector, but I can definitely see it happening if the person was not very knowledgeable about the Irish overprints.
I started working on my Ireland collection a few months ago, I've had a good starter collection for quite a while now. I have about two thirds of the smaller stamp overprints from the early 1920's, I think eventually I'll finish most of those since the prices are reasonable. The higher values overprinted on larger British stamps will much more difficult. I have a cut off of 1955 because I use Vol. I,II and III of Scott's International. I'm curious why there were only 4 coils released and why the prices are so high - I assume because few were released. Except for the overprints and coils my collection is nearly complete, I highly recommend it to collectors as a country to try. I also started Australia and recommend it as well. I did decide to stay away from the earlier states, at least for now.
re: My Ireland collection
Joe, when i think about Ireland stamps i remember a fellow who was a club member for a while and very serious into Ireland...well he got taken on a stamp from the 1920s where the overprint could be black or blue black...of course i would not be in that position but i still think of him and that situation.
re: My Ireland collection
Thanks for the warning Phil, It seems that whatever country I collect you have to worry about fake overprints. I'm trying to be careful, but I've decided that as long as I pay a fair price and buy from someone I believe to be basically honest, I'm not going to worry about it any more. I'm sure we all have fakes in our collection and it really p***es me off. But as long as we don't get too maybe we can concentrate on enjoying the great hobby and stay .
re: My Ireland collection
I've collected Ireland for years and at a certain point gave up on trying to identify those blue black overprints. Supposedly you can identify the blue dots in the overprint if you look at the overprint with 100 magnification and a light source behind the stamp. However, I was never able to do it, and finally just decided to leave those spaces blank in my album. Honestly, I think it's one of those cases that pops up from time to time where Scotts should not have assigned separate numbers.
It's a shame someone was taken by an unscrupulous collector, but I can definitely see it happening if the person was not very knowledgeable about the Irish overprints.