Starting Your Collection
This is not an inexpensive stamp, but the hobbyist who takes up skiing, sailing, or tropical fish is likely to spend much more on the entry level.
Scott #1 is listed at $525 for a used copy in very fine condition. But a copy with a pen or manuscript cancellation is priced at $275.
That is one of the first lessons that this stamp teaches the collector. The price varies depending on the cancellation. It also varies quite a bit depending on condition. A stamp that shows fewer than four full margins will sell for less than one that shows four. And as with other stamps, thinned, torn, creased, or damaged stamps will sell for a fraction of the catalogue value.
The color or shade of this stamp also makes a significant difference. The rare, red orange shade catalogs for $3750, and the more common orange brown shade catalogs for $600.
Even the "impression" of this stamp makes a difference, for the wear on the plates and the quality of the printing have left us with copies that range from having clear, detailed printing to almost an outline of the major features. This aspect of the stamp also affects the worth and price. You need to look at this stamp carefully.
For all these reasons, a collector who buys a copy of this stamp generally will not be making his or her purchase without some research or comparative shopping, and this is another lesson this stamp teaches: shop carefully, and buy each stamp with planning and care. Do not buy on a whim or on emotion. Before you plunk down several hundred dollars for a small piece of paper, step back and consider what you are doing.
The wise collector will buy every stamp this way, whether its value it 15 cents or $15,000. But the wisest collectors of all are those who learn this lesson at the beginning of their stamp-buying careers, not near the end.
The collector who buys Scott #1 during the early years of his or her participation in the hobby will soon learn to understand that the joy of building a fine collection is not in its quantity, but in its quality.
At a recent stamp show in a mid-sized city, I found twelve copies of Scott #1 for sale by dealers, at prices ranging from $160 for a damaged copy to $750 for a quite attractive gem.
For the $400 or so that you might invest in an fine to very fine copy of this stamp, you might buy 2,667 modern stamps priced at the minimum catalog value of 15 cents. Or you could buy 1,250 new 32-cent stamps at face value from the post office.
But which would be the better investment five years from now? You would be likely to get no offers at all on your modern used stamps, and you might get 85 per cent of face value, or $340 on your mint, never-hinged 32-cent stamps.
Scott #1, however, will almost certainly retain its value, and has a history of appreciating over the long run. While most of us who collect stamps do not think only of the investment potential or resale value, this stamp is usually a better buy than almost any modern issue. Selling it will almost always be possible, and the collector who follows the advice to buy the 5c 1847 early in his or her career will usually not regret the advice.
While there were earlier adhesive postage stamps produced and used by regional postmasters, this and its 10-cent partner, Scott #2, were established by a law of Congress that went into effect on July 1, 1947. The local stamps, or so-called postmasters’ provisionals, then became illegal.
The stamps were printed by the New York engraving firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, which also produced banknotes and local currency. On the country’s first two stamp, it included its initials, "RWH&E" within the frame design, on the bottom of each stamp. It is the only stamp printing firm to put its identity directly on a U.S. stamp rather than in the selvage.
The 5-cent denomination paid the new rate set by Congress in 1845 for letters traveling 300 miles or less. The 10-cent stamp paid the rate for letters traveling more than 300 miles. The cover above, with a fancy star cancel that adds a lot to its value, traveled a short distance, from Huntsville to Demopolis, Alabama.
Used on cover, Scott #1--like almost all other stamps-- is worth more than when it has been soaked off. On cover the stamp catalogues $575. As with the stamp prices, cover prices can vary quite considerably, based on condition, destination, the route the cover traveled, and the postal markings applied.
These factors naturally introduce the new collector to the field of postal history, which includes not only an evaluation of the stamp itself, but the rates, routes, and markings involved in the cover’s travels.
Some collectors, after sampling the thousands of U.S. stamps issued, collect only this stamp and its varieties and postal history, although it is more common for the micro-specialist with this inclination to collect the whole series—which means two stamps, Scott #1 and #2.
There are, of course, thousands of other United States stamps, each of which has its own appeal, admirers, and specialized collectors.
But for the new adult collector who doesn’t know quite where to start, the beginning is not a bad place at all.
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