Old Persian Stamps

Noo Nav

Hi, I have a collection of International stamps which I'm still sorting. Attached are a group of my Persian/Iranian pre-revolution stamps (the hi-res photo wouldn't upload so I had to resize it, but would love to know how to upload larger pics.)

I also have some post-revolution ones which I still need to photograph. The ones shown here are all loose and not attached to the page, but I also have some which are.

Would greatly appreciate some expert advice re appraising and selling them. Thanks in advance.

Noo Nav

PS: These are not hinged or otherwise attached. Just loose and placed on the page for the photo.

Lee J Coen

Go check out my store for plenty of good info on Persia/Iran stamps. Any errors?

Hal Nathan

Noo Nav. Personally i remember having these stamps you have shown as a kid in my original collection that my dad started me off with...I was 8 years old then and it was 1965. Especially the top few lines. I can see some of them are postally used and others are CTO.... The ones in my eyes that would hold most value would be the stamps postmarked on the bottom left hand corners...The others may have been bought out of packs of 500 world stamps etc... I learnt this in my teens that a used stamp does not necessarily mean it has been just postmarked... To be genuinely used you have to picture the stamp on the envelope and in your mind, visualise where the postmark would be placed...That would be left hand bottom corner...here again , it could be off a block of 4 but that is why the block should never be separated to simply show it was genuinely used. When i sold part of my collection in the late 1980's to pay for the wedding ( 1st time around ) , i got more than expected....That was simply due to the positioning of the postmark..So i am speaking from experience... As your stamps are used, it does not matter if they are hinged ( or mounted ) as the gum on the reverse is gone. I can also see some were cancelled by machine and others by hand...

Michael Generali

There also are a few stamps from Egypt and Syria on that page.

Some of the older stamps from Iran on the page need to be checked for counterfeits.

Ted Tyszka

Also, many many (untold manies) postally used stamps have postmarks other than in the bottom left corner. All you have to do is browse the listings of covers for sale to see how many stamps were affixed in positions other than the normal upright one. Also covers with frankings made up of multiple stamps can have even normal upright stamps arranged on the cover so as to receive the postmark on any corner or edge.

Michael Duehr

Just a couple of examples.

James Gunnells

Is it currently legal or not to sell Iranian stamps? Any difference in older Persian stamps? There's probably a twitter tweet on which countries are not ok, and when they change their names. I always liked Burma, Persia, Rhodesia and such.

Michael Duehr

Hal,

Also just because it's a cancel on the lower left hand side of the stamp does NOT in itself prove that it is NOT a CTO.
Most CTO's were mass produced with cancels in the center of a block of four. Like so.



The most desirable cancels were and always will be a SON CDS cancel. Depending on the country you will not be able to authenticate the cancel if it's only a corner cancel. IE The German inflationary period. Some stamps that were only in usage for a very short time frame before they were no longer valid for usage or used for the correct current rate at the time. Not a US 3 cent stamp that was printed in the 1940's used to uprate modern mailings 50 years plus after they were printed.

Example




The reason being is you can read the city and date on the cancel.