My Japanese Stamp Collection

Here’s a walkthrough of my Japanese stamp collection. I was inspired to finish up my own album by Silk on the Web’s recent video showing his Japanese collection. Here’s a share back with him and all of you.
Silk on the Web: @silkontheweb

[@happybunny1329]

I really enjoyed looking through your Japanese stamp album with you! Thank you for sharing it with us. I have some Japanese stamps and am looking forward to organising them properly at some point. :)

[@KensStampCollection]

This is exactly why I make these videos, although, give yourself some slack on "properly." I'm not sure that's a thing.

[@deltasuntimes]

So interesting! I recently inherited a beautiful stamp collection, 1865-1985. Five binders each of Japanese and USA (because she was Japanese and he was US Navy). I've wondered a lot about it as there aren't many stamps missing from the collection. She preserved everything beautifully and obviously knew a lit about the proper way to collect stamps, with carefully typed out information pages that precede each page. She put so much love into their combined heritage and whenever I have spare time I enjoy finding information like yours.

[@KensStampCollection]

What a treasure. Whenever I get ahold of someone's old collection, I'm taken by the love that comes out of them. These are people's joyous hobbies, and the carry a part of them forward to the person who becomes its new caretaker. I hope you're able to add to it and put a little of yourself into the collection.

[@MarkDyck]

Another excellent video, Ken. When I look at your collection, it makes me want to join every specialist society and pick up every specialized catalogue. Not to dig into even more detail of printing and watermarks, but to get "the rest of the story" about why these series were issued in the order they were. So many long series running in parallel makes me think there's something going on that we don't understand by reading Scott, etc. Would Japanese collectors group them in the same way? I have no clue. It's all fascinating though. Thanks for being willing to share what you know, even as you're learning, so we can all learn too. 💖

[@adamhuffman3354]

Ken does make some great videos! I hope that he knows how much he is appreciated!

[@KensStampCollection]

Aww, shucks. Thanks Adam

[@KensStampCollection]

Thanks Mark! As for catalogs, I bought used copies of all the Scott catalogs. And I got a copy of the Stanley Gibbons in a lot. That's generally been enough for me. I am fortunate that the Spellman Museum is close to me. They have all the specialized catalogs in their library. I'm interested in talking to a Japanese collector to see how they view these issues.

[@willardtaylor6249]

Japan is a very interesting area to collect, and many very beautiful stamps have come from there. I don’t know Japanese either, but we can still enjoy and learn a lot about the country. The remarks in the Scott Catalog help out a lot with that. After 1989, Japanese stamps become more challenging to correctly identify; owing to the number of stamps produced; the advent of the Prefecture issues; the lack of recognizable dates on the stamps and the number and type of souvenir sheets produced after 1999. You can find single stamps from these sheets and spend a lot of time and effort trying to figure out where they came from. It is worth it though, and you can have a beautiful Japanese collection by being up to meeting the challenges.

[@KensStampCollection]

They are beautiful stamps, indeed. And with lots of rewards for collecting.

[@fareast_de]

Konichi wa, Ken san ! Great assortment of Japanese stamps. Are you also interested in classic issues like the dragon stamps, the cherry blossoms or the early koban issues ? Be careful, because you´re entering a minefield. Until today, the market is flooded with old counterfeits, and some of them are made very well. I always recommend to start with the late kobans or even the kiku series if you want to collect "old Japan". Keep it up, and happy collecting ! Greets from GER, U.

[@KensStampCollection]

I'm certainly interested in them, but they are probably too expensive for me. Indeed, I have seen that these are highly counterfeited. I did find one site that helps distinguish the fakes. I really appreciate the warning.

[@kengilbride7182]

Thanks Ken another Great video. What pound paper do you use for your albums. Silk on the web does a great job on his video s just as you do. I collect several areas in Philately and this keeps me active in my collecting. Do you have a topic that you collect. Well enjoyed as always. Happy Collecting and be safe the other Ken

[@KensStampCollection]

Hi Ken! Silk is wonderful, indeed. I use 67 lb. Staples Cover Stock. It feels perfect in these albums, although I do have to reinforce the holes on the front few pages sometimes. I don't have any topical collections. I don't know, they just don't call to me.

[@GreatStampAdventure]

Ken, thanks for yet another excellent video. The stamps of countries with "strange symbol" languages, like China, Japan etc. causes me to get a "run away - very fast" feeling. The are so strange, and I think it can be very difficult to get a handle on them. The more I see your legend systems and page layouts, the more I think how practical and neat they are. On the Japanese stamps I cannot comment anything intelligently at all.😄 I should probably already know from your previous videos, but I cannot recall now: do you collect worldwide or just certain countries?

[@KensStampCollection]

I do appreciate the tables on every page. It's been an excellent way for me to remember what I learned while putting the pages together. The real value, though, comes from all the study required to put the tables together in the first place. That's been a treasure. I collect worldwide, mostly regular issues, with two exceptions. 1. I don't bother with countries whose stamps are too expensive for me to get more than a few. 2. There are some countries who I find abusive to collectors--issuing stamps meant to pull money from collectors, rather than really meant for postage in that country. So, while I'm a huge Disney fan, I don't like most Disney stamps. By the way, I went to a stamp show today, and thought about you and how much joy you share when you go to stamp shows. Thank you!

[@GreatStampAdventure]

@@KensStampCollection 🙂I really love the stamp shows. All those stamps around you, and all the people just talking and concentrating on stamps. 🙂 Thanks for your reply!

[@MarkDyck]

Hi again. Question for you Ken - apologies if you mention this in an older video, but how do you determine what is a 'regular issue' for countries other than the US or possibly GB? If one is basing it on whether the stamps are printed multiple times and/or available for long periods (more than a year or so), how do you find out if it's not your 'main' country? Especially more modern issues, say after 1970. I find myself using catalogue listings to guess - if the set has a vague issue date in the catalogue (1983-86 for example), then they're in. But I find the size of the stamp isn't a consistent criterion. I realize at some point one just has to decide, but I'm curious if there are countries or issues that you find to be particularly challenging. in this regard. And as you show in this video, if several issues are being sold at the same time, which the catalogues group into different sets, the decision gets even harder. :)

[@KensStampCollection]

Great question. I don't think I've talked about that before. Ideally, I'd look for stamps that have larger print runs than other stamps. But that information is hard to come by without specialized catalogs. Each country is a little different, but I look for the patterns of their releases. Usually, a set stands out because it has a range of values, it has multiple formats (coils and booklets), it has multiple release formats (like it's been out across changes to the printing technology)--things like that. Size helps, but isn't a good clue on its own. Often the higher value stamps have larger sizes, and sometimes, the regular issue sizes are not that normal 22x25. The other thing I look for is the pattern of commemoratives. Some commems have a patter of releasing 3 or 8 values in a set - like GB does. If the values of the set in question are different than those normal commem. patterns, that's a good clue too. The final problem is that these patterns change with time in a single country as new postmasters come in and norms change. So, I've often found myself thinking something is a regular issue or a commem. and then deciding I'm wrong after I see more examples. I found France and Italy to be difficult in this way. Sometimes, my best clue is that the catalog says something like "Released to honor ..." But that doesn't always work either.

[@ericbond5276]

I have a few scenic stamps that aren't expensive.

[@KensStampCollection]

For me it's about finding things I don't have. happy collecting.

[@rogerturner1881]

GRAY= GREY gray means in history a CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. The colour grey is GREY. What paper grams do you use?

[@KensStampCollection]

Hi - I do get these mixed up all the time. Spelling isn't my best feature. Anyway, I thought I had been careful about this one. Looking it up again, grAy is the most common US spelling for the color. grEy is the most common British spelling for the color. Although, apparently, both are now considered correct in the US--language drift I guess. Anyway, I looked back on my video and pages, and I seem to be consistently using grAy, which I think is right for me. Did I miss it somewhere? Or am I missing your point? For paper, I use Staples cover stock - 67 lbs. I don't know how that translates to grams in paper terms. I doubt it's 30,400.

[@christophersmeltser6564]

I’m curious what kind of album pages do you use?

[@KensStampCollection]

I make my own pages. I find it’s the only way for me to collect the way I like. I show my process in my British wildings castles episode. I’ll add that I learn a ton in the process

[@christophersmeltser6564]

@@KensStampCollection That is awesome!

[@user-xb6qs8gq7z]

Hi Ken do you want to buy my japanese stamp collection..

[@KensStampCollection]

Sorry, I'm not. But I put this information on my About page for help selling your collection: By the way, I don't buy stamps or collections through this channel. And if you are interested in advice about how to sell a collection, I'm not very good at that, but what limited information I can share, I've put in my blog here: kensstampcollection.blogspot.com/2023/09/kens-advice-on-selling-stamp-collection.html