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Philately: Are "Mint" or Canceled Stamps More Valuable? (Patrick Mears, -Germany, 03/29/23 2:30 am)

Thank you very much for posting my note on German colonialism. I too hope that Eugen Solf connects with us and shares some stories about his grandfather's time spent in Samoa (and beyond).

In my experience when I was an active stamp collector, mint issues were on the whole more expensive that the cancelled ones. But there seems not to be a simple consensus on the answer to your question. I thought that this extended exchange of views below is on point and helpful. One "outlier" are the stamps issued by the German Weimar Republic during the terrible inflation during the 1920s, which is mentioned in a few of the readers' posts collected in the attached collector's forum below.

Cancelled or Uncancelled Stamps - Which is More Valuable?

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=82664

JE comments:  Countries experiencing extreme inflation seem to be the exception to the mint or canceled debate.  Weimar stamps, for example, were only usable for a short period of time, so most of the supply remained in mint condition.

One brilliant move by the US Postal Service:  the "forever" stamp.  Not only are they good, well, forever, but you do not notice when they raise prices.

I filed this post under "numismatics," as WAIS has no existing menu topic for "philately."  Must do something about that.  Are there any other philatelists among our colleagues?  It's a famously nerdy hobby, but a WAISly one.  I remember the first time I came across "Magyar" (Hungary) and "Helvetia" (Switzerland) on stamps.  What countries are these, I asked my young self.  It forced me to learn about the world.

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