Sunday, November 18, 2007

Most valuable?

Which stamp set is the most valuable from Israel? Most people will tell you it is 7-9 with tabs. The set is the high values of the Doar Ivri issue, and were issued in very limited quantities, and tabs were new to the hobby, and not generally considered part of the stamp. The set I show here are part of my collection, but I do not believe they are genuine. They are just space fillers until I can afford a genuine set. While expensive, they are not that difficult to find, and most dealers of Israel stamps are willing and able to sell you a set whenever you are ready to buy one. The set that I believe is the most valuable was issued just a few months later. It is the first festivals issue, Scott numbers 10-14. The tab set is readily available, and is rather affordable. However, the set with vertical gutters between the stamps (shown on right) is much harder to find, and usually goes for 2-3x the price of the tab set. Even rarer, is the set of vertical gutters with tabs. I have only a used copy of the low value on cover (shown on left above). This set is much harder to find, and while both issues catalog for about the same (approximately $6500), I believe if you were to try and purchase both, you would end up paying more for the 10-14 vertical gutters with tabs. The perception that 7-9 are the most valuable set has more to do with demand, then reality. Most collectors of Israel stamps feel they need 7-9 to complete their collections, whereas 10-14 with vertical gutters are not. Most likely, this is due to the fact that 10-14 vertical gutters are another issue that is not in standard albums.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your picture of 7-9...they look like the counterfeits that I have. I do have a real 7-9 without the tabs, and I was just comparing them. My forgeries have two stamps, vertically, with the bottom one having a tab. You can tell the difference by the horizontal shading, but I'm sure you know that. This was just the first time I took a really close look at mine.