FREE: Vintage San Marino 1952 FDC Airmail - PA Giornata Filatelica

FDC (First Day Cover)?

I am sorry but I do not know. Single loose stamp. Thank you for your question.

---It was just that "FDC" was in your title for this auction---

Country: Republic of San Marino - (REP. DI SAN MARINO
- RICCIONE) [a coastal area where this Stamp Exhibition was held]
Date of Issue: August 25, 1952 (25 AGOSTO 1952)
[unlike the US many countries write dates: day/month/year]
Issue: Philatelic Day (GIORNATA FILATELICA)
Subject: 1 Lire - "Cyclamen" plant
Cat. reference: Scott #C82

My mistake in heading...I looked at stamp again and it DOES NOT have FDC on it. I apologize for the error.

There is so much to know about stamps.
"Postage" is issued by a postal administration of a country.
The private "Penny Post" began in 1680 to deliver mail in London. That became popular and was duplicated in many industrialized countries.
The 1st adhesive stamp, The Penny Black, was issued on May 1, 1840.
There have been many governments (and whole countries) that have changed, disappeared or been created during that time.
As of today, there are 195 countries speaking about 6700 languages.
All (or most) of any of those countries and governments have issued stamps in their time, with their own names, writing, imagery and symbols.
It's estimated that there were about 5,280,000 different (catalogued) stamps issued as of 2008-9 -- and that about 10,000 to 15,000 are added to that number every year. These include only the standard postage stamps. [Not included in that are unnumbered variations in: color, perforations, errors, freaks, blocks, pairs, on covers and special cancelations, fakes and forgeries. Then, there specialty stamps: “cinderella stamps”, (not issued for postal purposes by a government), revenue, tax, fee, official, railway, air mail, balloon post, postage due, parcel stamp, telephone, telegraph stamps, military, etc..]
And, that’s all before you get into grading and condition of the stamp in your hand.

The shear number of combinations is staggering!
You couldn’t begin to find their value; if you can’t identify them.
That's job #1.

The 1st major task is to become familiar enough with the common words, monetary terms and other markings of a nation's stamps to be able to identify the county in order for you to try to look them up in a catalogue reference book.
A good place to start is to try to sort and group your stamps by country.
(Even if you don't know what they mean, compare the symbols, type, and words.
There will be similarities in the symbols, type, and words.)
Group those.
[If you find some that don't seem to fit in a group, keep them apart - for now.]
Then you need to find a : "Stamp Identifier".
(They include lists of the typical: words, symbols, markings, watermarks and some sample images found on stamps. The words are often translated and matched to the country. )
Buy one or try your library, even request a library loan, if they don't have one.
Also, shortened ones are often found as reference pages of world stamp albums or stamp catalogues. You can use older copies of these most of the time because they cover very much of the same information. There was one, “All Nations Stamp Finder and Dictionary” by Harry D. Thorsen, Jr. published in 1952, 32 page paperback, that showed: inscriptions, overprints, symbols, watermarks and designs with a philatelic dictionary and technical terminology. That was the best thing I found as an intermediate collector. It cost me 75¢ then and I use it for reference still. I’m sure there are others, today.

Now, check your groups against those identifiers.

Once you know the country, it’s time to look at the set of world catalogues. The US standard reference is “Scott’s Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue” published annually, now in 6 volumes which sells at the hefty price of $419.99! [Does the idea of checking the library come to mind?] It’s grouped alphabetically by countries, so you can use one at a time to look up your grouped stamps. Other large ‘World’ stamp catalogue makers, EACH USING DIFFERENT NUMBERING) are Michel (Germany), Stanley-Gibbons (England), Yvert et Tellier (France) and others that are out of business like Minkus (USA). If you have an album, it usually will use one of those numbering systems to ID it's images. If so, match your catalogue selection and album's numbering system for simplicity. (Once you know the number from one catalogue system, it can be cross-referenced to the other systems.)
BUT, because this takes so much time and you have not as yet identified the actual stamps, (unless you are collecting mostly new issue stamps) I would consider buying a cheap used, 5-10 year old copy of the catalogues for the countries you are working on. They are usually pretty cheap (because the real buyers/sellers) are using them to update pricing.
At this stage, you’re working on 1) identifying the stamp, it’s catalogue number, and it’s condition. 2) determining a relative value compared to all the others.
(Most stamps are only worth: A. the money for the time and effort of the person to store and sell it to you. B. the service that the particular issuing agency will perform for the value on the unused stamp)
Every other “value” for a stamp is based on what it means to you and some other collector(s) who is interested in it.

Interests change; so do prices.
When you decide to sell your collection, you take the information you know about your collection and then check out the newest publication for the newest pricing.

I think any beginning collector would find great value in reading these articles at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamp
and
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_Stamp_Catalogue

Try to enjoy it for everything other than the value and Good Luck!

Wowee, I am going to copy all this information from Whitefoote, nice information!

PLEASE BID MORE to pay this lady for the space taken up on her auction in order to share this information with all stampers.
Thank you so much!

You should teach a class at a local community college Whitefoote!

If only there was college credit for stamp collecting...haha :D

Happy Mother's Day Bidders and Watchers!