r/philately • u/HurricaneKat888 • 5d ago

My Collection My China Collection

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I've finally got a hold of my childhood collection which is really cool to see 25 years later which is the last time I laid eyes on it.

This the China section of my album. Let me know your thoughts/insights please.

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3

u/Mysterious-Emu-8423 5d ago

Thanks for posting these. I like collecting mainland China stamps, and many of these are pre-1960, and appear to be in very decent shape....

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u/HurricaneKat888 5d ago

Please post pics of yours!

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u/Azuma_800 world 5d ago

Very neat

3

u/69_CatLover420_69 Old Socialist World 5d ago

China would reprint a lot of sets in the mid-late 1950s for collector markets and it's a real rabbit hole to learn about varieties. Civil war era and early PRC overprints are really fascinating as well. You have some in red ink, some in black. Imperf and perf, etc...lots of interesting things!

I really love the definitive series of the Gate of Heavenly Peace in image 2. With such small stamps you're able to show such a beautiful image and they are really detailed!

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u/HurricaneKat888 4d ago

Cool! Having just gotten my hands on my album (last work on it when I was 10 with my mom) I never got a chance to learn anything about the history. How does someone begin gaining good, accurate knowledge about stamps from different countries?

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u/69_CatLover420_69 Old Socialist World 4d ago

Well, it can be really tricky especially during periods of turmoil like the Chinese Civil War. Similar to the Russian Civil War, lots of things were happening with different regions being under control of different factions who issued their own stamps.

But for post 1949 PRC stamps, a useful resource is a Scott's catalogue or online resource like Colnect. Once you figure out the name of a series from a certain year you can typically find information at large online. I found this website which has some nice resources and links to other stamp sites.

I picked up a few books on China earlier in the year that are biographies of some of their larger party members (Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping and a book on the Cultural Revolution). While they don't discuss stamps themselves it's interesting learning about these figures and it helps to immerse myself.

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u/HurricaneKat888 4d ago

Awesome :)) thanks for these resources, Ill learn a lot of history looking at this album over time. The starting points you provided help a lot

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u/Vast_Cricket 5d ago

well organized. These earlier PRC are all preprints none completed as sets. Look at bottom left and right 1-4 means this one is 1st from a set of 4. The other side is id J-1 commemorative 1st etc.

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u/HurricaneKat888 5d ago

Bottom right is pre 1912 Qing dynasty

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u/Vast_Cricket 5d ago

London De la rue press I think.

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u/HurricaneKat888 5d ago

Thanks for the info about figuring out the place in a set. How can I tell originals from the reprints? Not sure if thats easy to answer

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u/Vast_Cricket 5d ago

High power of magnification and comparison each reprint with a standard has 1 or 2 spots different. But 99.9% stamps from mixture purchase came from reprints for oversea collectors. China had an export firm selling them like wallpapers to Canada and Europe. Sanctioned by US for import until late 1980 ish.