2011 Scott Specialized Catalog

About fifteen years ago, the Scott publishing company gave its greatest gift to the philatelic fraternity since the first introduction of the stamp catalog. It was the decision to issue what they called the “Classic Specialized Catalog of Stamps and Covers”. Initially the catalog consisted of little more than a reprinted version of the 1840-1940 sections of each country listing in the general Scott catalog. But each year the editors added numerous new listings, cover prices and prices for unusual specialty items. Much of the information in the Scott Classic can be gleaned from the various foreign specialized catalogs that exist for all major European countries and their former colonies. But this requires ten or more expensive foreign catalogs and the difficulties of translation and currency conversion. The Scott specialized is really cool. The France listings, for instance, have the regular Scott numbered listings as well as far more shades and varieties and cover prices. There is a fascinating section on Ballons Montes covers-the balloon flights out of besieged Paris during the 1879 Franco Prussian War- and hundreds of other listings that can’t be found anywhere this side of an Yvert and which will add to your appreciation of French philately. And this is just France. Nearly every country is like this. If you like stamps I urge you to get a copy of this catalog. It’s pricey but you can buy an older used edition on EBay. The content is mostly the same and the catalog values haven’t changed that much.