hello
i have plenty of stamps from East Europe, and from Asia (North Korea).
i am assuming that most of them are CTO, specially North Korea.
But is there a webpage with all CTO stamps and just CTO stamps?
it will help me to sort my collection
many thanks and best regards
Ronan
Ronan,
CTO is the condition. Not part of the properties of a stamp. Part of the condition you give the stamp in your lists, or on the marketplace if you just want to sell it.
In the catalog you will find the stamp.
In the lists, you can add the condition after selecting it in your list (Collection, Wish or Swap).
On the sellers listing, you have to inditcate in what condition you offer the stamp (MNH, MH, Used or CTO).
There are collectors with an allergie for CTO (it is a product made just to sell to collectors, not to use as a stamp).
Others don't mind if the stamp is MH or CTO. As long as they can fill a gap.
The value of a CTO is always less than a stamp in the condition MNH or Used (really used).
Don't give up. There are plenty of other properties and possibilities you can use for selecting, filtering, and sorting.
With a CTO stamp, you usually see the year on the canceling. This, combined with the Country (area) and Face Value selections, limits your search.
If you find one stamp from a series — p.e. Birds — click on the series name in the details of that stamp. Sometimes you'll have to select the country and year again (series have apparently become cross-area). You'll then see all the other birds from the same series. Then you can easily catalog all the ones you have of that series (place them in your appropriate lists).
You can also filter by Emissions, Themes, Formats, etc.
Try, play with it, and learn. Soon you'll become an expert. Like you've done nothing else your whole life.