A SHORT HISTORYabout this DVD.

About 17 years ago, Australia did not have an electronicform of stamp catalogue, to be in place for the wave of digital technology thatwas advancing rapidly. Therefore, I decided to create a CD  –  latera DVD – for philatelists serious about Australian stamps.

The DVD data start at year 1913, when the Commonwealth tookover the responsibility of national stamp printing from the various States. Itends 100 years later, roughly at 2014, because it had to end somewhere.

The Microsoft program Excel was chosen as the base, becauseit was emerging as more flexible than the pioneering spread sheets like Lotus1-2-3, which were designed more for accounting and financial work. That turnedout to be about the best choice, in hindsight.

Another ‘best choice’ was to base the numbering system onthe Brusden White Australian Commonwealth Specialists’ Catalogue system, all 6relevant books, because the ACSC numbers were most deeply researched by BrusdenWhite. The first number on the DVD is ACSC 1, the last one is ACSC 2512 in year2001, after which there were no more Brusden White catalogues issued. Thesystem on the DVD then continues from the Stamp Bulletins issued by AustraliaPost. Stanley Gibbons numbers become the main reference. There are no USA Scottnumbers, because they and I failed to agree on a contract for their use –whereas all other catalogue producers did agree enthusiastically when I askedthem.

There are 6,000 lines of Excel, one per stamp. I tossed insome extras, like British Commonwealth Occupation Forces, BCOF and AustralianAntarctic Territory, AAT

Here is how the primary data is set out, with the first tenstamps as examples. As with every Excel spreadsheet, it is searchable andeditable. You can do simple things like search for “flower” or “pence” or acombination. You can reformat to make labels for insertion into albums, stampby stamp. You canadd your buy and sell price history into further columns. Andmore.

Each stamp, where possible or feasible, was scanned by me athigh resolution of 600 dpi and saved in the most widespread image format, JPEG.This high resolution helps to show small printing errors and the like, that cancause high market values for ‘variety’ stamps. When one clicks on the bluehyperlink shown above, with the images on the DVD in place, the image is shown.Not here, though, with no link to images. Some examples of 600 dpi images aregiven with the scans in the eBay auction. Note that small variations in shadesare to be expected because of the calibration problems of scanners, graphicsprograms, computer monitors, printers, etc.

The willing cooperation of several noted stamp dealers wasinvaluable, in allowing accurate scans of stamps where expertise was needed forcorrect identification. Dealer friends like the Andy and Richard Juzwin, TomJenkins, the Shields brothers, Max Stern, Peter Strich, Michael Eastick andseveral others were unreservedly generous in lending quite valuable stamps tothe scanning project. Australia Post contributed to copyright agreements,several book catalogue makers were wholly cooperative and the project proceededwith goodwill abundant.

I did not count the man-hours I spent on this project, butone can see that there was a great deal of time and effort expended. The finalDVD is among the best for any country, so buyers have often told me. It can beimproved, but it is open and flexible. The buyer can add or delete rows andcolumns, insert data from the buyer’s own collection, update prices and so on.Users can even use Word and Excel programs to make labels from the data on theDVD.

The result is a comprehensive, reference quality record thatcan be trusted.

Geoff Sherrington

(Scientist, retired)

May, 2023.

Melbourne, Australia.