100 Greatest American Stamps

Despite the oversized glossy pages, slick graphics, and the heft generally associated with superior products, the supposed highlight and key selling point for this production was woefully inadequate. The stamp images are of surprisingly very poor quality. A solid 80% of the pictures are blurry.I have no idea why the first review claimed the stamps illustrated were "crystal clear". My sense is that that person is some relation to Mr. Magoo. That - or his crystal is shockingly opaque and requires some urgent cleaning.It's not evident whether the authors hired an incompetent graphic designer -or- if they themselves provided the stamp imagery and the designer was forced to use what was available. Regardless of the reason, this book is nearly worthless for the purpose intended.Notably, many of the images appear to have been taken directly from the internet. Scanning apparently too difficult a task.Why this issue wasn't addressed when the prepress proofs were available for review is a mystery.Suffice to say, the few sharp clear images - and they truly are a small lonely handful - are only marginally worth the price of even a used copy of this so-called "coffee table" production.The written context saves this from a single star.Personal Note:- Just for comparison's sake, and without any effort at all, I found an 1869 30 Cent Shield on the internet. It took two minutes.Make your own comparison and judge for yourself.Open the book to Page 27.Now, copy the address below and replace the three (3) "dots" with the actual period symbol (no spaces) for this free Imageshack address:img22 dot imageshack dot us/img22/8563/186930cents dot jpgBe honest. Of the two, which one is truly "crystal clear"?A couple of minutes. That's all it took. For one stamp.Are there copyright issues? Debatable. However, fair use involving historical images of objects created by the US government, that are then used in conjunction with research or educational aspects, has long been considered legal according to Title 17, Section 107 of the US Code.No one person or entity other than the United States Bureau of Engraving & Printing, or in the case of world stamps their own version of the same, can claim true copyright ownership. Owners of products from the US Government merely own copies of the product and cannot legally claim infringement as a rights holder. Just because you scan or take a picture of a stamp (or any US currency) does not mean you own that image. Unfair, but it's legal. Specifically, I would cite subsection 4 - "The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work." Which means having gathered an image from a publicly accessed site which features products of the US Government that is not artistically or intrinsically unique, cannot be considered having potential market value other than as a reference.And simply using donated stamps avoids the largest pitfalls of such a discussion.Bottom line - the stamps in this book are blurry.

Nothing .. I returned it .. it is outdated 15 years.

Would I love to have some of these stamps? --YES! Can I have some of these stamps? --NO!A compilation of stamps thought top be the "Greatest" They are described by the authors as historical, beautiful and their own favorites and how they came to own them. The photos are excellent and the stamps are a collector's dream. An nice coffee table book and for collectors a book worth reading. How many of them do you own?

Excellent and fun to read. I hesitated buying this because another user or two said the stamp images were poor quality. Quite the contrary, the images are fine. Lots of interesting and informative stories and history. I hope the authors will do a sequel.

but thought the price was too much for what was provided. not enough technical reasons to show why it was ranked.

Excellent stamp book - very well done relative to its content and descriptions of our greatest US stamps.

My husband really enjoys this book. He loves stamps and the history behind them. I often see him leafing through this book.

Really nice book.

様々なアメリカの有名な切手についての逸話、意義について美しい写真とわかりやすい英語で書かれている。アメリカ切手に興味のある人、アメリカの歴史について興味のある人にはおすすめの書籍です。