Covers of the 2002 edition featured art on stamps.

The Scott catalogue of postage stamps put out by Scott Publishing Co, a subsidiary of Amos Press, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the entire world which its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in six large volumes (as of 2006) and is produced in a CD edition. The numbering system used by Scott to identify stamps is dominant among stamp collectors in the United States. Cover of a Scott catalog for 2002, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image is a book cover. ... Cover of a Scott catalog for 2002, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image is a book cover. ... Venus de Milo exhibited in the Louvre museum, France. ... A selection of Hong Kong postal stamps A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Philatelists traditional method of identifying postage stamps uniquely has long been to number each countrys stamps consecutively; Norway #1 is the 4-skilling blue stamp issued in 1855, and so forth. ... Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects, such as covers (envelopes or packages with stamps on them). ...

The first Scott catalogue was a 21-page pamphlet with the title Descriptive Catalogue of American and Foreign Postage Stamps, Issued from 1840 to Date, Splendidly Illustrated with Colored Engravings and Containing the Current Value of each Variety. It was published in September 1868 by J.W. Scott, an early stamp dealer in New York, and purported to list all the stamps of the world, with prices for each. A notice inside does caution the reader that "it is simply impossible for any one to always have every stamp" in stock. The original catalog has been reprinted. 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq. ...

A small excerpt from 1910s Bolivia; each stamp includes the Scott number, design, denomination, color, unused and used prices, and additional annotations as needed. As the "1917" appearing before "1913" suggests, related stamps are sometimes grouped logically rather than numbered strictly chronologically.

In subsequent years, the Scott company gave up dealing in stamps but continued to publish the catalog, gradually providing more detail as the hobby evolved and collectors became more sophisticated. In addition to the factual information about the stamps, the catalog includes price information based on market analysis and reported sales from the previous year. As of 2002, and despite annual changes to save space, the catalog was more than 5,000 pages. Excerpt from a page of a Scott catalog for 2002, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This work is copyrighted. ... Excerpt from a page of a Scott catalog for 2002, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This work is copyrighted. ... A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

The Scott numbering system is copyrighted, and the company regularly acts against anyone who uses it without permission in any way other than to publish price lists. Copyright symbol. ...

Cover of the first Scott catalog, 1868

Editors of this, the dominant catalog in the US, have great influence over what is and is not considered to be a valid postage stamp. For instance, in the 1960s the countries of the United Arab Emirates issued many stamps that were likely never actually on sale in a post office, so Scott does not list them. One must go to a Michel catalog, for instance, to see them described. The lack of a Scott listing, though, means that most American dealers will simply refuse to traffic in such stamps. Download high resolution version (500x864, 96 KB)Cover of a Scott catalog for 1868, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (500x864, 96 KB)Cover of a Scott catalog for 1868, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Small-town post office and town hall in Lockhart, Alabama A post office is a facility (in most countries, a government one) where the public can purchase postage stamps for mailing correspondence or merchandise, and also drop off or pick up packages or other special-delivery items. ... Cover of the 1996 Europa West volume The Michel catalog (MICHEL-Briefmarken-Katalog) is the largest and best-known stamp catalog in the German-speaking world. ...

Similarly, Scott does not list most stamps from countries embargoed by the US government, or in some cases lists them but with no prices. To some extent, this is unavoidable, since the ban on importation means that Scott's editors are unable even to acquire copies of the stamps to be described. Moreover, since US dealers and collectors are unable to buy the stamps legally, they are unlikely to have any need of the data. (Again, interested persons typically use Michel or other catalogs instead.) The policy changes with government policy; stamps of North Vietnam recently reappeared in Scott after an absence of some years. This article is about the economic term. ... The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN), or less commonly, Vietnamese Democratic Republic (Vietnamese: Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa), also known as North Vietnam, was proclaimed by Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, September 2nd1945 and was recognized by the Peoples Republic of China and the...

The dominance of Scott is such that US collectors know many of the numbers by heart, and dealers need only mention the number in their price lists. For instance, "C3a" is instantly recognized as the Inverted Jenny, a rare US airmail stamp. The inverted Jenny (or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp of 1918 in which the airplane in the center of the design was accidentally printed upside-down. ...