Why The Philosateleian does not include Scott numbers

From time to time, I receive inquiries from users asking why I don’t include Scott numbers on the pages in The Philosateleian U.S. Stamp Album.

The answer is simple: the company that publishes the Scott catalogues won’t let me.

I recently wrote to Amos Publishing asking for permission to include Scott numbers on my album pages, and I received a brief but polite reply from Dave Akin, Amos’s rights & permissions manager, declining my request.

“We have only issued two licenses for this type of use,” writes Mr. Akin. “One is for thematic pages we do not produce and the other pays a significant license fee.”

As Mr. Akin notes, I give away The Philosateleian for free, and thus have no means of paying a “significant license fee.” And I can’t deny that there would be no obvious financial benefit to Amos to give me permission to use Scott numbers on my pages when they publish and sell album pages of their own.

You can, of course, download the editable ODT versions of my album pages and add whatever information you choose, including numbers from the catalogue of your choice; that would seem to me to be reasonable personal use. I just can’t do it for you.

Published 2013-07-17