Originally published in The Compulatelist, October 2004, Vol. 15, No. 4,
Whole No. 62
Liberty Street Software, 3126 Lednier Terrace, Mississauga,
Ontario, Canada L4Y 4A1. Price: USD$59.95. CD-ROM with US, Canada and Provinces,
Confederate States database. Upgrade from prior version USD$24.95. Canadian and
Provices only database available for USD$29.95 (electronic download USD$22.95).
Web site: http://www.libertystreet.com.
E-mail:sales@libertystreet.com. Voice: US/Canada 1-877-734-7638. International:
1-770-319-2718.
Introduction
StampManage 2004 is a very
powerful Windows based stamp database program from LibertyStreet Software that
warrants serious consideration if you are looking for software for your US or
Canadian material that provides a means to inventory Philatelic material and
work as a digital catalogue.
StampManage was developed by Paul
Dembrowski, an on and off again coin and stamp collector, after he founded
Liberty Street Software 1997. His first product, CoinManage, was inspired after
he saw ads for coin inventory programs. Since then, he has released other
programs such as StampManage, AssetManage, and CurrencyManage based upon the
CoinManage work.
StampManage 2004 reviewed here now includes over 19,500
database listings plus 9400 images for US and Canadian issues using the Scott
Catalog numbering system. The Scott Catalog numbering system is licensed from
Amos Publications. The database information (pre-entered, collector specific) is
stored in a single unencrypted Microsoft Access database format file. Databases
for United Nations and Australian issues is planned in 2005.
In addition
to the Scott catalogue number, the database includes information in 13
additional fields (description, denomination, issue date, variety, printer,
etc.) as well as pricing for single stamps in 3 used and 3 unused grades, plate
blocks (some issues), and FDC's. A variety field, not usually seen in most
programs, provides supplemental description information to differentiate between
similar appearance stamps.
The US database is very complete with all
major and minor Scott varieties listed including errors for general issues,
airmail, and many back of the book categories such as Ducks, Official, Revenues,
and Postage Due. Plate number coils (PNC) have a separate listing for each plate
number but prices for specific PNC plate numbers are not provided. You can
add/change the values as well as choose the date of the value database (2001,
2003, and 2004) although I saw little difference between the 2003 and 2004
values.
In addition to the usual database information, StampManage
provides links to various web sites associated for many specific catalogue
numbers. For example, for the entry for US Scott 1, there is a link to a
specific web page at the www.1847usa.com web site on how to distinguish between
Scott 1 and 3. This linkage to the web is unprecedented for a stamp inventory
program.
Installation
The installation process was routine.
After installation, the program used almost 190MB of disk space with the 160MB
used by the images. StampManage runs on Windows 98, NT 4.0 or higher, Me, 2000,
or XP. I evaluated the program using Windows XP.
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