Scan · Identify · Collect

Identify Any Stamp
by Photo

Lay the stamp on a white background and take one picture. StampBrain comes back with the Scott number, the series, the year, the denomination, the colour and the perforation — and if the watermark is what you need, there is a separate mode that reads it off a backlit shot.

Front, back or watermark Scott number, perf & watermark Condition, trend & last sale
Get the App See how it works
Free To download
7 Markers Returned per stamp
1 Photo Per identification
Stamp matched Scott no. · Series
Market Trend & last sale
Backlit mode Watermark read
StampBrain result screen for a 1918 Inverted Jenny, Scott #C3a, showing the match confidence, country, series and market value
3
Ways to shoot a stamp
7
Identification markers
14
Catalogue filters
2
Languages in app
Six kinds of stamp

Definitives, commemoratives and the awkward ones

Filter the catalogue by what a stamp is, or just photograph whatever is in the album — the identifier works out the issue on its own.

Definitive The regular issue — the everyday stamp printed for years on end
Commemorative Short print runs marking an event, a person or an anniversary
Airmail Carried by air — the C numbers in the US catalogue
Revenue Tax and duty stamps rather than postage
Postage Due Applied when the postage paid did not cover the trip
Semi-Postal Sold above face value, with the surcharge going to a cause

And by where it came from

  • United States
  • Great Britain
  • Commonwealth
  • France
  • Germany
  • China
  • Japan
  • Everywhere else
How it works

Three steps, one stamp at a time

No perforation gauge, no watermark tray, no squinting at a catalogue. Put the stamp down and take the picture.

1

Photograph the stamp

White background, stamp filling the frame. Shoot the front, turn it over for the back — or switch to Detect Watermark, hold the stamp up to a light or lay it face-down on something dark, and shoot that.

2

Read the markers

Scott number, series, year, denomination, colour, perforation and watermark — whichever the photo can support, with a match confidence beside them and candidates to choose from.

3

File it in an album

Save it to an album you named yourself, with its condition estimate, market trend and last recorded sale sitting alongside it.

Everything in the box

More than an identifier — a collector's desk

Scanning is the front door. What keeps philatelists in the app is everything that happens to the stamp afterwards.

Scan without a daily quota

No per-day allowance to ration across an album. There is a fair-use ceiling to keep the service up, but ordinary collecting never reaches it.

A watermark mode of its own

Shoot the stamp backlit and the photo goes to a separate model tuned for philatelic watermarks — design, orientation and position — not the general identifier with a different prompt.

Seven identification markers

Scott number, series, year, denomination, colour, perforation and watermark — the fields that separate a common issue from the one worth keeping.

Albums & collection value

Sort stamps into albums you name yourself and watch the collection total move as values change.

Ask StampBrain

No clean shot, or a stamp too damaged to read? Answer five questions — region, type, era, condition and anything unusual about it — and the catalogue narrows itself down.

Photo enhancer

Clean up a dim or glare-heavy shot before it goes to the identifier — better input, better match.

Browse & search

Look a stamp up by name, or filter the catalogue by country and type, and open the same detail page a scan gives you.

Scan history

Everything you have identified stays in recent scans — re-open a stamp without photographing it twice.

A blank field beats an invented one

When the photo cannot support a marker, the app leaves that row out of the panel rather than filling it with a plausible guess — and a stamp the pricing has not reached shows no figure instead of a made-up one.

Identifiers

Every detail that makes a stamp a stamp

A country and a year are the start, not the answer. Two stamps can look identical and be worth a hundred times apart on perforation alone. StampBrain reads the markers that actually settle it.

  • Scott number, series and year The catalogue reference that lets you look the issue up anywhere.
  • Denomination and printed colour Face value as printed, and the shade the catalogue names it by.
  • Perforation and watermark The two fields that most often separate a common stamp from a scarce one.
  • Authenticity tips, not an authentication Things to check yourself. Only an expertising service can certify a stamp.
Stamp detail screen showing the match confidence, country, series, market value and the Quick Facts grid
The watermark tab

The field nobody can see by eye

Watermarks are the classic reason a stamp gets sent away to be checked: you cannot read one without holding it to the light, and a wrong call changes what the stamp is. StampBrain gives it its own tab, Detect Watermark, and its own model.

  • Backlight it, or go face-down on dark Hold the stamp up to a light source, or lay it face-down on a dark surface — either makes the watermark readable.
  • Design, orientation and position Not just "there is one" — the three things a catalogue actually asks for.
  • Candidates that bear it The read comes back with the stamps carrying that watermark, not just a description.
  • Same detail page either way A watermark read opens the identical stamp page a front or back scan does.
StampBrain camera view with a stamp inside the scan frame and the instruction to place it on a white background
A quick tour

Straight from inside the app

Real screens: frame the stamp, then read what came back.

Camera view with a stamp inside the scan frame
Frame it White background, stamp filling the frame.
Stamp detail screen with market value and Quick Facts
Read it Series, country, condition and last sale.

Taken from the StampBrain App Store screenshots. Stamp names and figures shown are examples — what the app reports depends on the stamp and its condition.

The subscription

What you get with StampBrain

StampBrain is a subscription app: the download is free, and full access comes with the subscription. Where your store offers an introductory free trial, the purchase screen shows it before you commit.

Start with the app

Price, any introductory offer and renewal terms are set by the App Store or Google Play and are shown on the purchase screen in your region before you buy. If a trial is offered it converts to a paid subscription unless you cancel beforehand, and you can cancel any time from your store subscription settings.

  • Stamp scans without a daily quota Front, back or backlit for the watermark.
  • Seven identification markers Scott number through perforation and watermark.
  • Condition, trend and last sale Shown per stamp, with the market sources behind the figure.
  • Collection tracker Albums and a running total for the whole collection.
  • Ask StampBrain Five questions when a photo will not do it.
FAQ

Questions, answered

The things collectors ask us before they download.

United States, British Commonwealth, European, Asian and rest-of-world issues, across definitives, commemoratives, airmails, revenues, postage dues and semi-postals. You photograph the stamp and the app works out the bucket — you do not pick a category first.
Scott number, series, year, denomination, colour, perforation and watermark, plus a condition estimate, a market trend, the last recorded sale and a few authenticity tips. If the photo cannot support a marker, that row is left out rather than guessed at.
It is a third tab beside front and back. Hold the stamp up to a light so the watermark shows through the paper — or lay it face-down on a dark surface — photograph it there, and the image goes to a separate model built for philatelic watermarks rather than to the general identifier. It reports the design, its orientation and its position, and returns the stamps that carry it.
No. It shows a condition estimate and a rarity read alongside market figures, but it does not assign your stamp a grade, does not measure centering, and is not affiliated with PSE, PF or any other expertising service. Only an expertising service can grade or certify a stamp.
Every match comes back with a confidence score and, where the photo is ambiguous, several candidates rather than one answer. Identification is AI-assisted, so verify anything that matters — reprints, forgeries and perforation varieties are exactly where a photograph can mislead. If a scan will not land, Ask StampBrain narrows it down through five questions instead.
From the app's catalogue pricing, shown with a market trend and a breakdown of the sources behind the figure. Stamp prices swing on condition, gum and cancellation more than on the issue itself, so treat every number as a guide rather than an offer. Where a stamp has not been priced yet, the app shows nothing instead of inventing a figure.
Yes — an account is what lets your albums, collection and scan history follow you to a new phone. You can sign up with an email address, or continue with Google or Apple.
The app is free to download and full access comes with a subscription. Prices, any introductory offer and renewal terms are set and billed by the App Store or Google Play, so the exact figures are always the ones shown on the purchase screen in your region. Cancel any time from Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions on iOS, or Play Store → Subscriptions on Android.
English and Spanish today, switchable from Settings → Language. More languages are added as the app grows.
Download StampBrain

Find out what is in the old album

Free to download. Open the album on the first page, photograph whatever is in the top-left corner and see what comes back.

Coming soon on Google Play Soon Coming to the App Store Soon
Free to download Cancel any time Front, back & watermark