Sooner or later you will want to organize an unidentified group of stamps, either for your own collection or for sale or trade. This article refers mainly to the Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, but most of the statements are true for the other major worldwide catalogues, also. Britain does not put its name on its stamps.
Some countries put their name in both the native language country name and in English.
If your stamps do not have a country name, and do not have a crowned head identifying them as British, they could be any number of things - a stamplike label, not a postage stamp at all, or a revenue, that is, a stamplike item that showed payment of a tax or other fiscal transaction, or some other thing. Set the problem items aside and worry about them later. Next, sort your country group according to the design on the stamps, and weed out the duplicates. The newest U.S. air mail stamps only have a picture of a stylized aircraft. The first number is the postage and the second is the extra fee being collected for a charity or other special cause.