Stamps are not always issued by a country or a nation. The stamp issuing entity could be a principality or kingdom, a protectorate,
a colony, a city, a military settlement, or post offices of one country in another country (e.g., German Post Offices in China). Vatican City, which is an independent papal state within the city of Rome, has its own stamps. United Nations, which is an international organization, has its own stamps. (In fact, United Nations offices in New York, Geneva, and Vienna all issue separate stamps).
Vatican City
United Nations (New York)
Many country names have also changed over the years, generally after they became independent. For example, Upper Volta has become Burkina Faso, British Honduras has become Belize, Basutoland has become Lesotho, and Bechuanaland Protectorate has become Botswana.
Some bigger countries have broken up into smaller independent countries like the former USSR has broken up into Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Kazakstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan etc.. Other examples will be Yugoslavia breaking up into Croatia, Serbia, Slovania, Bosnia & Herzegovina etc., and Czechoslovakia breaking up into Czech Republic and Slovakia. Similarly, smaller provinces or geographical divisions of a large country, which once issued their own stamps may have ceased to do so. For example, in the Malayan peninsula, individual states like Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Pahang, Penang, Perak, etc. all used to issue their own stamps. Then Malaysia came into being in 1965 and all these states now use Malaysia stamps. In the middle east, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujeira, Sharjah etc. each had their own stamps. They are now part of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and use UAE stamps. Many Indian states once had their own postage stamps.
Even some cities in some countries had postage stamps of their own, but not now (e.g., Geneva, Berlin). The entities which no longer issue their own stamps are called "dead countries" by the philatelists.
Travancore Anchel (A former princely Indian State)
It is now a dead country.
The area uses India stamps now.
Siam
The country is now known as Thailand.
Lithuania Lithuania used USSR stamps until USSR broke up in 1991.
USSR is a dead country now.
Johore (dead country)
Johore now uses Malaysia stamps.
All these things can initially be a little confusing for the beginning worldwide stamp collector, but help is always available.
Aside from many philatelic reference books, there are some good sites on the Internet which can solve the mystery quickly. Linn's Stamp Issuing Entities Of The World lists more than 700 active and inactive stamp issuing entities of the world with geographical, historical, and philatelic notes on each and indicates the time period during which each of these entities issued stamps. AJ's Encyclopedia of
Stamps and Philatelic Links is another good site to consult. It lists hundreds of stamp issuing entities in great details.
I have read in stamp collecting web sites that worldwide stamp collecting these days is an absurd proposition since about half a million different stamps already exist from around the world and hundreds, if not thousands, of new stamps are being issued every year worldwide. My question is who said you have to collect every single stamp that has ever been issued by every single country? Collect whatever you can get. In my personal collection, I have some strong countries, meaning I have hundreds of stamps from those countries, and I have some weak countries, meaning I have only a few stamps from those countries. And I have no stamps at all from some countries. Whenever I get a new stamp of one of my weak countries, I experience a special joy within me. And if it is the first stamp of a country for which my album page was blank previously, I am absolutely thrilled. Trying to have a stamp or two from every single country of the world without buying is a big challenge and if you can have a stamp or two on every single page of your world album (without buying) the joy you will experience is hard to describe in words. I am not saying never buy stamps. Buy if you can afford.
But collecting varieties spending little or no money has a special thrill, professional stamp collectors often miss. Nobody's collection is ever complete. The challenge of getting as many varieties as possible is what makes stamp collecting so interesting.
World stamp collecting has another advantage over specialized (single country or thematic) collection. It is easy to get new stamps all the time. If you are narrowing down your collection to a single country or a special theme, pretty soon you will discover newer stamps are hard to find unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money. On the other hand, for the world stamp collector, varieties are easy to find. Even the dealer will always have an inexpensive packet which the worldwide collector doesn't already have.
Nobody knows what will happen to stamp collecting in the future. Ordinary stamps of today may turn out to be valuable stamps in the future. If that happens, may be a member of your future generation will someday thank you!
It is perfectly alright to collect used stamps. One of the most valuable stamps in the world, which sold for $935,000 in an auction in 1980, is an used stamp.
Sometimes 2, 4, 6 or more different designs of stamps may be contained in one block. If you find such a block, it is best not to separate the stamps in the block. Keep them together. They are generally considered more valuable in a block than separate stamps. Below is an example.
Two different Colombia stamps joined together ("Se-tenant").
Stamps having same design, color, and denomination are sometimes issued in different forms, e.g., as sheets, booklets, or coils. Collect a specimen of each, if possible. They are considered as different stamps. Here are some examples:
This is a sheet stamp. Has perforation on all four sides.
This is a booklet stamp. May not have perforations on 1, 2, 3, or all 4 sides.
This is a coil stamp. These are either vertically or horizontally perforated.
Booklet stamps may not have perforations on 1, 2, 3, or all 4 sides. The above example of booklet stamp does not have perforation on 3 sides. Below are other examples of booklet stamps:
Perforation may be missing from left, bottom, top or right side of the stamp.
Perforation may be missing from two sides as shown.
Perforation may be missing from all four sides as shown.
Stamps on First Day Covers with first day cancellation marks
should never be taken off the covers. They are definitely more valuable on the cover. Similarly, if you find an old envelope with stamp/s on it, check with a senior collector or dealer. The envelope with stamp/s attached on it may be more valuable than the off-paper stamp/s.
Even for used stamps, always use acid-free, archival quality album pages, hinges, and philatelic quality clear poly film sleeves for display and storage of your stamps.
If you use two-sided album pages, always use archival quality
clear poly film interleaving to prevent stamps from getting entangled with stamps on the facing page.
Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue has a very good section in the front. Read it to know more about stamps and use it as a guide book. Scott Catalogue is available in most public libraries.
Looking at the cancellation mark (if legible) can reveal many things about a stamp. If you can read the date, it will give you an idea how recent or how old is the stamp. If you can read the name of the originating post office, it can sometimes help identify the stamp. For example, if you do not know what "Hellas" means, and if you cannot read Greek alphabet, but you can read the word "Athens" in the cancellation mark, you've got a big clue. It is a Greece stamp!
The condition of a stamp is often described with words like 'average', 'fine', 'very fine' etc.. These terms usually refer to centering of the stamp though they can also mean the overall condition of the stamp. Centering means the distance of the printed area from all four edges of the stamp. If the distances are all equal, it is a perfectly centered stamp, and it is called 'superb'. But that is not the case always, though expected. Stamps can be so off-centered that on one side of the stamp there may not be any margin left between the design and the actual edge of the stamp, and the perforations may actually go through the design. Stamps so badly off-centered are known as 'average'. Things in-between can be described as 'fine', 'very fine' (abbreviated F, VF) etc.. One factor that determines the value of a stamp is its centering.
Stamp collectors use a lot of different terms like cachet, plate block, selvage, roulette, coil, overprint, cut square, grill, perf, watermark etc.. I don't think a beginner needs to worry about these technical terms. But if you are really into it, an excellent glossary of stamp collecting terms can be found at Glossary Of Philatelic Terms.
However, even a beginner should know the meaning of the terms definitive and commemorative stamps. Definitive stamps are usually small in size, are printed in huge quantities, and they remain in circulation (meaning they can be bought from the post office) for a long period of time, often years. In common men's words these are "everyday" stamps. The following is an example:
This is a definitive stamp.
Commemorative stamps on the other hand are usually large and colorful, they are printed in smaller quantities, and they are not sold by the post office for a long period of time. They are issued to commemorate a particular occasion or thing and are, therefore, sold by the post office for a shorter period of time, usually until a few weeks or few months after the occasion was commemorated. The following is an example:
This is a commemorative stamp.
This was issued to commemorate 1984 Olympics.
World stamp collecting should boost our general knowledge about the world in which we live, not just knowledge about stamps. For this reason, I prefer to have a stamp album that is informative and educational. Commercially published stamp albums often give enough information about the country on the top of the page for that country. I suggest you choose such an album, if other features of the album are acceptable to you. If you are making your own album, I shall definitely suggest that you include the kind of information under each country's name as shown in the example. As far as I am concerned, having Scott catalog number for each stamp on the page is far less important than having the kind of information in the header area of each country as shown in the example.
You can add a location map of the country just before the page where that country's stamps are displayed. As shown in the example, for the Bangladesh page, you can add an outline map of the Indian subcontinent highlighting the location of Bangladesh within the subcontinent. You can add any other information about the country that is of interest to you, or for which the country is well known. This way, stamp collecting indeed can become educational and entertaining.
