One-Country Style
One-Country Style
One-Country Style
Over 200 countries in the world currently issue postage stamps – 'definitive' or 'ordinary' stamps for everyday use and commemoratives or 'special event' stamps for anniversaries, national and local celebrities or occasions. The great dominions of Australia, Canada, India and South Africa were formed of provinces and states, each of which issued their own stamps years ago. New stamps are issued at the rate of about 9,000 a year so that the total number of stamps issued all over the world to date is truly vast.
Thus it is impossible for the collector to form a complete whole-world collection; difficult enough to complete even a representative one. But you should still persevere with your whole-world collection, getting to know as many different stamps as you can, until such times as you feel that you are ready to 'branch out', which, oddly enough, means concentrating upon the stamps of a certain country, group of countries or theme.
Many Kinds of Stamps
At an early stage one should know about the different kinds of stamps in general use, some for special purposes connected with postal operations, others having no postal validity at all. Definitives are often inscribed 'Postage and Revenue' which means that they can also be used for fiscal or public revenue purposes, on bills and documents, licenses, receipts and telegrams. Such stamps sometimes find their way into mixed packets and, if you can identify them by the pen-marks or rubber stamps used to cancel them, should be 'weeded out'. Other fiscal stamps are inscribed "revenue only' and some people collect these in addition to, or instead of, postage stamps.
Charity or 'semi-postal' stamps are usually commemorations bearing an additional premium or surcharge which is accumulated by the post office and handed over to the charity – perhaps the International Red Cross or one of the campaign funds for the treatment of cancer, leprosy, tuberculosis and other diseases – to be used in medical research and the maintenance of hospitals etc. Some stamps, definitive and commemorative, are additionally inscribed 'AIR' or 'AIRMAIL' and usually bear the appropriate face value for the specific airmail fee.
Official and Government Stamps
Official stamps are used by Government departments and may be inscribed or overprinted 'Official' or, as in India and Pakistan, 'Service'.
Foreign versions are 'Officiel' or 'Oficial', 'Dienstmarke' (Germany), 'Offenthg sak' or 'Off sak' or simply 'O.S' (Norway), while Belgium's railway officials bear the ornamental letter 'B'.
At one time British stamps were overprinted 'Army Official', 'Board of Education' or 'I.R Official' (Inland Revenue).
The current officials and postage dues are not sold over the post office counter, but can generally be obtained, unused, through a country's philatelic bureau.
Index
Introduction
One Country Style
The Collector's Toolbox
Choosing an Album
'Ice Age Animals' Commemorative stamps were released in 2006
Express and Special Delivery Stamps
Some countries have issued Express and Special Delivery stamps to cover the extra fees for these services. These may be inscribed 'Urgente', 'Extra Rapido' or 'Entrega Inmediata' in Spain and some Latin American countries or 'Espresso' in Italy. Among the 'special-purpose' stamps, which are seldom seen today are those for newspapers, parcels and registration (for registered letters), also telegraph stamps used for the prepayment of telegrams. These and some other revenue types were sometimes used postally and are then known as 'postal-fiscals'.
Provisional Stamps
'Provisional' stamps include those overprinted with a new country name (such as 'Sabah' on North Borneo) or surcharged with new values to make good temporary shortages of certain denominations. Stamps inscribed or overprinted 'War' or 'War Tax' were issued by some Commonwealth countries during World War I to raise funds to finance their military commitments. "Obligatory Tax' stamps are issued to collect funds for national or charitable purposes – they have no postal validity, but their use is usually compulsory in addition to the ordinary postage stamps.
The Stamp Collector's Bible
The stamp catalogue, basically a dealer's price-list, is a most essential work of reference for the stamp collector. It provides complete, detailed lists of all the postage stamps issued by every country in the world from the earliest days, with information about dates of issue, commemorative events, face values, colours and designs, and – if it is a fairly new catalogue – the current prices of the stamps, unused and postally used.
For the beginner and general collector the most useful catalogue is the Stanley Gibbons Simplified Catalogue – Stamps of the World. It contains all the details the average collector needs for every country. If current stamp values are not of importance, many cheap catalogues are available. Alternatively, most pubic libraries have a range of Gibbons catalogues which can be referred to or borrowed.
Thematic catalogues are also published covering stamps featuring Aircraft, Birds, Butterflies and Insects, Chess, Football, Mammals, Railways and Ships.
For the GB collector who wishes to economise and yet keep in touch with the latest market values of his stamps, Stanley Gibbons publish three key works – GB Concise Catalogue, Collect British Stamps and Collect Channel Islands and Isle of Man Stamps. These show all the new issues and latest prices since previous editions.
As you progress in the hobby so the catalogue will become of more and more assistance. It shows you which stamps you need to complete a set, their face values and their designs, thus providing a guide to the arrangement of your stamps in the album. The catalogue will also help you to become acquainted with the colours and their names – the basic reds, blues and greens of Stamps of the World or the more explicit carmine-reds, greenish blues and yellow-greens of the main catalogues.
For more information see:
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