I did a count awhile back of the number of stamps issued between 1840-1940 according to Scott, but I note that two other collectors are investigating this earth shattering question. Keijo has just updated the worldwide count on his blog. He uses the Michel catalog but inexplicably continues past 1940 to the present day (do people collect stamps issued after 1940?). Click here to read his fascinating post which also includes a breakdown by stamp type and other criteria. Also, on the Stamp Community Forum there has been a nice thread about Scott International Albums. One of the posters, Philatelic Pfool, is doing two separate counts: stamps issued through 1940 and those from 1941-1952. He's up to the letter I. If you want to see what is required to house all these stamps, Floortrader, another contributor to that thread, has posted a photo of his stamp albums (Steiner pages in Scott Blue Binders). Wow!
UPDATE 10/31/2011: Philatelic Pfool just finished his count using the 2006 Scott Catalog. The results: 1840-1940 total of 83,589 stamps and 1941-1952, 31,499 stamps. You can find a more detailed breakdown and interesting discussion here.
The famous stamp collector Josiah Lilly said that there were 100,000 postage stamps he wanted for his collection and he succeeded in acquiring 77,000. My considerably easier target is 35,000 of the more common stamps from 1840-1940 contained in the Scott Blue International Album Volume 1. This blog will record my progress, provide general information about Classic era philately and hopefully encourage other "Blue" collectors.
3 comments:
Thanks for lifting my post up :)
... but inexplicably continues past 1940 to the present day (do people collect stamps issued after 1940?).
Oh yes... For some countries, such as Japan the modern stamps are fascinating masterworks displaying the best pieces of local art/culture/nature etc.
I have a special fondness for Japanese stamps. My father was a teacher and many of his PhD and post-doc students were from Japan and would bring me stamps, often mint and in multiples, direct from the Post Office. Good memories.
I too enjoy collecting Japanese stamps, and not only because I moved to that country to live.
Post a Comment