Specializing in Philately – An Introduction

If philately can command one’s attention into the second year, probability is high for the collector to be on course into specializing in some way. The rationale being it is overwhelming to collect everything. Countries have steeply increased stamp issue rate - from tens of different stamps per annum in the early part of the 20th century, to be in the hundreds now - a rate that makes it trying for philatelists to keep up for various reasons. Philatelists on their part started specializing. The types of specializations a philatelist can branch-out into are:

Thematic: These are collections based on some theme. Catalogs and albums geared towards thematic collectors abound. Thematic can be classified broadly into :

1. Topicals: They are categories based solely on the design in stamps. The most common topical categories are Agriculture, Aviation, Birds, Carriages, Castles, Children, Coat of Arms, Dance, Defense, Fairs, Flags, Great People, Insects, Kings, Maps, Marine Life, Nobel Prize, Olympics and other International Games, Philately, Queens, Railways, Red Cross, Religion (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Ramzan, etc), Ships, Sports, and Stamps on Stamps.
2. Other themes: Varied areas as First Day Covers of specific countries and/or sub-themes such as Airmail FDCs, UNICEF, UN, Plate Blocks, Sheets, Europa, Classic (stamps issued prior to 1940 only), Covers of specific countries and/or sub-themes, Overprint, Interesting cancellations, UPU (Universal Postal Union) collections, etc belong to this category.

Country: Specializing by country is high in the popularity list. Usually, gathering stamps from one’s native country or countries to which an individual has some connection (adopted country, a country in the same region as you reside, country where you work or have worked before, country whose causes you support etc.) are obvious choices. Another alternative is to accumulate stamps from countries that are a challenge to come by due to political or other grounds. Those include collecting stamps from areas that ceased issuing stamps. Some of the more popular areas for serious collectors include:

1. German States (Baden, Bavaria, Bergedorf, Bremen, Brunswick, Hamburg, Hanover, Lubeck, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Prussia, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Thurn and Taxis, Wurttemberg, and North German Confederation),
2. Canadian Provinces (British Colombia and Vancouver Islands, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), etc.
3. Australian States (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia),
4. Indian sub-continent (Chamba, Faridkot, Gwalior, Jind, Nabha, Patiala, Alwar, Bamra, Barwani, Bhopal, Bhor, Bijawar, Bundi, Bussahir, Charkhari, Cochin, Dhar, Duttia, Faridkot, Hyderabad, Idar, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Jasdan, Jhalawar, Jind, Kishangargh, Las Bela, Morvi, Nandagaon, Nowanuggur, Orchha, Poonch, Rajasthan, Rajpeepla, Sirmoor, Soruth, Travancore, Wadhwan, and Bahawalpur).
5. South African sub-continent areas of Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal, Natal, etc.

Other options include collecting occupation issues, offices abroad, etc.


Last Updated: 09/2015.