Organizing your Stamp Collection - Part 1

The idea for this topic came to my mind recently and while thinking about it, I thought I might as well discuss the organizing of stamps as a basis before documenting begins. It is highly important to organize your collection so that you certainly enjoy and is easier for documenting when the time comes. Having stamps just in a stockbook at random will be extremely hard if you have more than 3 stockbooks worth of stamps. A well organized stamp collection not only makes your life much easier but looks better as well. Of course I’m going to discuss collections within stockbooks not albums as that is what I have. 

My method of organization, I feel, is much easier for the new beginners than for veterans although they can certainly still use this method. Feel free to tell me about how you organize your own collection!

For the first aspect I divide stamps by Continents. For those not in the know, there are 7 continents, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Europe and yes Antarctica as well. This makes sorting countries easier if you know the countries well enough or have a general idea of where they might be located. One of the biggest help, if your old school, is an atlas or if you prefer new technology Google “world map” and you should get a version of a map which would help you locate those mysterious countries that you are not familiar with.

Once you have sorted them into this larger structure, it is time to subdivide them into regions. This is a hard part, especially if you’re not familiar with the divisions within each continent. As an example, all of Asia is too large as a whole collection titled “ASIA” and finding a specific country will not be easy in this sort of collection. To make it easier for documentation and finding, subdivisions are necessary.  The question certainly arises on how this subdivision should take place. Below is my recommendation of how I do it and it is of course open to changes if they do not suit your needs or you find them weird.

Asia is a subdivided it into 5 divisions:

East Asia – Includes China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.                                                      

Southeast Asia – Includes Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Timor Leste and the Philippines.

The Subcontinent – Includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.

Middle East – Includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Palestine Territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

Central Asia – Includes Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.

By subdividing like I’ve shown it is easier to add into the collection when you get a kiloware lot as well as making it easier to document as you can go region by region which puts less pressure on you and makes it seem less of a monumental task. These subdivisions also help you in figuring out where historical regions go; especially ones which do not exist anymore like the Indian states or French Indochina, into their proper places.

Using this organizational structure it is easier not only for documentation but will save you space and time when you get new stamps or when you want to show off your collection. It is a handy way to do it but I have to remind everyone that this is just my version of it, yours might be totally different or the same! I’ll continue this same topic this week, focusing on another area which is confusing, Africa! I’ll see you real soon!

Documenting Stamps - Part 1

Stamp collectors know the fun or sorting through new acquisitions to see what treasures they hold for their collection. However, the downside to this is the documentation of those same stamps which might take longer than the sorting itself! 

This topic is a 3 part series on how I document my stamps.  If there is a rule on how to document stamps, I have not seen anything of the sort. This method is my method, it may or may not work for you but I would recommend it to anyone who is interested. It requires a few basics to start the documentation so let’s get to it.

The first thing, besides stamps that is, is a good reference source. This comes in many different flavors so which ever works for you is the best. I personally use Scott’s Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, the 2008 edition, as well as Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 10 Russia, Part 16 Central Asia and Part 19 Middle East. There are also two other books that I use as reference guides, Unitrade’s Stamp Collector’s Handbook and Linn’s World Stamp Almanac Millennium Edition. These form the basis for my documentation needs.

There needs to be said a few words about the Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogues however. I mainly collect Central Asia and the Middle East, while also collecting worldwide stamps, so these catalogues are vital to documentation if you collect this area. Part 19, Middle East, is superior to Scott’s for a couple of reasons. Firstly it lists many of the stamps from countries not listed by Scott or not accurately documented enough. This includes stamps from Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaima, Sharjah and its dependences, Aden and its two dependences, The Kathiri State of Seiyun and the Qu’aiti State in Hadhramaut, Ajman and Manama, Fujeira, South Arabia, the Trucial States, Umm Al Qiwain and finally Yemen of all flavors.

This not only allowed me to accurately find which weren’t actually stamps (also called Cinderella’s) and which were and furthered allowed me to fine tune my collection. If you collect the Middle East, I highly recommend that you buy this catalogue as a supplement or as a standalone to your documentation. I’ll list the ISBN numbers at the end of this post so that you can go to Amazon or your favorite bookseller and find it.

However, as much as I appreciate these catalogues, I high don’t recommend that you buy Part 16 Central Asia unless you collect the Middle East. It has a huge error which has duped me into buying it. The title “Central Asia” is incorrect. Instead of documenting what is accepted as Central Asia, it documents Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan which are not part of Central Asia at all. This shocked me as I was expecting to get all 5 Central Asian states (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) but instead got the three countries. The only silver lining is that if you collect Afghanistan then it lists many of the stamps which are not found in Scott’s once again. It’s a high useful tool, but if you’re looking for Central Asia exclusively do not get it.  The binding on the book is weak as well, and within a few buys of me buying it, the section starting with the table of contents till page 4 have separated from the binding and I don’t open it very far in the fear that more pages will become unstuck. Use with caution would be my advice.

If you are looking for Central Asia then you’ll have to get Part 10 Russia. Not only does it list Russia but it also lists former territories of the USSR as well. This is where you’ll find Central Asia. It also, like before, lists the stamps that Scott doesn’t list as well. It also lists Mongolia which is a bonus as well. If you collect this area, I highly recommend this book. Unlike Part 16, the binding seems to be better so there is no fear of it falling apart.

Finally we get to the Scott Catalogues. My edition is 2008 which is fairly old by now. I don’t expect to see a great change with the numbers of the newest editions and the only thing I would say might change is the values. They might rise and fall but as I’ve not done a comparison as of yet I don’t know what changes I can expect. Scott Catalogues are expensive so I was lucky that I acquired the complete collection of EBay in CD form. These I would say are a must have to document accurately. The listing are fairly well done and I do not have a hard time searching for many stamps however, a few odd ones still stump me.  

Lastly you do not have to buy the catalogues yourself, you might only need one volume if you collect a single country or do not have enough to buy the whole set in one go. There is another source where you can acquire it for free, that is your local library! They might have either the older ones or the newest ones in their system so you might get it for a couple of weeks to try it out. That’s what I did for some time. They also might sell the older sets so ask around your library when the newer editions are released.

The last two books the Unitrade’s Stamp Collector’s Handbook and the Linn’s World Stamp Almanac are reference guide that I use. They might or might not be helpful to you. Not only does it generally have  a list of identifiers which are vital is you get  a stamp entitled “SPIDAM FRAMCAOS”  and want to know what in the world it is (it’s actually French Sudan). I would not classify this as vital, since there are many forums for stamps where helpful people will identify stamps for you, but if you get tired of scanning and posting pictures, it is an easier way to go. A last note about the Linn’s World Stamp Almanac, my edition is the Millennium Edition meaning 2000, there might be a new version or there might be not. I haven’t checked. I feel that while I don’t really need the newest edition for the stamp identifiers or much of the information, such as postal history, if you feel there is some vital information that is out of date, then by all means buy a new edition. I only recommend this because of its vital identifiers which should not, in my opinion, be updated or different from newer editions, but I may be incorrect so look and see for yourself!

That’s all for this edition of Documenting your stamps. Next week the discussion will be about how to actually document stamps and what method should you use. See you next week!

Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogues

Part 10: Russia ISBN #: 978085259624

Part 16: Central Asia (Turkey, Iran, And Afghanistan) ISBN#: 9780852596234

Part 19: Middle East ISBN#: 9780852587194

Unitrade Stamp Collector’s Handbook ISBN#: 9781895909609

Linn’s World Stamp Almanac ISB N#: 09404043854