Souvniner Sheets

I'm having a hard time liking the souvniner sheets. I think they are beautiful and many of the countries have come up with some excellent stamps, but it's the space that they would take up in an album for me. I have five albums right now and with the way things are coming along for me, I'm thinking that I will have to start at least another one, but not for the sheets.

I haven't really looked at the values of a sheet, but (feeling stupid asking this), but can just the stamp be purchased? Does buying the stamp without the sheet make it less of a value than the set with the sheet. I know what the answer to this is, but I just wanted to get the general consensus on the sheets.

Donna

Donna
Last year I bought a Poland Schaubek album exclusively for sheets except a section at the end for BOB stamps. And I saw souvenir sheets collection in Vario sheets. Or some don't just collect the stamps and you can find them without the sheets. It's not because the stamps are separated from the sheet that they lose value. Either the set of stamps or the souvenir sheet have a value on it's own. In my Europa collection for example I don't collect some Monaco big sheets from the 70' and '80 because they contain the same stamps than the sets. A SS is appealing to me when there is a different stamp or no stamps and a different picture.

I know it's probably not the answer you are looking for, but it really is up to you, Donna.

I very much like classic souvenir sheets. For many countries stamps and especially souvenir sheets are released to the public by means of sale directly to agents who then resell to other dealers and collectors. Sheets and stamps sold this way have less appeal to me.

The other question you raise is how they will fit into your album. Right now I am making my own albums so I can choose to include or not to include the pages created for souvenir sheets.

I guess when it comes right down to it, I do not have a set policy for souvenir sheets in my albums. I take them as they come.

For me I like some sheets because the entire picture is appealing, the stamp being just part of that. I don't have that many, some Russian, Chinese (those can be quite elaborate), and a few others. Mostly picked up with lots I purchased. In some cases I have both the sheet and the stamps separately. And again, since I don't have that many, they don't take up that much room.

Because I print my own albums, the souvenir sheets are included. I Do like them though some countries I find do repeat lots of stamps

Dianne

I collect mainly Used Canadian souvineer sheets sent to me by other collectors..it would be easy to purchase the mint ones from Canada Post but I prefer the ones that have been through the mail !

As others have said, collect what you want. There are no rules.

IMHO, the SSheets are just revenue generators. That said, I still collect them along with every other kind of issue. It could be said that commemoratives are produced ad sold just for revenue generation as well.

Some/Many are quite beautiful and collectible on their own. In fact, I could envision a collection made up of nothing but SSheets!

Here's my suggestion. First determine if there is any difference between the stamps in the souvenir sheet, and stamps in a normal pane (often there is a perforation difference; sometimes the size of stamp is different). If there is, buy a sheet - keep one stamp in your album, keep a spare for trading and use the balance for postage. I'd suggest the same process for booklets. IMHO singles from press sheets, souvenir sheets and booklets are a highly underpriced area of philately.

Israel post, in most cases, do not issue sheet stamps AND Souvenir sheets. So singles from souvenir sheets have the same value as the whole sheet. If there are more than one stamp in the Souvenir sheet, then the singles are worth more, so it is worth breaking up.

But it's not the same in other countries, so an interesting topic.

Londonbus1

Some countries overflow the market with souvenir sheets.

This year, for Portugal, there were 31 issues (sets). And there were 23 souvenir sheets.
It's a nightmare on the wallet but the biggest problem is, in my opinion, they offer something different from individual stamps. A full canvas and the possibility to make something just as gorgeous or more then just a single stamp.

But when they overdo it, it's overkill, and it loses its glitter. Portugal overdoes it but the sheets are still quite beautiful. I, unfortunately, am 'forced' to buy them!

A few of Czeslaw Slania's best engravings are in souvenir sheets or mini-sheets.

They are murderers of album space though.

Its interesting that some of the modern country albums have spaces for the stamps but not all the souvineer sheets ...i guess it would just take up too much space....Can you imagine Hungary etc with pages for all the souvineer sheets perf and imperf ?

Ooops - Donna, you should correct the title, it says "Souvniner" instead of "Souvenir" . Might be tough for the search engines to find