Collecting Europe

The 10-year-old grandson of a local friend got his hands on a complete set of 2002 Scott and has decided he wants to collect Europe. He lives with his grandfather who originally came to Canada from Holland. The kid has never collected anything in his young life and asked me for a list of countries he should start looking for among the bags of junk I promised to give him. The three of us drew up a list of the major countries: England, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. However, I know it is only a matter of time before he asks me for a more official list. So I ask: Does anyone here have an official Europe-Collecting-List? Another thing: If you list Germany, do you also list German East Africa, etc.? Thanks in advance.

Give the kid a map!

Seriously, Europe can be complex. Should you include England? It's not really in the eastern, western, or central part of the continent, but out on its own. The breakup of the Soviet Union suddenly reestablished a lot of older nations. And no, I wouldn't include German East Africa, since it was in Africa -- no more than I would think that the UK, if included, should encompass the Commonwealth.

For a beginer I would only list the main countries, Not colonies. Just by including G.B., France, Spain, and Portugal you would be adding half the globe if not more.

'He lives with his grandfather who originally came to Canada from Holland'.
How about including the Netherlands, so he can learn about the history of his Grandfather's (and mine!) country! And yes, England (UK) is a part of the European Continent so I would include it. I wish him good luck in his collecting, I find stamp collecting fascinating and I learn a lot of history geography!

Tony,
feel free to use this: http://www.stampcollectingblog.com/...p-collection
Scroll about the halfway of this very long page, and you'll find a long list of European postal entities of past and present.

The list is based on Michel, and it should give a proper summary what many European collectors consider as "Europe". It's important to understand that the catalog used influences a lot to this view - for example French or Portuguese collectors have a slightly different understanding of what colonies should be included/excluded (instead of German colonies favored by Michel).

And then there's the interesting question of Russia & ex-Soviet Union states... Should they be included as part of Europe (like Michel does), or what (as some states are geographically much more closer to Asia than Europe)...A lot of questions without simple yes/no-answers

I think it a great way to learn about history and geography. It's great that your helping him out. Email me your address and when I get more time for stamping I'll send you some of my spares you can pass on to him.

Dianne

OK, I'm sorry, I have to put my pedantic and Scottish hat on, just to point out that England is one country within the United Kingdom, and should not really be used interchangeably to refer to the whole of GB. I know you know that really...

OK, pedantic tartan hat off again.

Maybe one way to do it would be to explore the map,and some countries' stamps, with him and let him make his own list of favourites? The initial interest could come from anything, liking Italian food, the Netherlands family connection, etc. Let us know what the outcome is, I would be love to send some stamps for him.

On the subject of the UK being part of Europe, can't vouch for its veracity, but there's the famous story 'On the 22nd October 1957, The Times had a headline on the front page, saying "Heavy fog in Channel - Continent cut off!".'

Here is another list for Europe:

http://www.volny.cz/geophila/menu2_1_1_e.htm

It's from the Geophila Organization which promotes collecting "One From Every Country."

https://www.stampcommunity.org/post...&FORUM_ID=37

I agree with modern_who. These two links are really good and serious. The list above (from the michel catalog) is "weird". Michel has a different view of dividing Europe and all those Russian local issues are mostly unable to get. And Great Britain (consisting of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) is a part of Europe as well as Iceland and other Islands.

Ah, I love British humour!

Don't forget Iceland! (Nice stamps!)

I think the problem will be the same with every list (or stamp catalog for that matter) - they will always be "weird" in someones opinion. For example I confess that I occasionally have very hard time with Scott classification system, as it is so "weird" for anyone accustomed to European catalogs (Michel,SG,Yvert).

Instead of being exact science, stamp collecting is (and IMHO will be) subjective. No matter how hard we try classify it as "science"... Or if anyone is willing to argue, here's are two very simple (but tricky) questions:

1) Is Turkey part of Asia or Europe?
2) How many different postage stamps (on major number level) has US issued between 1847 and 2009.

Depending on what catalog / source You look at, You are abound to get some very different answers to these questions... In the end I think the best possible choice is to stick with something, and follow it (until something better comes along, LOL).

I agree with Dianne Earl. Stamp collecting is a great way for youngsters and even oldersters to learn history and geography, two subjects which are given short shrift in schools today-=-particularly in the US. Take a kid who likes animals and somehow comes across the earlier North Borneo stamps. Can't look at them too long before wondering where North Borneo is and then when you look at a map or globe and see that it is halfway or more around the world it has a good chance of lighting a spark. Regarding history, besides the historical events depicted on stamps of other nations, just looking at the geographical rearrangements of territories with countries going defunct, temporary governments, protectorships, new countries being formed as a result of World War I and II and colonial revolutions and independence movements is a history lesson by itself.

Focussing on Netherlands makes since given the family history. ebay item 370427786465 provides a good looking collection on Davo pages that would provide a great start for a junior collector. The stating price is £10, I'm not sure where it will end but Chrostmas is coming.

The Netherlands is a good start and they have some interesting stamps, plus Davo has some very good looking stamp pages you can get for the kid (see link below). However, I warn you that it is very difficult to buy from their national post office (TNT). They have no online shop and you have to submit orders via email. They send you an invoice, you pay, and they send you the products. It takes about 3 months to get it done and it gave me a big headache. I know a couple of people in the Netherlands and have been buying some stuff through them to save me the stress!
Oh yeah, and there's very little information on the stamps, in English.

Davo album - http://13849.mijnwinkel.nl/producti...3E740B84CBE&

Apart from Netherlands, I would suggest at least one Scandinavian country. Sweden and Iceland make beautiful stamps. Norway isn't too far behind. Finland does a lot of self-adhesive stamps. Denmark I think is nice as well but I don't have any.

And then take your pick from France, Spain, Germany, UK and Portugal. They all make some nice stamps, although I only have some stamps from France, UK and my resident country Portugal.