A Stamp For Every Country Album

I have been entering all the spaces in the "A Stamp For Every Country" album and the process has been quite educational on the countries and different administration. My collecting focus been narrow so all the colonies of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, France. etc. are mostly new to me.

The structure mostly follows the current country name then many of the issues for that geographical entity with stamps for former colonies (sometimes with different names).

Now, in catalogs, most offices aboard are listed in catalogs in the home country section whereas other issues like Japanese occupation are listed in the country occupied. This is a little inconsistent in the AFSEC album. Of course, it can be somewhat complicated for areas that changed (joining or splitting).

For example, Rhodesia and Nyasaland is under Malawi. Northern Rhodesia is under Zambia, and Southern Rhodesia is under Zimbabwe.

The offices, occupation, mandate entities, possessions. etc. can be in several places.

In preparing a checklist, I have been referencing the First Issues Collectors Club that maintains a list of postal entities. The AFSEC Comprehensive has defined spaces for about 781 defined issues. The FICC lists around 800 postal entities but so far I have many on FICC list not in the AFSEC so have not figured out why the totals are close.

In my database I have 3122 stamp issuing entities; but these include succession entities (where an stamp issuing entity evolves over time but get renamed/change of government, etc.).
This is a hard topic due to the ephemeral definitions of 'country' and/or stamp issuing entity.
Don

As the Editor of the ASFEC Stamp Album, I knew before I started that

"no two people will ever agree what should be included, or should not be included."

The critical issue is whether the Album is editable, or not. The ASFEC Stamp Album
and source files as downloaded at the StampSmarter and AlbumEasy web sites are editable in
AlbumEasy. Therefore, each collector can adjust to taste. To me, after struggling
with this monster for quite a long time - this was most important. I wanted to design the
album so that I could easily adjust the end product and keep it updated. The "end" result
(2021 Edition) is what I wanted for my personal ASFEC collection at the time it was published.
I had a feeling that others would also find it useful, so that they can construct their
own version.

There is simply no other version of an ASFEC-type album that allows for that.

Everyone has their own reasons why something should be included, or not. In this context, you
cannot please anyone, let alone reach a consensus.

Being able to edit the thing is the key, IMHO.

John

Can you share your database? Does it include the history of that entity and what country it is currently in?

It is an incomplete project that I started and then got frustrated with; I never flushed out the user interface or added the maps I was planning to...
But you can see the database fields here https://stampsmarter.org/stampIssui...ountry2.aspx Select 'Aden' and then select one of the 'sub-entities' to see the database fields
Don

John

I truly appreciate the work you have done and it got me interested as I like the chronological historical aspects. Although I have a copy of the printed version, I also have the AlbumEasy source files and plan to create my own version.

Don

Thanks for the link.

Thanks Don, it's a very valuable resource for me even in its current state.

I was looking at a concept page created in AlbumEasy but looking at a format to allow more than one issue for particular time frame.

I like it!
John

I finished comparing the First Issue Collector's Club list of entities and the ASFEC country listing with all AFSEC spaces in a spreadsheet plus some not in the ASTEC album. I am left sorting out the myriad occupation and foreign office issues.

It has been a very educational.