Minkus Supreme Global Album Back In Print

In the 1950s-1970s, Minkus sold two well regarded worldwide albums for more advanced collectors. One was the Master Global that was somewhat less comprehensive than the Blue Scott Internationals; the other was the Supreme Global which had more spaces than the International. While the base volume of the Master Global was available sporadically until a few years ago, I can't remember the last time the Supreme Global was being sold new.

According to Amos Publishing which bought the rights to Minkus products in 2004, pages for the Minkus "Global" album from 1840-1952 are again available "on demand." In response to an email, Amos' Customer Service writes that the 1840-1952 parts are for the Supreme Global, not the Master Global. And the pages will be printed on 80-lb stock (as opposed to 60-lb for the Scott International and who knows what lesser weight for the originals).

In spite of this email, I do worry a little because everything I've seen suggests that the Supreme Global wasn't published until 1954. The Master Global on the other hand does date from 1952. But there certainly is confusion about the exact history of these albums, so I could easily be wrong.

If these are indeed the Supreme Global pages, this is great news for worldwide collectors. The Supreme Global represents what IMO is a good compromise between the coverage in the Blue Internationals and the Brown Internationals. You have most of the stamps that a collector can readily acquire without those unfillable spaces for the great rarities. You also have the convenience of the pages fitting in 2-3 binders versus 8-10 for the Vintage Reproductions of the Browns (plus additional binders if you go past 1940).

You can see the advertisement for these newly available Minkus pages in the latest Linn's.

Hi 1840to1940,

I haven't seen any details about the albums. Are the illustrations, if any, and spaces in Scott order or the old Minkus order? I also assume that any catalog numbers are now Scott.

I worked part time for a dealer and sorting through Minkus album collections was a little time consuming because the order, and numbers, was totally different than Scott.

Jerry B

Jerry, I haven't seen the reprints either, but I doubt that Amos Publishing has done any updating. That is, the cuts, descriptions, and numbering are most likely reproduced "as is" from the original edition. The earliest versions of the Master and Supreme Globals did not have even Minkus numbers (except perhaps for the US section) so I bet that is the case with the Amos reprints.

BOB

According to an old newspaper ad printed in 1975, The Minkus Supreme Global Albums were for advanced collectors, the album that accommodates over 2/3 of all the stamps ever issued, with 96,000 illustrations complete through 1966 has 3,600 (double sided) total 1,800 pages in 3 volumes of 120,000 stamps. The information posted on Amos website states that the reprints to 1966 have 4,602 (double sided pages) or total 2,301 pages. The smaller Master Global Album had 1,680 pages, single volume for 65,000 stamps to 1966.

I keep on hoping that someday we'll find someone who has actually purchased the Amos reprints and we can get some better information. I know that there are active collectors who use Minkus but to my knowledge they all have older editions.

I finally got around to doing a survey of the Minkus Globals versus Scott "Blue" Internationals. The Minkus Master Globals have less coverage than the Internationals and so aren't a viable alternative. The Supreme Globals contain more stamps than the "Blue," but the coverage for some countries is surprisingly uneven. Still, if I were starting from scratch I would definitely consider the Supreme Global.

If anyone cares, my survey is here: http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/20...upremes.html

Thanks for sharing your blog on the Supreme Global Stamp Albums. I have ordered a copy of the Amos reprints for the MINKUS: WORLDWIDE SUPREME GLOBAL PART 1A- US-ITALIAN SOMALILAND 1840-1952 (517 2-SIDED SHEETS) MGLV1A I should have the album pages in about 2 weeks and will report my findings with scanned pictures of the album when it arrives. Are there any countries that you are most interested in looking at? To start, I only ordered Part 1A which includes countries A to Italian Somaliland, plus USA. Thanks, Peter

Friarstuck

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...h?q=shootout

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...?q=cagefight

You could check the Minkus stamp space offerings for Egypt and Greece.

That would add to the reviews of Big Blue, the Browns, Steiner, and Scott Specialty albums for these countries I published on my blog awhile back....

I look forward to the results.

Friarstuck, that is great news. Can't wait to hear what you think. I do have a few questions but I'll wait until you report back.

Having been very happy in using a Supreme Global for the past few years, I'm extremely curious for firsthand information on the reprint. The big question for me, which I was unable to get Amos to ever answer, is which edition of the Supreme Global they used in making the reprint. There were three: the original, put out in Fall 1954; the second, made in 1959; and the third, in 1966. In between those years, and from 1966 onwards, they simply updated with their annual supplements. Thus I have a edition sold in 1961, which was the1959 edition with the 1960 and 1961 annual supplements. (These dates are based on first announcements of the albums in advertisements in the New York Times.)
The editions matter, even for the stamps up to 1952, because the editors condensed and expanded coverage in various ways, and made other (usually minor) corrections. The biggest changes that would affect the early coverage up to 1952 are between the 1954 and 1959 printings. The most obvious is that the latter added Minkus catalog numbers, which are not present when the Supreme was first released. That may seem a small point, but in fact putting them in tightened up and clarified the coverage, as well as helping with corrections second big change was improvement in some of the coverage of British Colonies...eg watermarks on issues from George V issues. On the down side, coverage of some later material in a few cases was slightly condensed.
So it would be interesting to know if the stamp boxes have numbers.
I'd also be interested in the quality of the paper, as that is supposed to be much better than in the original printings.
Just a couple of hints...you should definitely think about interleaving, either glassine (which I use) or acid-free acetate. You'l probably need an extra binder if you do this, but it's well worth it in my view. I find the binders very fat, but the only obvious alternative are the less wide alternative ones sold by Subway, which are too difficult for me to get, living in the UK.
If you enjoy the album half as much as I have you'll have a great time.
James

MOOSEWOOD [James]----Thanks for that additional information and welcome to this site .Looking forward to 1840's review of the new Supreme Global albums . Wondering why they just don't sell the software and let the buyer create their own binders and type of album pages.

Very interesting, thx all. I have 5 volumes of the Global Supreme and the supplements ended 1975 so I've made that my personal cut off for collecting world. However there are a few countries like Australia and Germany where I would like to collect modern. In addition I am completely missing New Zealand so I am looking for a set of pages for those too.

Although I'm glad Amos has reprinted the Supremes, I can't help but agree that their policies since acquiring the rights to Minkus haven't been imaginative at all; it looks more an attempt to consolidate the monopoly of Scott numbering and albums in the US rather than to create a real alterative, esp. for those who can't afford current high album prices. An arrangement where people could print out their own pages would be brilliant, even if it was (inevitably) somewhat more expensive than Steiner.

To JR1960: Alas, I don't really have enough appropriate pages for Germany, etc. to help you out with this. One option I've found works really well is to find (through Subway or Ebay) the more specialized Minkus album pages for specific countries, and put them in my Supreme Global. I did this with Canada and now have spaces for all the officials, etc which aren't in the original Supreme. The pages are single rather than double-sided, but you can either make photocopied double-sided to match, or just put them in as single-sided. Also (though I only collect up to 1962) I think Amos is still releasing Minkus supplements?
James

I've been thinking about specific countries that would help to diagnose what Amos has reprinted. A good example of a British colony would be Bechuanaland Protectorate; for some discussion see the comments in

http://globalstamps.blogspot.co.uk/...n-print.html

and for the album more generally, Mongolia: in both the 1954 and 1959 editions, this starts on the back of Tanna Tuva: and my impression is that in 1966 it started on a page of its own, with Tanna Tuva being given two sides to itself. It would be nice to know.
James

To JR1960:
I've found the four double-sided pages of Minkus Supreme Global for New Zealand, up to 1954. If you might be interested, send me an email--I'd be happy to send them for the cost of postage.

I received the Amos reprints of the Minkus Global Supreme PART 1A- US-ITALIAN SOMALILAND 1840-1952

Enclosed is a scanned copy of some of the pages

Bahamas Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing
Bahamas2 Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing

Cuba Pages with stamps https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing

Egypt Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing
Egypt2 Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing

Greece Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing
Greece2 Pages https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2...?usp=sharing

Please let me know if you are interested in seeing a certain page.

Regards,

Peter

Peter

Thanks so much for the scans!

I will try and compare Greece and Egypt to the other albums, and post it here.

It will be a few days.

Jim
jkjblue