What Countries Are The Best?

Here is a sample from my Persia collection.

19th century U.S. The early engraved stamps are tiny works of art. I have read the other posts and it turns out that I am mentally unbalanced according to Russ. My favorite countries to collect outside of the U.S. are Great Britain, Ireland, German States, Australian States, France and Canada.

I too have been enamored with Persian material for years... I've never actually DONE anything with it, but plan to eventually. Since 99% of the 19th century material in the marketplace is either a reprint or an outright forgery, you can frequently pick up collections on the cheap. I've hoarded gobs of the stuff to date.

While expensive, the Persiphila catalogs are essential if you are going to collect the country seriously. I also recommend becomming a member of the Iran Philatelic Study Circle: http://www.iranphilately.org/

I understand that forgeries are in such vast quantities that one should assume a Persian stamp is a fake, if printed before about 1940. Apparently many of the original printing plates were taken by someone, and used to make what are sometimes just called re-prints rather than forgeries. Same with the many Persian stamps which have overprints on. It's best to assume they are fake unless you know for sure.

This is probably a drag for most collectors, and would put some off Persia altogether. Not me though - I'm collecting for the visual appeal of the stamps, so even if they are re-prints, that doesn't matter. In fact, the many fakes out there make the country affordable - without them, I dread to think what the market prices would be for some of the classic early sets.

I may well get one of those catalogues at some point - thanks for the tip. At the moment I'm learning my way around it all, and just getting to grips with the basic issues.

My choice would be Austria - beautifully engraved stamps through most of the country's issuing history. I also like most of the 1960 and earlier British Commonwealth and French Colonial issues.

Selected Canada, New Zealand and Newfoundland issues are up there.