If A Country Ceases To Exist, Do You Collect The Successor?

I agree. But I sympathize with Scott. I have the same problems with organizing my stock-books alphabetically. Political changes are not logical, borders and new names are not always consistent. I try to be consistent in my own system but I don't always succeed when trying to place unfamiliar countries. But I organize by continent so at least I'll be in the correct book. And I use Varios so I can move the whole page to be near its relatives.

I'd be bummed out if I collected Gilbert Islands/Kiribati and had to use both G-I and J-O Scott catalogs. Especially if I didn't already have the full set.

But NO EXCUSES for confounding Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic!

When it comes to Russia. The Russian Empire existed prior to the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian Federation became the successor state and assumed all debts of the former Soviet Union. I think it should be listed under Russia. Same general geographic area with a change in government should probably be listed together.

Doesn't Scott list the Austro-Hungarian empire stamps under Austria?

My thoughts are a bit different.

Like the Austrian empire the USSR fragmented into different independent states and even change the name. I like to keep them separate and do my albums that way.

Even though Austria kept the Austria name after the fall of the empire, I separate the two in my collection.

Just my way.

The Artful Hinger wrote: "....their demise makes for a nice, clean break....." That works for me. The past 20 or so years, my main collecting interest has been the Portuguese colonials. The cut-off point for all colonies, except for Macao, was 1974-75, after the Revolution of the Flowers in Lisbon that overthrew the long-standing dictatorship.

I also stopped collecting Macao at that time, except I have a cover mailed to me from Macao on Dec. 19, 1999, the last day of 442 years of Portuguese rule.

The way I organize my stamps is by existing countries only so if a place ceases to exist, it will become part of the new existing country. Confederate States are in my USA collection. Newfoundland is in my Canada collection. Soviet stamps are in my Russia collection. Gold Coast is in my Ghana collection. Dahomey is in my Benin collection. And so on and so on.

I prefer to organize my stamps by sets, while keeping the idea of the issuing entity fluid. The independent Czech and Slovak Republics issued their Prague and Slovak People's Gallery Art Series following the design of the earlier Czechoslovakia Art issues, so I place Czech and Slovak side-by-side, and they follow seamlessly from 1992 Czechoslovakia to 1993 cz and sk, as if the Velvet Divorce never happened. The collectors of Czechoslovakia that I know, either stop at 1993, collect both cz and sk, or prefer to collect only cz after 1993, while those that choose to collect only sk after 1993 seem to be only the Slovaks themselves.

I collect both China and Taiwan, and my Taiwan/Republic of China collection runs into the difficulty of parallel regional issues for the province of Taiwan after 1945, and the Republic of China national issues 1945-49. Again, I avoid the problem by organizing stamps in sets based on their designs or themes.

I Collect y heritage as well as US, so I have a Czechoslovakian collection and a Finnish collection also. The Finnish one is not really per this subject thought it had occupation stamps, etc... My Czech collection currently only had Scott pages thru 1993, and I am in the process of trying to find a full set of Czech rep and Slovak rep. pages in Scott specialized. In actuality, my father's side came from the town of Lendak Slovakia, so that is why I am collecting both. Also as a curiosity, what are the Czech/Slovak stamps under the carpatho-(something or other) designator, and how easily are these obtained? The album is not in front of me right now. Hopefully they are nt as hard as the Finnish Annus set...which I also have not gotten yet.