Scott International Vs. Minkus Supreme Global

I have collected for the fun of it for 61 years and started out with Minkus Supreme Globals years ago. I have always wanted to use Scott's but never was able to afford them. Now I have started purchasing Scott's with partial collections and have volumes 1 through 6. However, after looking over what I do have I am wondering if there is much point in switching. I'd assumed that Scott albums had more varieties and numbers for the ones in them. Minkus had their numbers, but at least they had them. Has anyone had experience with both and what is your opinion? I am thinking of adding volumes 7 and 8 before I get into SERIOUS WALLPAPER but that might be a waste of time and the years I have left. Thanks for any input.

Good questions swrdo.

Funny, I just came across a collector at one of the stamp forums that was planning to migrate his Scott International collection to the Minkus Global Supremes.

I would be inclined to just keep the stamps in the Minkus Global Supreme albums. Contrary to what one would think, the Supremes offer more spaces for the 1840-1940 era that the Scott International Part I (1840-1940)...."Big Blue".

Both albums are still supported and can be purchased "new" on good paper through Amos Advantage.

The Minkus numbers are "deader than a doornail" in my opinion. But Minkus offers enough clues in the album spaces, that placing the right stamp is usually not a problem.

The stamp spaces are tight in the Minkus, as they jam a lot of stamps on each page. The Scott Internationals have a more leisurely space format.

The Scott Internationals present the advantage that they are designed to work reasonably well with the Scott catalogue. There are no catalogue numbers in the album (Except for U.S.), but there is a checklist available at my bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com for Part I

But you still may find there is not much point in switching now.

Hi,
My international collection is housed in a huge volume 1 for 1840-1939, and the rest of my collected years (1940-1960) are housed in Scott's regular blue binders alphabetically by country. Having bought/sold a fair number of albums over the last few years (including Minkus), I feel strongly that the Scotts International is the best way to go (see JKblue post above). I'm not knocking Minkus, just saying the Scotts is easily my favorite.

By the way, I stopped the worldwide collection at the year 1960. The number of stamps - with a very high percentage issued for collectors - seemed to go ballistic starting about that time. Not to offend anyone, but I prefer to collect postage stamps, and not pretty "stickers".

Ha, I did buy a really nice volume 5 (1960-1965)with the thought of going on thru 1965. But, instead I populated it with all my "post 1959" stamps, and it is up for ebay auction starting this Saturday evening. Its loaded with good stuff, like new pages, but its just too much for me to keep.

I did a study of this very question on my blog, looking at selected countries and some general comparisons e.g., number of stamps per page: http://globalstamps.blogspot.com/20...upremes.html

There is no question that the Supreme Globals have better coverage for many countries than the Blue Internationals. I think if that was consistent this would be more of a no brainer. But I was disappointed to discover that the Minkus editors weren't always as diligent as they could have been.

Here are some country coverage comparisons from my blog post:

Albania 29% of the stamps from 1840-1940 are in the Blue vs 60% in the Supreme;
Afghanistan 10% vs 62%;
Greece 46% vs 66%;
Denmark 52% vs 67%;
India 58% vs 78%;
Bulgaria 64% vs 82%;
Czechoslovakia 50% vs 87%;
Finland 57% vs 88%;
France 66% vs 90%;
Germany (Empire) 77% vs 90%;
Argentina 40% vs 100%;
Greenland 39% vs 100%
Bavaria 80% vs 100%.

So you've got France and Germany at 90% and Argentina at 100%. But what is up with Denmark and Greece at two thirds?

1840to1940 -- Until I read your last post and clicked the link, I didn't realize you were Mr. "Filling Spaces." Love the blog! Your post there led me to Jonah's thread about the SG Imperial albums and his quest to fill those spaces. I can get lost for hours in this stuff. Anyway, more on topic, as I said in another thread, I collect to the album, and mine is the International. Although the Minkus appears be more comprehensive in its coverage, the cramped layout would be a definite negative for me. My ideal album would be the a Big Blue with one-sided pages on better paper.

Rustyc brings up a good point - which I can relate to........

The Scott's International pages are laid out nicely and not cramped. Of course there are many instances where they leave too much blank space.

The Minkus pages tend to be heavily populated with little space between spaces.

The end result - to me of course - it the Scott's gives a much nicer presentation. I would certainly like to have more coverage, but find that augmenting the albums with quadrille pages pretty much solves this problem.

I guess it all comes down to which one prefers.......... which is a good thing.

I've gone the Scott Intl route now for 30 years. Did own a couple of Minkus albums back in the '70s (British America and British Europe). But my Minkus albums are long gone. I have intermingled a number of other album pages into my blue Intls.; some Scott specialized pages; Schaubeck; and even a few, as souvenirs, from my Harris Senior Statesman, 1963 edition. But have never merged in any Minkus pages from collections I've purchased over the years.

I purchased the new version of the Minkus Supreme album from Amos about 2-3 years ago. The pages are printed on heavy stock paper and are punched for 2 post and 3 ring binders. In addition to the expanded country coverage mentioned above, the Minkus album takes stamps to 1952. The expanded time coverage was the main reason why I switched to Minkus from Scott. I enjoy seeing how stamps document the important events of the 20th century: WW II, the Cold War, the end of colonialism, etc. Another feature of the Minkus I like is that it does not relegate semi-postals, airs,and postage dues to separate sections. Instead, they are integrated with regular issues by year. I still have my Scott mounted 1840-1940 collection but when I acquire anything new, it goes into the Minkus. Eventually I will start transferring the stamps in my Scott album to the Minkus. To do this, I need about 17 packs of old fashioned peelable hinges - any donations to this worthy project will be greatly appreciated!

For World Wide I prefer the Minkus,I like the fact that air mails and semipostals and other stamps that Scott has banished to the "BOB" are included with "regular" issues.

I admit that I am a slave to Scott with my US National albums,and for 30 years never considered anything but Scott and never ever considered any thing but US. However after picking up a couple of Minkus Global albums that came along with the purchase of some US holdings, I admired the fully loaded pages of the Minkus WW albums that has a fill in the blanks appeal.

My WW Minkus is a 2 monster volume mutt as it is a mix of Master and Supreme pages to around 1960.

I am at the point of "Love the one your with"

I've never really liked the look of Minkus albums because of their crowded look. Used to own Scott internationals but then sold that collection back about a decade ago. Now back to collecting and this time I am using Lighthouse stockpages. Much more flexible, can include varieties not listed in Scott without having to put them in weird places on the page.

Some pages from my Martinique collection