Minkus Album Differences?

Probably one answer will suffice for this, but what is the difference, if there is one, between the Minkus Supreme Global album and the Minkus Master Global album? They are both the same retail price from Amos, both general worldwide, and seemingly hold the same pages. What am I missing? Thank you. John

The Supreme Global as originally published by Minkus was more comprehensive than the Master Global: something like 76K versus 55K spaces in the earliest editions. But at some point, Minkus started using the same yearly supplements for both albums.

Amos later acquired the right to sell and update Minkus albums. (Svensson, are you certain Amos is selling both albums? My memory is that the base album they used is the Supreme (which Amos calls Worldwide Global in their description but the title page shows that it is the original Supreme Global.)

If you mean the physical album, the I believe the only difference is the printed title on the album binding.

The Master pages had much poorer coverage of the classical era 1840-1940. I would not recommend them if one is interested in that time period. The Supreme pages are much better -in fact, the Supreme might be the "Goldilocks" album for WW collectors.

http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.co...bum-for.html

The Master was originally one thick album, while the Supreme was two thick albums.

At some early point, however, the supplements for the Master and the Supreme became the same, as 1840 to 1940 (Bob) has already stated.

Yes, the binders now that Amos sells- the only difference is the lettering on the binder.

They still sell the Master binder on their site along with the Supreme, but it appears that the actual Amos pages intended for both are the same now. So, it is just a hold over from the original Minkus days. Thank you all. Yes Jim, your blog discussion is what has me looking seriously at the Supreme pages as a Big Blue Plus. They do look to be an acquired taste, though I'm not a hinger. John

A related question...coming across old Minkus pages, could one readily tell a Master page from a Supreme page? Or would you need to compare identical country issues to see if the master has omissions? Would it be safe to say that the original master pages were akin to Big Blue Part 1 in coverage, but in the Minkus layout?

No, in my opinion, the original Master pages had poorer coverage than Big Blue 1840-1940. I was planning to do a review of the Master album pages,but I found them unacceptable in regards to coverage.




It is indeed sometimes tricky to tell the difference. In fact, some of the pages in the Supreme are identical to the Master pages. When I've been disappointed with coverage in the Supreme, it generally turns out it is because it is really doing double duty as a Master page.

And then one has to look at editions. A "Master" album with pages from 1970 will have less coverage for the earlier issues than a "Master" album from 1954. Why? Well, the 1970 edition will cover up to 1970, but, in order to keep the album the same size, the coverage shrinks for earlier issues.

This "shrinkage of coverage for earlier issues" actually applies to many albums that are sold as later edition "updates", where the manufacturer wants to keep the overall album the same size.

Oftentimes, the best coverage of earlier issues for an album sold at a fixed size is the very first edition!

Thanks, I understand your comment on the "shrinkage" of early years coverage. Since I don't collect anything before WW2 I'm glad I grabbed a 1947 Big Blue. Older, loose Minkus page collections are commonly found separated out for sale so I was curious if there was some "marker" that it originally came from a Master, a Supreme, or a specific Country album. That seems to be a No, so maybe I'll keep my eyes open for an original 1956 or so Supreme Album set if I can find a bargain, or perhaps go for the re-print. John

Sorry to beat my own dead horse, but could I conclude that a very early Master Global (1954) would have early stamp coverage that was comparable to Big Blue? Or, was it sketchier on the early period and much more inclusive than BB for later years? If an early MMG (Minkus Master Global, wink, wink...) had 55K compared to BB's 35K, one might think that it had decent early coverage before "shrinking" in later editions. Of course, I could be all wrong. Maybe a Goldilocks Light?

No, even an early (1954 edition) Master Global would not have as good a coverage as a Big Blue 1940-1940 for the years prior to 1940.

Now, the Minkus Global Supreme album is a different story.

It may confuse people that Amos Advantage (Scott Publishing) sells both the Minkus Global and the Minkus Supreme binders so collectors can keep their continuing purchase of albums the same as they had before. But the pages going into each binder are identical to each other, meaning there is only one group of pages now.

Previously, the Global was an abbreviated world album while, as others have said, the Supreme was more "supreme" in having much greater coverage. At some point, Minkus just stopped making two separate types of supplements and began selling only the one type. The binders being nearly identical always struck me as very strange indeed -- and of course confusing.

So, there is now only one Minkus worldwide album available, but you can put the pages you buy into either binder, both sold at the same price. It is a little strange.

One further note, although the total number of stamps in these Minkus albums was always claimed to be more than in the Scott International (I think that's right), the trade-off was that the Scott album had a rather elegant page layout which was not usually crowded while the Minkus albums crammed every inch of every page with stamp boxes. That's the characteristic I always found unappealing -- the too much of a good thing problem. But that doesn't seem to bother many others.

.



Drew - This documents that the supplements for the Master and Supreme were the same by 1962.

If one built up the album by using supplements from then on, then the Master and Supreme collector would have identical coverage after 1962.

But caution is in order.

Note the 1962 Supplement alone has 5000 spaces and 320 pages. !

My 1961 edition Master album (in one binder) has 1,376 pages and 58,000 spaces. It cannot add 320 pages and stay in one binder.

If one buys (or later obtains), say, a 1968 edition Master album, the album WILL NOT have the same coverage as the supplements, as the album has to stay at a fixed number of pages to stay within the one binder. The 1968 Master album will have reorganized pages and reduced coverage.

(Even if Minkus elects to keep the recent supplement pages without modification in the binder, earlier pages will have to have reduced coverage so the one binder can still be used.)

(The same statement actually goes for the two volume Supreme. The best coverage for the Supreme would have been the 1954 edition (the first one). Fortunately, the 1954 edition is the one that Amosadvantage now sells at it's website for the 1840-1952 years - good!)






Drew- what you say is true for the earlier years of the Minkus - they have a stuffed appearance. It does not bother me, but then there is no accounting for taste.

However, Minkus tended to put fewer stamps on its pages in later years. Note the 1958 page of Hungary above.

If one again looks at the 1962 supplement, one will note 5000 spaces for 320 pages. That works out to ~ 16 spaces per page, not too far from the 13 space average for the Steiner pages during the classical era.

One other speculation..

I strongly suspect that the Minkus pages and the Scott International pages sold now as supplements by Amos are the same content wise, except for paper, hue, and design.

I have lately been looking at Minkus Global albums. I sold a set of Big Browns locally to a guy in my club with the intention of selling off the stamps from it by breaking down into country lots on ebay. I am finding I miss having a worldwide album to work on. I also still have a few thousand worldwide pre 1940 stamps that could go in one.

It's not like I don't have other areas to keep me busy, I really need to fight this impulse.

Feel the Force, Stamps1962, Feel the Force!

Jkjblue is correct. I had forgotten that later Minkus Global pages became a lot less cluttered than the original album was. Why, they're positively good looking now, I'd say.

I'm not sure about this, but I think the paper the later pages (and supplements) were printed on also got a little heavier. The early Minkus paper used in these albums was the same as that used in Minkus 'specialty' country albums, meaning bright white (oh my eyeballs!) and a bit thin. Current Minkus pages are still white but are a bit sturdier. I know I'm betraying my preference for Scott albums which avoid these problems, generally, but there you go . . . .