What Was Your First Major "Evolution" In Expanding Your Philatelic Interests?

I was reading a thread this weekend discussing old approval dealers and how interacting with them shaped our philatelic interests. From about age 9 to about age 50, I was completely hooked on collecting Commonwealth, mainly from 1937 forward. Around age 30 I became intrigued with specializing in KGVI, guided in part by an old friend/dealer contact who walked me through why folks found KGVI interesting. As a side note, this seller is still around- Brian Dias of Bombay Philatelic.

I pursued KGVI collecting tirelessly for about 30 years or so though I still added QE2 material and selected stamps before 1937 (especially Sudan). So in a way, KGVI collecting was an extension of my established interest in Commonwealth, just more focused and specialized. Perhaps not a "major" philatelic evolution.

As I started to run out of gas and collecting opportunities with KGVI I guess some boredom set in, leaving me open minded to other collecting opportunities. A lot of Sweden 3 crowns stamps came up on ebay, and as a definitive collector these stamps appealed to me based on the colors, denominations, and uniformity of the designs.

Alas, the Sweden 3 crowns issues are limited as there are not many varieties such as shades, perfs, papers, watermarks, phosphor, etc. But it didn't take long for me to notice other extremely interesting definitives from Denmark, Norway, and Finland. Iceland and Greenland were not far behind.

So for me, my first "major philatelic evolution" was a move into Scandinavia/Nordic definitives, dues, and officials. I am still looking to upgrade to better examples of early wavy lines definitives from Denmark and started work on 1913-28 King Christian X stamps. I also am still active working on Finland arms issues 1917-29.

For Sweden, I have accumulated numerous examples of the Crown and Post Horn issues (1920-34), King Gustav V issues of 1921-36 and c. 1939 (Scott type A55), as well as Gustav VI (Scott type A97) although I have not yet sorted these various issues.

So... what was YOUR first major philatelic evolution and what prompted you to get into the new area?

I migrated from USA MNH to KGVI unused hinged. While I enjoy the change, I am having reservations largely due to seeing the same stamps over and over for many of the Commonwealth countries. As a result, I am taking a "vacation" from the whole philatelic scene. Except for the annual MYSTIC supplements. I am also thinking of collection used stamps for my 19th Century stamps. Very unsure of where to go at the present time.

Jack Kelley

shermae - good topic for a thread!

I have always collected WW, so in that respect there were never any new areas I could expand my interest into.

My major expansion in philatelic interest was when I actively started to look for stamps that were cancelled as 'forerunners' - either stamps of a 'mother nation' that were cancelled in its colonies overseas - or stamps that were cancelled in areas that today belongs to other nations or is separate nations altogether. Example given French, British, German, Italian or Spannish stamps used overseas. Indian, Turkish, German or Austrian stamps that were used in areas that are now independent nations. The list goes on and on, like Finnish stamps used in present day Russia - and vice verca - GB stamps used in Ireland, Dannish stamps used in present day Germany - or vice verca - Italian stamps used in present day France. The other week Tim made me aware of South African stamps used in SWA....

I find such forerunner-postmarks most interesting because the postal history holds evidence of the actual history of those nations - and of the people that were using these stamps. How were the living conditions in those turmoil places at that time?

This interest for foreunners have also sparked a general interest for any kind of postmarks - Numeral cancellations on the classic stamps, TPO, Paquebot, Censor, Squared Circle postmarks - CDS from different places... The area of collecting postmarks is even more endless than collecting stamps itself.

And the best thing of that is that an otherwise totally 'useless' stamp can be a treasure to me - if it has an interesting postmark

Jack - I think I've mentioned before that the omnibus issues of the GVI reign make my heart sink - pure philatelic money-spinning. But the definitives - especially the attractively illustrated sets, rather than the heads - would make a good collection. This is what shermae collects, I think.

As fir me, when I returned to stamps after decades, I thought I'd pick up where I left off with GB. But in no time at all I'd switched to worldwide. Now I'm narrowing my main focus to France and colonies. Why? Probably lots of enjoyable Eurostar/TGV trips to French cities and towns!

Jack, my joy in collecting KGVI comes from the perf, paper, and shade varieties. Some countries are much more interesting from a design perspective than others- e.g. KUT, Ceylon, Aden, T&T, Guiana, Falkland, etc. Others share most or many design elements, e.g. Bermuda (hi values), Nyasaland, Leewards (hi values), or Mauritius, Leeward (low vals), Hong Kong. The ones with basically singular designs though are irresistible to me.

Geoff- you are correct, I collect only the KGVI definitives, dues, and officials regardless of design. I dislike all commemoratives anyway so I don't bother with any Omnibus issues of any region or era. My cutoff for KGVI is basically the dominions other than Fiji so I don't collect Canada, SWA, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc. vs. collecting most or all of the colonies and protectorates.

As a kid, I began collecting everything. I was fascinated with the stamps, the history, the people, the pictures and the geography. As I moved into my teens, I started to realize just how many stamps I was looking and how it would be virtually impossible, even in the early 70's to be able to complete such a collection.



My first "moment" came when I abandoned the world in favor of the United States. As I went off to college and eventually the military, I stuck with U.S. mint, but was also beginning to find used stamps fascinating. When the opportunity arose, I started adding used stamps to the collection, although I suppose an organized accumulation might be the better description.

As time passed, and I started exhausting the easy stamps to obtain, I started working toward completing favorite sets in depth. Flash forward through my 30's and 40's when collecting was sporadic, and then in late 40's, with the kids grown and on their own, I started becoming serious about my stamp collecting. This would probably have been my second "moment."



Besides collecting "in-depth" I went beyond adding plate blocks for the issues I collected to the areas of essays and proofs. I also started defining better what my collection would entail. I added First Day Covers and precancels to what I collected. I drew a line against perforated initials as I just couldn't spark any interest there.



I concentrated on card proofs of the 19th century and someone showed me a neat item one day. It was a publicity photo for one of the commemorative stamps from the 1960's. I just had to know more about them.




This brought about my next "moment" when I started building a serious library about U.S. stamps. It's rather contagious, so be careful, my friends! The more you learn, the more you feel you need to learn. It's a never ending cycle!

I've entered the realm of the sexagenarians. With more disposable income, I've pursued all of the areas of U.S. stamp collecting which interests me. It's become a driving passion (some might say even obsession), but I draw immense pleasure from chasing these bits of paper and the knowledge to understand what I have.

I look forward to many years of continuing this passion, and probably another "moment" or two in that journey.


Here's a little more eye candy for you to enjoy.

I think for me it has happened recently. I have only been "seriously" collecting for about 5 years now and I have finally started to separate the wheat from the chaff. I no longer collect every stamp that comes across my desk. I don't have the time or the space to properly account for all of the newest issues. I have been trying to work around fixed parameters and shift my collections of the US and Canada to a narrower time frame. I also collect Berlin which has a nice set time frame and will allow me re-evaluate what I do when I get through acquiring all of the issued stamps.

I'm not quite sure I've had that first evolution yet. I started collecting WW but decided I needed to narrow it a bit. I decided to focus mainly on the German area ("seriously")* and about 3 dozen other major countries ("casually")*. About 18 months or so I "devolved" back into WW collecting, again with all but Germany being mostly on a casual basis. That being said, as my German collection fills in I'm kind of looking for a second area I want to get more serious about at some point. Right now it's kind of a tossup amongst Scandinavia, British colonies and French colonies. I'd probably lean more toward Scandinavia simply because I have Steiner pages for all the countries therein, the other areas I don't (and I don't want to print them, adding yet more binders). I'm also much farther along in the Nordic countries than I am the British or French areas, which I have very little of so far.

*My definition of "serious" and "casual" in this case is that I'm actively trying to complete the German area. I keep a want list and actively plan my purchases around it, buying specific stamps by the single and set. For the rest of the world, I only buy collections and miscellaneous bulk lots, kiloware and packets. I don't keep a want list and I just buy opportunistically, when I spot a good deal or a lot I otherwise think I'll enjoy going through.

For me it was when I went from simply collecting US used stamps and expanded into used PNC singles, and then subsequently, US precancels. That was then followed by diving head-first into collecting WW used. A collection of basic Machin varieties tops things off.

1951.........6,000 stamps

Wow Rod, where did you dig that up from?!

One of the benefits of belonging to a stamp club.
Now in the country, I miss the club's auctions I used to attend.

Catalogues like these go in lots sometimes, perhaps $3-$5

Like most collectors, I have a catalogue fetish, have to snap them up at that price.

I also bought 300-400 stamp magazines for next to nothing.
That is a real storage problem.

I'd be surprised if you cannot source this catalogue on ebay,
Just put in a standing search for it, one day it will turn up.
Good Luck!

$20 aussie Shermae

2 years later..........7,220 stamps

Very cool, I would never have thought to look! I don't have the same voracious appetite for "vintage" catalogs but have many of more recent vintage. I need to find a decent Y&T though, mine is just too old. You've lit me up to search for some on ebay..... bye for now!

For me, this second time around in the hobby, it was discovering the magical world of overseas specialized catalogs when I purchased my first one, the Maury specialized catalog for the French colonial empire in Africa. So many things not in Scott, and not all of them hugely expensive, means there's lots of potential treasure hunting looking for unrecognized varieties in dealer stock etc because the dealers only use Scott to organize their stock.

DJC - does Maury also cover additional areas of French Dom-Tom, e.g. Middle East?