British Commonwealth Stamp Album Possibilities?

A few years back, I was given a couple of collections to add to my own. They both belonged to parents of friends of mine, and were given to me for free. Both of them date back to when they were children, so they are full of pre-1940 stamps from around the world. First thing I did was to add any U.S. stamps they contained to my own collection if I needed them, and I found some pretty good stuff. No real 'classics', but good stamps I didn't have. Lately, I've been looking through these albums again. I have 2 volumes of Scott International (big blue) from 1955, and another volume 1 from 1947. I'm guessing they were getting approvals back then, as there are many unused stamps...that were unfortunately hinged to the pages.




What has intrigue me, though, are the British commonwealth and empire stamps. I started a collection of Great Britain a year ago, and I'm now having fun finding all of these stamps from British colonies and possessions from the early 20th century. At least...I assume anything with a British monarch's head on it would be a British possession. I think I'd like to put these to an album of their own. Are there any albums out there that fit this bill? How about album pages that I could print? I'm interested in everyone's thoughts. Thanks!

You can create any album you want if you go with Bill Steiner's print what you need pages. The organization follows Scott.

The best albums produced for the British Commonwealth are those published by Stanley Gibbons, which also follow the Gibbons catalogue. If you are seriously collecting this material, comparing Steiner pages with these albums is like comparing Andy Warhol to Leonardo. Not cheap, though ...

https://www.stanleygibbons.com/blog...-LOW-RES.pdf

Something to get you to collect SG-style is that major shades for a stamp are included as major numbers, so there's a space in the SG album for them. I also prefer SG's method of defining issues; Scott tends to lump similar designs together more often. Compare how Hong Kong is done by each catalog, for example.

And you can buy an older SG catalog reasonably, to help with the album. SG color guides are very useful, are around but not so cheap.

DaveG28,

I went the opposite way. I started with KGVI Commonwealth (Palo) and then went to UK (Davo). I may have been happier if I had gone with SG (sigh).

Jack Kelley

This was my original thought but decided I do not want to deal with so many shades. I ended up preferring the more simplified method by Scott at this point.

I will add pages for varieties with Steiner as Steiner usually provides a separate page (so it is optional) when providing spaces for minor issues. There are some minor varieties that it should include but does not. I think the "expandable" concept is more flexible rather than have many blank spots for varieties I will never get.

I do not want to spend a lot on binders/album pages and not an elegant way to create custom additions. I would rather spend it on stamps and mounts.

The good news is we have choices.

If you like printed albums and can afford to pay for them, fine. Based on occasionally expensive experience, my general preference is to use blank leaves and arrange the material as I wish. Steiner is functional for American users, much less so for the rest of us. And, understandably, he doesn't spend time on attractive lay-out.