My Worldwide Collection: An Ongoing Journey

And 22 stamps closer to 21,000

shermae - Yes, that is true.

I also finished up my current leg of the Haiti project.
I ended up extending my album from 1960 to 1968, and I was able to add a further 145 stamps throughout the album. Unfortunately, they are spread out so thin that the pages still look rather bare. So, no more page scans for now.

I also decided where I am going from there. Tonight I spent the night doing a rough sorting of CANADA.. I'll begin printing pages some time this weekend.

I also recently acquired my first Unitrade catalog. Although it's used, and from 2007, the information within will help me out greatly.

Here is a before picture of the unsorted mess. Like the previous countries I worked on, there are numerous envelopes, glassines, stock cards and album leaves that will need to be sorted down, identified and compiled for mounting.



Although there are some MNH amongst this group, most of these will be postally used. Probably not much more than an beginners collection with LOT'S and LOT'S of duplicates.

Ok, here is my not so impressive start to Canada. This is all I have for the first 3 pages and I don't really expect hem to get filled out any time soon.
Actually, I'm probably going to be bouncing all over the place on Canada, rather than just start at the beginning and move on.

I'm more than likely going to skip the small Queen issues for now, while I take some time to try and learn a bit about the various printings.

Yep, that's the only stamp I have on the first page, but it is one of my favorites though.

Nice start! And your plan sounds like a good one.

gmot - Thank you very much!

Here are the next 3 pages. Although I don't have hardly any, I felt the need to add spaces for precancels since they are listed under the individual denominations, in the Unitrade catalog.

Also a first for me, are hand drawn graphics on the 2nd page here, showing the difference between DIE I and DIE II, for the 2c value.

I've always wanted to do some hand drawn stuff, since it harkens back to the old days of stamp collecting and everything was either hand drawn or hand lettered.

In one way I like the result, but the black ink bleeds through to the back of the paper too much. I'll need to rethink if I want to continue with this or not, because I really do like the custom look of hand drawn graphics. It really makes ones collection truly unique to the collector I think.

Maybe draw on a separate piece of white paper, then glue, or put your drawing into a mount, as with your stamps. I think these are helpful when you have complicated, small differences of design.

GeoffHa - That is a pretty good idea and would solve a couple problems. First, this "printer" paper is not made for artistic uses, so I could use an actual paper made for pen and ink drawing. Also, if I make separate drawings I won't have to worry about messing the page up as well, making me have to print a new one.

Is it possible to take a photo or scan of the Die characteristics and insert it into the editor program?

shermae - Absolutely, and computers/software make it so much easier. However, this is something I was really wanting to do from the beginning. I think it really gives a collection a more personal touch. I'm also wanting to, eventually, include hand drawn title pages for each country.

spain_1850.....The drawings give the page a nice touch. I like to see it when someone printing their own pages adds a little something extra to make them their own.

Coastwatcher - That's kind of how I look at too.

Here are the next 2 pages. This time I tried Geoff's way and just printed the empty boxes, then made the 2 drawings separate and inserted them into mounts. I think I like this way, because I can easily remove the small drawing if I decide I don't like it, or if I want to make a better one. The one thing I do notice, that I think I may do a bit differently in the future, is that I think it would look better if I had left a bit more space between the drawings and the stamp boxes. But, live and learn.

Live and learn? My capacity to change my mind just after I've wasted time putting together a page astonishes me. I am getting a little better at "Well, when will I look at this again?", though. The other possibility, which I think pops up further up the thread, is putting the information on a facing page/back of previous page.

Here is the next installment for Canada.
I must say that the Admiral issues look like they'd be a great stand alone specialty by themselves. I had to make sure I didn't get carried away with things I would probably never obtain when making the pages. The lower values seem to have an endless number of shade variations, but I just chose a few representative ones to make spaces for.

I did make sure to include spaces for any die, or type, variants however, as well as booklet singles and precancels.

Her are the next batch of finished pages.





This is an interesting stamp I came across. It is perforated 12 across the top and bottom and 8 left and right. Initially, I thought it was a perf 8 coil stamp that someone had some fun with and made some perforations along the top and bottom, to try and create a fantasy stamp.
Then I actually found it in the catalog, listed as a provisional issue, made from unused stamps intended for coil use. Amazing what you find when you investigate things a little.

Enjoy watching your progress, nice pages .

Thank you Floortrader. I've definitely been having more fun with collecting, since starting the worldwide collection, than anytime I can remember.