Worldwide Album Question

Greetings.

I have seen some world albums where the U.S. pages are placed at the beginning and others where they are in with the other "U" countries.

Does anyone know the origin of these different systems? Do you have a preference for one layout versus the other?

As someone who collects U.S. stamps only as part of a worldwide collection, I think I prefer the latter style.

Dale

What album is it? You may be able to rearrange the pages yourself if you know how to open the binding.

I wasn't speaking of a specific album, just more curious as to the origins of the differences.

Dale

I think U.S. based Stamp album companies present and past (Scott, Minkus, Harris, Grossman) who made general WW albums put their U.S. pages first as they sold most of their albums to U.S. based collectors who, by presumption, had an enhanced interest in U.S. stamps (even if they were WW collectors).

Now I collect WW using the Steiner pages, and where do I put the U.S.? In the first volume binder.

Well, since they are binders, you can open them (Harris, Scott, Minkus) and rearrange them as you wish. So this isn't a limitation.

The arrangement is arbitrary. There are countries that have changed names over time or were named arbitrarily as well. Today's Congo/Democratic Republic of the Congo was the Belgian Congo, sometimes split by era in albums, sometimes not. It was also called Zaire for a time. Netherlands New Guinea was called Dutch New Guinea by some album makers. Alphabetize and/or order as you see fit; follow Scott alphabetic order if that's useful to you.

I had faced the decision with Steiner pages on country order in albums and decided to follow Scott country order for the most part. As for an exception, I do keep Malaya/Malaysia region (all states new and old) all together in one group but kept in dedicated binders.

I would have preferred keeping the country changes together (like British Africa where country name changed) but it became a hassle. I have very few countries that come close to taking up a complete binder.

For worldwide albums with 2 sided pages it is not as easy to move things around.

My US is in different binders so that is a non-issue.

Thank you everyone for the input.

I had been curious since seeing an older (1990s) CWS Odyssey album which placed US at the front and one of the newer Harris Statesman Deluxe 2 volume albums which starts at the letter 'A' and goes from there.

I think I had somewhere gotten the assumption that US made albums would put the US in the front and albums made in other countries would place it in alphabetical order. It seems there really is no such consistency out there.

Dale

I once (1988 or so) bought a 1955(?) Grossman Aristocrat WW album at a stamp show for $40. The dealer's assistant had bunches of albums and said it seemed to be a very good buy but that there was no US in it. After I had it in my hands, I showed them the front of the book which of course had the US first. Seems like most of my early used US came from that album. It was well worth the $40.

It's common to put the home country first because buyers of such albums in the country where that album was made and sold will naturally emphasize that country more. The album may even include many more spaces for that country. I've seen British albums which begin with the UK, and so on with other countries. It's just a habit publishers have chosen to adopt sometimes. If the album is loose-leaf, the pages could easily be moved.

I'm not a big fan of putting the U.S. first in a stamp album. I'm an equal opportunity collector and like to treat all countries the same!

I'm such a fan of BOB that I put those pages at the front of my albums! And Postage Due always goes first! Express second.