Album Organization – back Of The Book

I apologize if there has already been a thread on this, but I'd like to know how you organize "back of the book" stamps in your albums. For those of you who arrange them after the standard issues, do you devote a separate album, or album volumes, to these? Or do you put them at the back of a volume devoted to specific years of a country's postal issues?

I organize my WW back of the book stamps at the end of the regular issues, following Scott catalog practice. This makes it easier for me when buying from dealers/books or updating my have/want lists, as they also usually follow this ordering.

For US, which is more extensive for me, I keep all of these in a separate album.

Alan

"Back of the book" means something rather different in different countries. In the UK - and, I think, Germany - charity and air-mail stamps are not separated from other normal issues. The back of the book is, therefore, limited to officials and postage dues etc, which I put immediately after the main body of a country's issues.

In France, air-mail issues are separated. I therefore have a number of French colonial albums that, irritatingly, position stamps from the same sets scores of pages apart. In this case, they do not order things better in France. As far as I know, only the Scott catalogues/albums also separate charity stamps. And air-mail charity stamps ...

As an example, here are a couple of MOC French colonial pages, with a couple of air-mail stamps far removed from flowers of their kindred ...




And a couple of my undistinguished Canadian pages with the air-mail stamps integrated with their sisters

I use Steiner's pages for my worldwide collection and those follow Scott in ordering the back of the book stuff after the regular issues.

While not necessarily an ideal it does follow the catalog I use the most.

I have heard the old Minkus catalogs followed a different ordering that included stamps we call back of book in with the sets they were from. If I ever get a chance to pick up a set of the old catalogs I might consider changing.

Dale

I use Steiner pages for my worldwide collection. I generally follow the Scott catalog order: regular postage, semi-postal (B), air post (C), special delivery (E), etc. The exceptions are local stamps (L) and occupation stamps (N)--they follow the regular BOB pages. And, of course, there are exceptions to the exceptions (for example, Yugoslavia 1L, 2L, 3L, etc., go before regular postage).

I would like to incorporate semi-postal and air post with the regular postage pages, but the amount of page editing makes that impractical for me.

Robert

Organize them time period, regardless of where they are in the catalog. I collect US and organize them in sections: Pre-civil War, Civil War, Pictorals, Banknotes, 1st Bureau, 2nd Bureau, 3rd Bureau, etc. The Locals, for example, go with the Pre-Civil War stamps, The officials go with the Banknotes, The 1st airmail stamps go with the 3rd Bureau. One of the silliest things in stamp collecting is seeing the last of the modern regular issue stamps on one page and then seeing 100-year-old airmails on the next.

Note the advice and opinions of others ... then do it in a way that pleases yourself.

I collect only U.S. (for now) and have airmail and BOB stamps in a separate albums, currently 2 volumes. I find it more useful to have special-use stamps set up separately in my collection than trying to remember which year a particular series was issued (postage dues for example).

They're ordered by Scott prefix (B for Semi-Postal, C for Airmail, E for Special Delivery, etc.) and printed on different colored card stock. Using colors makes it easier to open the pages directly to airmails (on light blue card stock) or postage due (light orange).

Scott

Thanks to everyone who gave input! I particularly enjoyed seeing the photos posted.

I agree with you Philazilla, that it's a bizarre contrast going from modern stamps to old airmails. I will probably revise a few Vario pages (again!) to integrate the BOBs with the others. I had been organizing according to date of issue, but realized recently that I find it preferable to go by catalogue number...

I use the Mystic Heirloom Hingeless series of albums for my US collection and they offer a separate album for the BOB issues with the exception of the airmails, which are included in the standard albums.

I follow the Scott order with all countries. Note that for Italy, at least, the Scott catalog includes some semi-postal issues with main sets so as to not break them up.

Statesman Stamper is correct about the old Minkus catalogs having a different order, as in mixing issues by date no matter back of book or not. If one ever buys a collection on Minkus pages, said ordering should become quickly obvious. Years ago, I had forgotten about the Minkus ordering system and then bought a collection of Cape Verde on Minkus pages. Was mildly irritated to find postage due and postal tax issues mixed in with regular issues just because they were issued in the same year.

I wrote an algorithm which lays out my album pages first by stamp color and size; then alphabetically by subject matter, then by perforation size, then by print type, then by paper type.
Don

Don: Not by gum type?


Scott

I collect US. I keep my BOB's in a separate album, including air mail, semi-postal, special delivery, confederates, postage due, etc. Collection as a whole is organized in chronological, Scott number fashion. But I am thinking about integrating the BOB's in the years of issue, along with other stamps of the same vintage. I think that would make more sense, removing BOB's from "orphan" status, if you will, in a separate volume. But do what seems best for you!

That is impressive, Don!

Also, Geoff – I love the white on black quadrille. Very nice!