Organizing Cinderella Stamps

Hello All,

I have several hundred miscellaneous cinderella stamps that I would like to try and organize by type. The categories I've come up with so far are:
-charity
-propoganda
-patriotic
-poster
-philatelic exhibitions
-stamp organizations
-religious
-advertising
-facsimiles

I'm thinking of arranging these by category on Vario pages.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Any more topic names? Could you please share how you arrange your cinderella collection?!

Thank you!

How about international exhibitions (non-philatelic) such as world's fairs, Pan-American, Trans-Mississippi, and so forth?

How I do it.......by country.
Why? the ability to successfully locate a cinderella within seconds, when researching, or identifying unknowns.
If I name the image the cynosure of the item , then I can do a search across the parent folder.

Thank you, Bud for another topic idea!

Rod, maybe someday I can have enough to arrange by country, but right now I only have U.S.! That's quite an impressive collection you have. Nice to see you again, by the way. I haven't been able to get on here for regularly for quite some time!

Hi SM,
yes, thought I hadn't seen your posts for some time.
We all slip in and out of stamp activity, from time to time, but once a collector, it's always not far from our thoughts.

I have currently 1200 + US cinderellas, I try then (as I do with all stamps) is to follow catalogue set outs, I figure the catalogue organiser has much more experience than I.

Ergo, I organise my US by Green's catalogue, or John Denune.

If you scan and keep a digital record, then merely name your scans with pertinant information.

Most are considered "All Funds... then the particular charity"

OK let's take a Bo-Peep at one of the Cinderella Legends (Canada)
Mr Ron Lafreniere.......
See how he organises........

You may wish to take some lead from his route...........

Broad Category location / description.......


then by Alphabetic ID in each category... Perfect !

Like any collection there's no rules really. It's up to you and depends to a lot of extent. If its a topic/collection you want to add to and spend money on then I suggest country as a primary sorting criteria. Cinderellas are not really organised to topic grouping is very very random and very few groups run across countries. If you are wanting to lay out an album it should be in a way you can document and maybe find or write a catalogue for. Personally I have an album dedicated to the Discworld stamps which don't really fit a country or subject other than Discworld. I also have an album for Lundy stamps which are at least catalogued so I can treat those like any other country collection so I can have gaps to fill, blocks and covers as I find attractive to my layout. There are tons of cinderellas out there that some think are country stamp issues but were made for tourist revenue. Ajman and Sharjah are such country cinderellas commonly found, collectively often called Sand Dune Issues. these countries did produce real stamps too but its the cinderellas that were made in bulk and often found in stamp starter packs. So my general cinderellas issues are sorted by country and thats about it. Find issue age can be difficult plus every topic in existence has been printed on cinderellas so I think it'll be hard to manage by topic. Unless you want to focus purely on one topic like aircraft, but then you'll end up wanting to add real stamps to it. It's a dilemma :)

"I hadn't seen your posts for some time.
We all slip in and out of stamp activity, from time to time, but once a collector, it's always not far from our thoughts."

Rod, I'm still up to my neck in the stamp world- just been really busy with the education end of it. I haven't had much time to focus on my collecting interests, though.

Thank you for mentioning Green's catalog. I hadn't heard of that. It looks like an excellent resource. I also appreciate the table of contents. That gives me a good starting place for organizing things. Now to just find the time.......


Steveb, thank you for the suggestions. I do have cinderellas related to my topical collections, for example, children's literature. I think for now, at least, I will store them together on Vario sheets. The rest of the cinderellas will be organized according to purpose (charity seals, philatelic exhibitions, fantasy, etc.) My collection is no where large enough to organize by country. I don't actively collect cinderellas, unless they relate to one of the topics I collect. Otherwise, it's just ones I've found over the years in auction lots I've purchased. On a rare occasion, I'll purchase ones to use for educational purposes for children.

That's what I've been doing for the past 20+ years. I have enough Esperanto, Ido, and Volapük cinderellas that they can have their own Vario pages, but they're in the same binder as my Esperanto stamps and postal stationery.

I have these cinderellas separated according to the relevant international language, which may or may not be the actual language on the stamp itself (it might say "Learn Esperanto!" in Catalan or Friulian, for example). Within each group I arrange them chronologically, to the extent possible. Unless it's a poster stamp for a specific congress or event, the date is usually just an estimate. Larger cinderellas, sheetlets, etc. end up on separate pages, out of the main sequence, like the "folio" sections for really big books in a library.

Although I have my Esperanto (etc.) stamps, postal stationery, and postal history organized by country, I don't even attempt to do that with the cinderellas.