What To Collect Is Commonwealth Still In Favour

Being in the UK have always collected commonwealth stamps and wondered if it is still a good idea given UK heritage is coming under threat in the UK and abroad (statues etc being torn down etc) and wondered if the sentiment might spread to CW stamps like other collectables that were popular years ago and are now out of favour like stuffed animals or animal products?

Hopefully this is not too political!

Collect what appeals to you and don't worry about what others think.

Yes, pursue what interests you. Also, if an area is out of favor, it can be a positive if you're in the process of building a collection. Always better to buy low!

Actually, I think you'll find taxidermy is rather popular for decorative purposes! If you look at UK-based auctions, you'll find that BC material is relatively in-demand compared with the generality of foreign material. The stuff going for lower prices includes eastern Europe, Germany, Israel etc.

Confederate material continues to be popular regardless of the political situation. Collecting Third Reich material has always been popular; the above advice is the best: collect what you like.

shapaw: welcome to the Forum! Yes, collect what you like and also remember it's just a hobby. Don't spend your life's savings, or consider "stamping" as a financial investment.

Of course you should collect what interests you. The fact that you collect something has nothing to do with whether or not you support what the stamps illustrate.

For goodness' sake, that can't be true, as I collect Germany including the era of the Third Reich (which is extremely creepy and unsettling, to say the least). If I showed someone my Hitler Era stamps, do you think they'd assume I was a closet Nazi? I doubt that very much, but on the other hand I don't go inviting people over to look at those stamps. In any case, does reading about the Nazis make the reader a Nazi? Of course not. It's what educated people do. Same with stamps.

I collect other countries like the Belgian Congo, a place that was as viciously racist as you can get. I do so despite that, because I want to know more about it, including how that happened. British Commonwealth stamps sometimes come from a questionable past of colonialism, racial superiority, and so on, but your collecting them doesn't mean you support that. It just means you're interested in them, perhaps the way a scholar is interested. They read about an era to find out more, not because they support it.

I collect some of these stamps partly because their dark pasts which are interesting to learn about, and because I'm a history teacher who teaches both the good and the bad. I see no reason to do otherwise with my stamps. I even have a Russia collection with endless images of Lenin and Stalin, both of whom I abhor. I wouldn't put up a statue to them, but these are just stamps in an album and how are we going to understand history if we don't have these things to look at? Just collect what you like. No one is going to care.

I also collect certain postal history and revenue documents from the Third Reich. Collecting interests and political interests might align, but they surely don't have to.