Organizing/Sorting Commemoratives By Topic

For those of you that organize your commemorative stamps by topic, how do you define topics? I have alot of vintage US commem's but I have so many topics/series to try to fit them into, how do you guys define your topics, I'm trying to get some ideas.


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Have you tried the ATA, the American Topical Association? They have already done all the work,
www.americantopical.org

Peter

After checking it out I think I got most of the topics layed out but I'll see if it might help generalize my many topics and sub-sub-topics.

Do you use that website?

The ATA is well used by many collectors. Just by glancing at the checklists you can see there are thousands of topics. If you spot it on a stamp there is probably a checklist for it. No one can collect them all. Most people specialize. I probably have a dozen topics that I collect.

Is there a way to see an example of the topic on a stamp?

I am suspecting you are not sure what a topic is?
If you collect rocks on stamps, "rock" is the topic. Flowers on stamps? "Flower" is the topic.
Is that what you are asking?


Peter

On the website, there does not seem to be a link to see stamps fitting a specific topic (like right here https://americantopical.org/Checklist-Topics#FOOD)

What I mean is that I cannot see a picture of, in this case, a picture of a stamp with a specific type of food on it.

Here is an example of a topical post: https://goscf.com/t/9006&whichpage=26#693035
It is copied from this forum - there are lots of topical posts like this here


Peter

ebay is you friend.
Type in "Food" and category stamps
How easy was that?

or, if you wish, register for most stamp auctions.
they will list a plethora of Topics, reams of them.

A clip from my local auction list
possibly 500 "topics" ?

Stamp World and Stamps of the World are 2 websites that have pics of stamps based on topics or themes. The ATA just provides checklists with Scott #s and descriptions, no pictures.

You can also try this, do a Google search on "Chess on Stamps" and then select an image search. Next do an image search on "Chest on stamps" and you will see two different topics, Chest (box) and Chest, things worn on the upper front part of a human. Then when you look closer you may find jewelry shown which came from a famous chest (box) of valuables.

Below are three stamps I collect as a topical. They could be for any of these topicals some of which are not obvious:

Kano Jigoro
Olympics
Japanese Olympics
1964 Olympic
Olympic rings on stamps
Olympic Venues
Japanese Buildings
US Senators
Native Americans
The Rose Parade
Antonius Geesink
Keiko Fukuda
The Beatles

The S/S with the additional stamps open up more topics due to the other stamp images, e.g. The Olympic Torch.

First is a used single either sheet or S/S-



Mint sheet stamp, corner-


S/S-


I collect them for my topic of Judo which the ATA lists in the group topical of Martial Arts and Judo. Judo is not a martial art.

Why? The building shown was specifically built for the 1964 Olympic Judo and Judo only competition.

Now to the topics listed above:

Kano Jigoro Founder of Judo

Olympics
Japanese Olympics
1964 Olympic
Olympic rings on stamps
Olympic Venues Judo
Japanese Buildings

US Senators Friend US Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell competed for the US team

Native Americans Ben again

The Rose Parade Ben 1992 Grand Marshall

Antonius Geesink Won Gold on the Open Division, one of the two divisions in which I spent my Judo competition career.

Keiko Fukuda, friend, instructor, naturalized US Citizen, last living student of Kano, highest ranking woman judoka in the world at the time of her death in 2013, 61 days short of her 100th birthday, who at the request of the Emperor of Japan performed Ju-No-Kata at the opening ceremony October 3, 1964 for the Nippon Budokan at the start of the Judo competition.

The Beatles, after the Olympics the Nippon Budokan was used for entertainment activities with The Beatles being the first Rock Band to perform there July 30, 1966.

Muhammad Ali, appeared there in 1976 for a "special rules fight" well.

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) The above contest is considered the forerunner to all subsequent Mixed Martial Arts contests and organizations.

The building was built by a company founded in 1610, remained family controlled until 2013 when the first non-family descendant was appointed president of the company and be part of a topical of the building the company built which appear on stamps.

It would be included in this topic https://goscf.com/t/49455 buildings on stamps which have a Wikipedia entry.


In short, one stamp's possible topical inclusion is only limited by imagination and an understanding of connection to a topic.

Senator Campbell is on the right.

Here are a couple of websites with pictures of stamps in two topics that I seriously collect:

Esperanto and other artificial international languages: http://dauphin.guy.free.fr

Runes and runic monuments: http://www.danstopicals.com/runestones.htm

How do I personally define these topics for my own collection?

My Esperanto collection contains stamps and postal stationery honoring Esperanto, commemorating Esperanto congresses, and/or bearing words in the language. I have covers and postcards with Esperanto-themed cancellations and covers and postcards inscribed in Esperanto. I also have a substantial number of Esperanto-themed poster stamps (cinderellas, not actual postage stamps). Other languages of similar ilk (Volapük, Ido, etc.) also qualify for inclusion. Given these very broad parameters, a "complete" collection would be absolutely impossible.

For the runic topic, I collect stamps that depict monuments and artifacts that are inscribed with Germanic, Scandinavian, or Anglo-Saxon runes, as well as stamps that have inscriptions in runes on them. My definitions don't match up exactly with those reflected in the website linked above, but they're pretty close. That collector shows a couple of stamps that depict details from runestones that don't actually include runes in the image; I don't collect those. The pseudo-runic letters on the Norwegian "Frontkjemper" stamp also fall outside of the scope of my own collection. As far as I'm aware, I have all the runic stamps that fit my parameters in mint condition (all never hinged, except for one expensive Icelandic stamp), as well as some first day covers and maximum cards. The collection still isn't what I'd call complete, though, because there are still some first day covers and a couple of things in special packaging that I don't have. And then there's always the possibility of finding interesting rune-themed postcards and covers, like this Japanese cover with a photo of the modern runestone in Tokyo's Hibiya Park:





I've been to two concerts there. I want to go back. *sigh*

Interesting, I want to focus on mainly military, transport, and space for my topics though I will have others.

Welcome to the fascinating world of topical collecting. I take a different approach to how I "organize" topical's, which I'll describe to give another perspective.

First, two excellent resources have been mentioned: American Topical Association (ATA) and Stamp World. An ATA list provides the issue date for each stamp and with that information a picture can easily be found at Stamp World. As has also been mentioned there is a "theme" search category at Stamp World but I've not used it enough to know how complete its results are.

Ohers have suggested doing searches on ebay, other auction venues, this forum, and the internet in general. These will yield a wealth of leads and information but an ATA list provides the most complete list of stamps in a particular topic I believe.

Though my non U.S. collecting is primarily topical I mount all stamps I come by, and these by country rather than topic. I do this because:

• I can assign "major categories" or "sub-topics" if I want, which would be difficult if the stamps were in an album organized by topic.


• Sometimes a stamp of topical interest is part of a larger set which I don't want to break up. Papua New Guinea Scott #139-146 comes to mind, which has 2 cow stamps and a coffee plant stamp, both topics I collect.


• Or, a single stamp may embrace more than 1 topic. Colombia Scott #C757 comes to mind (bicycles and coffee berries).

I am inventorying my topical collection in a program called StampCat (no longer available for purchase but still functional for those who have a license), which has fields for images and a report writer. Other programs can be used, including Excel. With this I'll know what I have and can also develop want lists. At some point I'll print out pages with stamp information and pictures, organized alphabetically by country within each topic.

My entire USA collection of commemoratives, etc. is organized by topic. Definitives are organized in the traditional manner and follow in chronological order by series. I created a spreadsheet (xls) of the topics; here is an excerpt. I can send the entire list to anyone who is interested.

The list was created about 1990 and not updated since. (My USA collection stops at 1993).