I Have A General Question About Topicals.

I'm just getting back to working on a collection I started some years ago - fish and fishing. And I am trying to figure out the role of cto's in flora and fauna, fish specifically.
I found an older post from "stamperJD" helpful where he or she prioritized their interest as follows:

1. Postally Used, with beautiful manuscript cancels
2. Postally Used, Machine Cancelled
3. Revenue Cancels

4. CTO Remainders - postally used, but when they were no longer valid for postage the leftover mint stamps were given CTO cancels.
5. Older CTOs on stamps issued prior to 1950

6. Regular CTOs - Stamps which were issued primary to sell collectors, although they did have some postal use. Typically Eastern European and African Stamps from the late 1940's onward.

Now I assume a lot of what's out there for me will be from category 6, which is fine. I love looking at these beautiful little pieces of graphic art. But I wonder if there is any significant number of stamps out there from the first group, 1, 2 and 3. And what about category 4 and 5?

In short, is there a way to focus my collecting based upon these categories, or are CTO's where it's at for me?

You would do great by joining the American Topical Association. They are here to help with questions like yours
www.americantopical.org


Peter

Thematic stamps of the type you describe will ordinarily be commemoratives. You are, therefore, unlikely to find them with manuscript cancels (the use of which, for postage stamps, was very limited) or fiscal cancels.