Minkus Supreme Global Albums (The Big Red Thread)

Starting a thread for the collectors that use Minkus Supreme Global Albums. I use the Big Blues and have dabbled in all kinds of storage, including stock books, Vario Sheets, 102 cards and of course Steiner pages (my go-to for 1988-present) When I would transfer stamps from Minkus pages to Scott pages, the layout always seemed more appealing to me.
Over time I found more and more stamps were not in the Big Blues and then I found the excellent blogs on the subject

https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.c...bum-for.html
https://globalstamps.blogspot.com/2...upremes.html

Hard to improve on Jim's nd Bob's in depth analysis,. I've read each blog again and again! I agree that Big Red might be the Goldilocks Album.

These inspired me to search out the two volume Supremes (1840 -1959) and then the three volume Supreme (1840-1966). How many out there have tracked these down and how long is your Supreme run? The binders are truly obnoxious but really look great on a bookshelf.

Had a few sets pass thru my hands over the years . Never gave it much thought but now thinking they may be a good place to put my duplicates in . Just the right size to leave on the corner of my desk .

Right size to BE your desk.

GeoffHa so true! Floortrader, that's pretty much what I'm doing too, adding my duplicates in, but they are really growing on me. It doesn't take long to realize that Prescott Holden Thorp and George Tlamsa had a good eye for style. I've never heard of anyone "completing" a Supreme but it would be fun to try.
I don't use any mounts in them, I feel like the pages might not be able to take it.

Here's an example of a Minkus Supreme Global Page next to a Scott One. The differences can be subtle. Yup, the Supremes are not mount friendly

I have started using clear top loading mounts in my Minkus Supreme Global album for MNH stamps and have had no issues. The pages hold the mounts well. I suppose if you have a full front and back of the page covered in mounts it might cause an issue when turning the page.

I think the point was, the Minkus album page (shown on the right) has the stamps spaced so tightly that it makes it hard to use mounts (of any kind) without the mounts touching each other or overlapping. The Scott album (pictured on the left) is more forgiving with a lot more spacing between the stamps to allow for imprecise mount size/placement.

Most of these albums really call for hinges, not mounts. The Minkus lay-out looks better for that type of stamp - they're much more appealing grouped closely together.

I never owned a Supreme Minkus. But I have had several specialty Minkus specialty country collections come through my hands.

I thought of getting a set of Supremes to hold duplicates... pages and stamps.

Do the Minkus specialty pages fit into Supreme binders without having to re-punch holes for pages?

Yes, all two hole regional Minkus pages fit in all their two hole binders like the Supremes. They did issue some smaller countries in 3 hole binders and those pages are too small for the supreme binders.

I found a practically unused set of the 3 volume 1966 Supremes in 2020. As a result of extreme boredom during COVID, I've since collected all the annual supplements through 2001 as well as the 1974 China update pages.

My decision to use the Supremes was based on reading the BigBlue1840-1940 blog and I haven't regretted the decision. And yes, the binders really do fill up your bookshelves.

PM Stamp, Good tip about those top loading mounts, might be the best choice to go that route. Great find Eric99. Did you collate all the pages or leave them in parts?

I've collated the 1967 through 2001 Supplements but left my original 1966 3 volume set pretty much as is. The only changes have been to add interleaving, corrected pages Minkus included in later supplements, and the pages from the China catch up pages.

I concentrate most of my collecting on the 1966 set but have the 1967-2001 available.

Great thread. I bought a pile of Minkus Global pages with some duplication a few years ago, and determined it was a mixture of Supreme and Master pages - although only way to really tell was to look at same country and see which had more spaces/illustrations. Is there any other way to tell the difference? The majority of the pages go to '59, but some countries have supplements to '64. Most of the countries are all there according to the index. Bought used, but good condition binders (fashioned a rod from a wire coat hanger to replace a very thin homemade one) and placed them in order of the old index. Then I ran across 2 albums with pages from '69 - '76 this past weekend. Bought them. There are probably 1,000 stamps - mixed used and mint, of course all hinged. Started merging. Which leaves a gap anywhere between '59 or '64 up to '69. These don't have an updated index or interleaves. Noticed some stamps got snagged without an interleaf. Where can I find them, and what's better, clear or glassine? I have one spare binder as I know adding interleaf will add bulk.

Great questions! Not only did Minkus have separate Master and Supreme pages, there were subtle changes from the two volume to the three volume Supreme Global. I think beginning with the 1966 supplement the pages are one and the same. I've used crystal clear and glassine interleaves and they are just about a must with Minkus because of the number of stamps on a page. Any of the larger stamp supply outfits would have them like Subway or Golden Valley Stamps has interleaves. You can also create your own by repunching Scott ones. Like the coat hanger hack!


I can only imagine what these binders would look like (and weigh) with 120K stamps in them.

This gives some clue on the changing of pages from the Master to the Supreme. Also those yearly supplements were pretty large too.