Minkus Supreme Global Albums (The Big Red Thread)

Something seems to have gotten lost in the comparison between the Minkus Global Master album and the Minkus Global Supreme album. They look identical right down to the binders, but there is a difference.

The former (the "Master") is the simpler album with spaces for fewer stamps than the latter. It was originally a large one-volume worldwide album to compete with a lot of other similar one-volume albums in the early 1950s at a relatively affordable price. You may recall the large one-volume Regent album by Grossman Publishing which no one seems to mention anymore and, of course, the larger H.E. Harrris albums and some others. Nothing particularly surprising about that. Just another big fat worldwide stamp album. This was in the early 1950s when stamp collecting was booming.

Within a few years, however, Minkus apparently decided it also needed a more complete worldwide album to compete with the fairly new (since the 1940s) multi-volume Scott International album that had added a second volume by then and soon added a third volume (ad infinitum!). And it would be possible to charge a good deal more for that sort of album.

That new MInkus album became the Minkus SUPREME Global album that was designed to include spaces for all stamps ever issued right from the beginning in 1840 while the Master Global remained for the more common stamps. This explains why the Minkus Global albums have such crowded pages for the early years unlike the Scott International which says right there in the album itself that it's intended for a "representative" collection of all stamps while omitting the hard-to-get ones and higher values.

In deciding to publish both a basic worldwide and a larger complete worldwide album, the odd thing is Minkus used almost identical binders for the two albums which has confused unwary collectors ever since.

And the pages look identical, as well. But the early SUPREME pages are more complete, in general, even if later on in time they are sometimes the same page in the Master album. After all, if a page has all the stamps for that year, it's going to be the same in both versions. These nearly identical binders with often-identical pages were, I assume so Minkus could keep costs down. But it is confusing, isn't it?

Over time, there were new supplements and eventually new volumes for each album with the SUPREMES getting even more enormous as the Scott International was also doing. Also over time, Minkus album collectors seem to have mostly bought the SUPREME supplements even for their Master album so they could mount all stamps from that year. Why not if all these stamps were readily available? So the original reason for the two versions kind of disappeared pretty quickly. Consequently, the pages for the two albums often got kind of mixed up depending on what pages a collector added.

Today, Minkus supplements are only SUPREME supplements. They were designed as the more complete ones -- pretty much all stamps issued -- which the Scott International also turned into by the 1950s. This happened because there were no longer hard-to-get stamps as there had been from 1840 onward. Since all stamps were now available, yearly completeness became pretty standard. So pages after about 1950 are going to always be complete no matter which of the two worldwide albums, Scott or Minkus no matter whether you used the Minkus Master or the Minkus SUPREME. It's only in the earliest years that Minkus included more spaces for less-likely-to-own stamps than Scott included which is why those pages are so crowded with spaces.

That's what I know, anyway. Today, as the Scott International and Minkus Supreme soldier on and become almost comically long, since the 1940s or 50s, they both include spaces for all stamps issued using slightly different page layouts, slightly different paper, and different borders. But for coverage of the last 75 years or so, they're just about the same otherwise.

After about 1950, it's not completeness that differentiates the two albums, but different page layouts -- although not as different as you might think. Early Minkus pages had very crowded layouts, sometimes overwhelming so (editorial comment!) to include every stamp ever issued. Scott International pages were (and are) less crowded since they did not include every single stamp until about the postwar period.

Both are printed on two sides of the pages to save binder space, so both need glassine (or better, clear acetate) page separators to keep stamps from 'grabbing' other stamps. Scott binders are now enormous and Minkus Global binders are even more enormous. They've become almost a health hazard. In fact, I once tried to pick up a Scott Supreme Global with one hand and ended up in the hospital for wrist and foot surgery! That's a joke, but one of these days it may not be.

Do the Minkus Supreme albums omit souvenir sheets and miniature sheets as the Scott International albums do?

DrewM: Great post. Thanks. I've picked up 4 Supremes 3 of which from ebay. I think they all quit in the 1960s. Just glancing through I don't see many souv. sheets or mini sheets. There are a couple pages of Russia and Trucial States. Unfortunately no Japan pages or Wallis. I'm sure other countries are missing also. I notice long sets from some countries which allow room for both watermarked and non-watermarked. On another note, I may have to place these old albums in a box with backing soda to absorb the smell. I tried that with Minkus stockbook binders and it took a few months to reduce the musty order.

DrewM, that's a good synopsis. Snopes, there aren't any souvenir sheets pictured in the Supremes, but they do appear in their country albums with illustrations. Might be more complete than Scott Specialized. Not 100% on that.

I do wish there was a better way to tell Master and Supreme pages apart. There are even subtle differences between Supreme printings too and it shows up in odd ways like a set from Romania would be missing from the early 60s. Supplements could be a factor too. Here's the back page of the dust cover from a late 1960s Master... I wonder if anyone completed one?

Thank you, landoquakes. Since I'd like to include souvenir sheets, I'm proceeding with assembling albums combining Scott International and Steiner pages, printed on special order paper cut to Scott International size. The biggest downsides are (a) the paper colors don't match exactly; (b) obviously Steiner and Scott International borders don't match, but are similar enough for my taste; and (c) it's a ton of work.

For the supplements for the 2010s, Scott really took advantage of its rule that it does not print pages for either souvenir sheets or "miniature sheets." Since a huge percentage of recent stamp issues appear with border art and could be characterized as a miniature sheet or a souvenir sheet, that gives a lot of room for interpretation. For one year in the mid-2010s, 2015 if my memory is correct, the Scott International supplement for Finland excluded over 75% of the stamps issued during that year.

I wonder if I should be exploring using Minkus Supreme pages. The downsides would seem to be that the borders would be very different and that it's even more work since I would have to scan or photograph each page and then reprint it on Scott International size paper. Probably using Steiner is a better option.

So no mention of the Supreme album. Was the Master Global published first? And I think the Minkus Supreme came in two volumes? I think I have some old Linn's in storage and will be interesting to see the old Minkus ads. Interesting to see the comments of the publishers of WSC and Stamp Wholesaler. I subscribed to both for a while.

I'm not sure when the first Master was. I have a 1954 copyright date on my two volume Supreme. haven't come across a dust cover for the Supremes. I'm not sure they existed. The 2 volume came in a spiffy box that I have only seen on ebay. There could be testimonials on the back. I do know a guy who takes the Minkus Souvenir sheet pages, goes to a library to photocopy them to the correct paper, punches them, and then adds them to his Scott internationals

The Minkus Master was first released in November 1951. It retailed for $15. It had 1250 pages (possibly 1248 for stamps) and contained spaces for 55,951 stamps. At the time it was advertised as containing 5000 more spaces than comparable albums. I assume "comparable" was really referring to the Scott International.

In the 1956 book "Common Sense Philately" by Barbara Mueller, she writes "...with the Master Global and the Scott's International albums for the under 50,000 varieties collection, and the Supreme Global and Scott's Specialty albums (don't let the terminology confuse you) for the larger collections, the modern general collector has a wide choice."

So at least the initial release was intended as a competitor to the International. Adding supplements as they were released each year would have kept it ahead in the "space" race.

I own a 1965 edition which has spaces for over 60K stamps. I've also got a second copy on my shelf that I haven't had a chance to explore. I'd love to find a good condition early edition with the first couple supplements that could be combined with the Supreme parts 2 through 5.

Dale

Speaking of old albums, and I know this is probably off topic but not sure where to post, I have 2 Scott Brown Albums and each show a different address for Scott. The title page was loose in one of them and gives 33 West 44th St. The other shows 1 West 47th Street. My fav. AI didn't list the 44th street until I asked "it" about. 33 West 44th Street was the Knickerbocker building between 1910 -1925 and the stamp dealer was called Scott Stamps & Coin Company. Coins? I didn't know that. No I don't live in NYC. 2500 miles to the west but I find NY business history fascinating. I have H. Herst books to blame for that. I think Scott Brown Albums are what the Scott (Subway) Vintage Albums are based on?

Yup, the early years of Scott they listed both stamps and coins in their catalogs. I don't know when they dropped the coin business. Good question on which Browns were reproduced. Someone on this forum will probably know though.

I like that the cost of the Minkus Supreme Global album was 18 pounds for an 18 pound album (not including postage)

I've been picking up a few Supreme Globals here and there but one has really brown (dirty) page edges. Is there a way to clean them? Art gum eraser? A regular Dixon Ticonderoga doesn't work. Hand soap on a q-tip? Also I've tried the descant and baking soda in a sealed box to help with the odor. My stamp room is starting to smell like an old public library. Not being experienced with Minkus it's still an interesting endeavor.

That is a drawback of the original Minkus pages that they are thinner paper stock and wear fairly easily. I can put up with toned pages but not musty ones, if you have pages that smell, I would work on replacing them. The binders do look nice on the shelves!

I would attribute the smell more to bad storage conditions rather than anything inherent in the Minkus pages. A lot of old albums ended up in basements or attics with less than ideal temperature and humidity conditions. If it were me, I'd do my best to salvage any stamps and trash the pages.

Dale

I agree with StatesmanStamper. Watch that humidity level! I get nervous when the percentage gets above 60%. A dehumidifier helps a lot.