What Are The Largest And Smallest Stamps In Your Collection?

Asking Google what the largest and smallest stamps ever issued are does not give any clear answers. I have been curious about this for a while. Rather than getting an inaccurate AI response, I thought I would simply ask here for people to share their largest and smallest stamps.

A related, but separate question I have is; What are the largest and smallest face values in your collection?

The smallest, also the smallest denomination, being 1/480th of a pound thus beatin Dutch half cent stamps that are 1/200th of a guilder.



But spain has denominations expressed in thousands of a unit. The Bolivar Department stamp from 1863, however, is smaller in size. So, nowehere near the smalles issued.

my error - sorry

I can't speak to the largest - possibly one of the many commemorative 'mini-sheets?

The smallest in my meagre collection come from the wartime issues of South Africa, produced to save paper, and from Columbia. Both are a similar size, approx 24x14mm.

The largest in size are almost certainly US Special Tax revenue stamps. In 68 years of collecting I have never seen anything larger. The smallest might be the German stamps for the Berlin airlift.

There are also some very tiny US locals.

Guiness World Records.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.co...ember%202024.




Before this, a UAE issue of 31 March 2013 held this title. The title largest special stamp is used because the stamp cannot, normally, be used to frank mail. The problem with the "largest" stamp is that any postal authority can create a ludicrously large stamp that will never fit on a normal item of mail, as a gimmick.

So, what are the boundaries?

Legitimate usages. The stamps I mentioned all were.

@NSK I don't like these UAE / India issues, as these only existed to beat the record abitrarily. I like to see stamps that actually served a real purpose, hence the addition of "in your collection", as I doubt anybody here has acquired either of those stupidly enormous stamps.

When I mentioned Google not being of much help, this is what I meant. Instead of giving historical large and small stamps, it gives these modern "I got a bigger one" stamps, which are not used for general postage purposes. (the same applies for coins, smallest and largest)

I have a few large stamps, but it seems the sizes of these stamps are considered smaller than they appear as they are "souvenir sheets". However, I have a Brazillian souvenir sheet that is fully perforated around the edge, making the sheet itself a stamp, in my eyes. I will post it when I can.

Someone has those large things in his or her collection.

I, however, agree they are just for breaking records. But most of the big stamps and big miniature sheets with big stamps are just as much gimmicks without ever having been intended for postal use. They will never see any genuine postal use as they just do not fit on normal pieces of mail, and oversized item either get a computer-generated label or are philatelic inventions not much different from those record-breaking stamps.

Personally, I very much like the engraved World Heritage Sites sheetlets issued by Spain. But they are more engravings to hang on a wall than true stamps,

Apparently, this is America's smallest postage stamp. I have a few of them. I also have a series of different windmills on stamps that seem pretty small too.

The tallest and longest english stamps.

Here is, what I believe to be is, the largest Canadian postage stamp.

Scott 2405.

About 3" x 9"

It may be a bit wider, but this one is larger I think:


Canada 2017 $5 Fabric Souvenir Sheet, Toronto Maple Leafs, Scott #3042

I enjoy that stamp enough to buy them at or below face to use on mailing.


These are all the same size as well making a total of 17 designs that size:

The windmills Sc#1738-42 (a booklet) and the American Wildlife Sc# 1880-89 (a booklet)

The Dolly Madison, Sc # 1822, stamp was a regular sheet stamp of 150 to a pane like the Indian Head Penny.