How Many Different Issue Stamps Are There Since 1840?

My database has other counts, but not stationery or revenues, as they are not in the standard Scott catalogues.

Robin

Us world-wide-counting types give you a huge thank you! Would saying that this is a count to roughly 2024 would be correct? I know countries can vary.

Most countries in the Scott catalogues have listings that go to mid- to late-2024. A few (in the Vol 5 or 6) have listings into 2025.

Robin

Which just shows that the standard catalog does not have nearly all the stamps issued. So those numbers mean little.

No two (of the big-name) catalogues can agree on real and bogus issues. So, there already any count is just a rough estimate. On top of that, counting stamps in a single catalogue listing raises all kinds of questions.

Most catalogue editors do not consider fiscal stamps postage stamps, unless they were valid for such use. Do you count any?

Does the catalogue list both the GB 4d Ulramarine and Deep ultramarine, and 6d Reddish purple and Deep purple Wilding stamps? These were intentional colour changes and not "shade" variations. Bot the 6d stamps exist with the same overprint for offices abroad.

Do you count stamps that have one or more imperforate sides when they come from a different source (booklet stamps and stamps from rolls)?

Do you count SOAR or variable value machine labels? And if you do, which?

Do you count local overprints? Spain has many. Most are more or less bogus, Since the underlying stamps were real stamps, the postal authorities allowed their use (if at all used). But some were authorised and valid on international mail at the overprinted values (Canary Isles).

Do you count regional overprints?

It seems that the only thing one can really say about how many stamps have been issued is "lots and lots and lots".

Counting stamps and collecting all different is a more recent thing in the history of the hobby .I believe we see this interest and change appearing around the late 1940,s and early 1950,s. The only place were it was earlier was with album makers . This would appear on the first page of albums printed with claims like space for 3,000 or space for 5,000 different stamps .

Through 2010 the count was 620,761. I think Keijo had the breakdown by decade. The first 11 Scott Internationals though 1977 had spaces for 195,000. The first Six Minkus Supremes to 1977 had room for 240,000 different stamps

I think many collector try to fill just the first volume of the Scott Internationals ,but I only read about 3 who ever completed the task ,that would be 1840 to 1940 of some 33,000 stamps .

Then there was a story of two guys together who filled 5 volumes of the Scott Internationals . It took them about 5 years to do it , but when it was sold it was sold broken up and don't remember what they got for it . As to be expected the first volume was about half of the value of the whole sale of 5 volumes .

Never heard anyone try for the 11 volumes of the Internationals to be filled which LANDOLAKES says is 195,000 stamps , but at level of total stamps would be a high percentage of the worlds stamps .

FYI, for the Big Blue collectors, our friend "Bud" who posts his 100% complete BB Vol #1 on Jim Jackson's website (and I've seen this unbelievably great collection) is within a couple hundred of completing Volumes 1-5.

I have no doubts whatsoever that Bud will complete those also.

Ray.mac -- Congratulation on your journey to fill the Scott #1 , seen your posting early this year that your around 32,000 of the 35,000 needed {not 33,000 I posted yesterday above }.

Have a interest in learning your method of finding those missing stamps ,are you using stamp auction firms ,Ebay or other on-line services .

Kudos to Bud... It sure isn't an easy task! Through Part 11 I have 75,453 stamps and I'm about 38.7% complete.

Those two guys really did complete the first 11 internationals all 195,219 stamps. I had the privilege of interviewing one of them. It's been posted before but very inspiring to read and they did this BEFORE the Internet!

Stamp collectors in the 21st century have it pretty easy. With the click of a mouse, and fairly deep pockets, you can instantly purchase pretty much any stamp collection you want. Not true in the 1970s. Just simply finding stamps could take a person to the corners of the earth, rummaging through dusty stamp stores and toting tattered lists of stamps.

In 1977, the Scott International Albums were comprised of eleven volumes with spaces for 195,000 or so stamps. Filling the albums completely was a daunting task, and thus far only one pair of collectors has accomplished this. What follows is the story of how these two collectors who were able to do just that, in just six short years!
Stan Cornyn, a Warner Bros. record executive, entered a department store in 1971 and thought it would be a good idea to buy a stamp album for his 6-year old son, Christopher. It was a great way for his son to learn about geography he mused. This starter album was woefully inadequate and the Cornyns moved to the then seven-volume Scott International Album series. However, sunny California offered more enticing opportunities in the form of a skateboard and the albums were left to his father and a pal of his dad's- Murray Geller. Mr. Geller was a man who liked numbers and in collecting pounds of stamps there are numbers aplenty. Want lists were scribbled on sheets of paper and index cards, wearing down pencils to a little nub.

At first their goal was to find any stamp that cost a nickel, then ones priced at a dime. Eventually stamp collecting mania took hold, and the search was on to find those missing spaces. Stamp dealers in Syria were contacted to find obscure stamps that their US counterparts didn't have in their holdings. By the summer of 1976 the duo were just down to 28 stamps. The last stamp to find a place in the album was a Malaya Kelentan #10 overprint, found at Union Philatelic in New York City. Thus the collection was complete-all 195,219 stamps. The most expensive stamp in the collection was valued in the 1971 edition of the Scott Catalog for $750. If one would try the same feat in 2011 one of the more expensive stamps is US Scott #2 that catalogs $1,200 for a used specimen.

I had a chance to correspond with Stan Cornyn about "Collecting the World" I asked him if there was any stamp store that stood out in his mind during the hunt: ".I remember walking into one in Munich, and just handing them a list (not using any German stamp catalog's numbering system), and they walked into the back room, then came out with good stuff for me." One method that helped Cornyn and Geller was picking through collections as Cornyn describes: "The most frequently visited (store) was in Los Angeles. I think it might have been called Superior Stamp and Coin. They got used to Murray and me, and if they'd bought a big collection from someone, they'd just let us go through the albums, extract what we needed, and they'd do the pricing when we were finished, based on a percentage of catalogue values. But these stores needed to put up with nerds like (us)." I asked Stan if he had any advice for the would-be world collector. "Collectors these days have viral connections to like-minded collectors. They can amass them on Facebook, so much easier than sending a letter (with a stamp on the envelope). Take advantage of today's communication media -- have a Blog of Your Needs, and lure people to visit it. So much easier than finding a stamp store in the Sudan."

When Cornyn and Geller completed the world, their quest was finished, and over course of a year sold their collection in a series of auctions that fetched somewhere north of a hundred thousand dollars. Cornyn and Geller hung up their stamp tongs and have since retired. And the stamps? Probably scattered across the country by now, maybe lurking in an obscure stamp shop just waiting for the next person to come along with a goal to complete the world.

A special thank you goes out to Stan Cornyn for his assistance. Some of the information in this article is from: "They Collected the World" by Cynthia Gorney, The Washington Post: April 26, 1978.

Subway part I or the Scott browns - now that is a tough a album to fill. Has anyone ever completed that album?

Yes, other than floortraders WW collecting blog, Jim Jackson's Big Blue Blog is must read for WW collectors

If the One Cent Magenta is included, maybe one collector (probably) Ferrari? I'm wondering if completing the Big Blue Vo 1 is harder now than it was in the 70s with the price increases. Jim's Blog https://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/ has a wealth of information and has Minkus and Steiner info too.