How Many Different Issue Stamps Are There Since 1840?

My only issue with big blue vol 1 is that it really just European countries or large countries and their colonies. You have to go to 1960 give or take where countries start to have their own sovereignty. Latin American is the exception where they achieved their independence early.

Agree with your statement about European countries were the center of the universe for philately in the 1940's . Your can see that in the book "The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors" it wasn't until later that other countries were studied for their stamps . I could see that also in the various stamp clubs around Chicago in what they collected back in the 1960's and early 1970's , plus as you say even the album makers did more with the European countries .

Stamp collecting was huge from the 20's to the 80's. There were lots of clubs, many newspapers had a column, and it was worldwide.

"Yes to Souvenir Sheets." Gulp, I'd have to disagree with this.

1. Most souvenir sheets not only simply reproduce stamps so are essentially the same thing as the stamps they copy. They're duplicates with a fancier border around them.

2. They are not issued for "postal purposes" but as souvenirs (for stamp shows quite often) or as paid advertisements (and you get to do they paying), and in that way they are kind of a scam by postal services around the world to take collectors' money.

I'd venture to say that nearly all the souvenir ever issued have been purchased by stamp collectors to put into their albums. How is that even remotely a "postage stamp"? Does anyone think people have a drawer with souvenir sheets in it ready to mail letters in the same way they have postage stamps ready to mail letters?

Relying on the entirely literal idea that you "can" mail a letter with them -- though hardly anyone every does this -- kind of misleads what they are. What they are is a tax on stamp collectors who have to have them to complete the blank spaces in their albums.

Witness all the countries in Africa and elsewhere which flood the market with endless souvenir sheets which serve no postal purpose and are never used as postage. While it's true these countries also over-issue real postage stamps, those are only for postal use and are used that way often, sometimes, or rarely, all of which qualify them as actual postage stamps.

I would never count souvenir sheets if I were counting up the world's postage stamps. Air Mails, of course. Semis, of course, since they are publicly sold and frequently used to mail letters. Special Delivery, Certified mail, and some others, of course. And some others. But not souvenir sheets. Also, not "Officials" which are in-house stamps used by government officials and in no way public use "postal stamps". So they're out, too. As should be postal stationary, parcel post, newspaper stamps, and some others. I'm not even sure if postage due stamps are "postage stamps" since they, themselves, do not pay the postage -- it's the customer who forks over the money the sender neglected to pay who pays the postage. So how are postage dues "postage" stamps?

Of course, this is purely academic since whoever counts all the worlds postage stamps will do whatever they want. However, I'd suggest to these maniacal bean counters -- please for the sake of all that is good in the world, keep tabs of what categories of stamps you are counting. This will allow those of us wise to the scam of souvenir sheets to at deduct their numbers to get the "real" number of postage stamps issued in the history of stamps! Smile.

(I admit that I do add souvenir sheets and postage dues and many of the others to many of my various collections, but I'm always grumpy when I do this. It's only to fill the empty spaces and not because I think they are actually "stamps". But it's a token gesture I'm not proud of. I've always had a "going along with other people is probably the best approach" problem. I draw the line absolutely, though, at S & H Green Stamps and other consumer gimmicks.)

"Stamp collecting was huge from the 20's to the 80's. There were lots of clubs, many newspapers had a column, and it was worldwide."

Yes, it was, It's glory days probably began in the 1930s as something you could do cheaply during the Depression (collecting cheap stamps, anyway, and imagining they'd be more valuable someday as an "investment" which was not often true) -- and later in the postwar period from the 1950s on as a hobby for increasingly prosperous Americans. But this is when it grew, not where it existed or who it involved. Until the latter part of this long era, it was heavily European and American. And it still is pretty much. Nearly all stamp shows are in Europe or the U.S. where the collectors are.

Stamp collecting barely ever existed in most of Africa or South Asia and not much in Latin America, at least in numbers even close to Europe. It's always been mainly Western Europe and America where you see collectors -- but with a few changes in recent decades. Evidence for this is that the countries most widely collected are these same countries where collectors live -- the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, and so on.

Non-Western interest in stamp collecting grew in Japan after the war since its postwar "economic miracle" in the 1960s. Beginning sometime around the 1980s, collecting in China has grown a great deal because stamps serve a double purpose there even more than they have in the US. -- as a hobby to enjoy, and as an accessible investment. In China, stamps serve as a kind of hedge against economic collapse for millions of Chinese. Or so Chinese collectors say.

Among the world's 10 most populous countries -- India, China the U.S, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, and Mexico -- how many have historically had a strong interest in collecting stamps? Maybe two. Most stamp collectors are in countries whose populations are a good deal farther down the list in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and lower -- Germany, UK, France, and Italy being the largest if my math is correct.

It's true that it's less of a western hobby today, but it's still primarily western. Collecting stamps flourishes in stable economic systems with stable governments that issue stamps regularly, in countries with strong middle-class economies where people have extra money to spend beyond the essentials, and among people with enough leisure time to enjoy the hobby. Not every country with collectors matches this pattern exactly, of course (China, for one) but they don't differ from it very much, either.

Good morning everybody ----This posting is from the Senior MANICAL BEAN COUNTER of the Community Chat Board ,

I collect the world . Why because that is where I started . I just never stopped, been told hundreds of times that it can't be done by dealers, auction firm employees ,stamp club members and philatelic experts . BUT I LIKE IT.

I enjoyed getting 100 stamps in the mail for 10 cents from a ad in BOY;S LIFE magizine in the late 1950;s . I grew older but still like my packet of stamps . even went to New Jersey as a adult to Greg Manning Auctions and purchased a 52 huge boxes of stamps ,that was a whole UPS truck full to my home in Chicago . Many times Rasdale Stamps filled my large old type Chevy Blazer with stamps . All those huge purchases felt like that first time I spend 10 cents to get a treasure of 100 stamps in the mail .

That feeling always stayed with me .......do you know next year for my 77th birthday I will most likely buy a few dozen large boxes and it will feel like 1958 again ,sitting on my front stairs waiting for the mailman to deliver that 100 stamps . Guess that feeling never goes away .

Hopefully that BEAN COUNTER number goes to 350,000 different stamps .

If we think that there are 750,000 face different stamps, then there are many times more stamps when counting varieties. Start down the specialist catalogues and journals, and you're off to the races. One Scott number may have 17 Facit numbers.

Lots of the people doing counts are making actual counts, not rough estimates. If it's time to do a recount, but you aren't going to do an actual count, maybe you have a couple SCFers give you random album numbers to apply to your daughter's equation, and see what comes out.

Could be interesting.

Agree with what you posted ........we agree that there is about 750,000 different stamps ,that is a safe number,not a rough number but a "safe " number like 6 billion people on earth . Now a rough number would be how many barrels of oil is in the ground or how many tons of coal is in the State of West Virgina ,that is a rough number . So we are talking about a "safe " number and not a" rough " number .

Now I said I got 330,000 diff. stamps that was a "safe " number ,not a guess number or rough number . This method was given to me by my oldest daughter who graduated from Stanford with a M.B.A. Remember that was posted 2 1/2 years ago , so my numbers have increased if you understand I been buying over these 2 1/2 years ,so it is safe to say that is a honest answer .

The safe number on any count would be +3% over or -3% below would be a honest number

Among the world's 10 most populous countries -- India, China the U.S, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Russia, and Mexico -- how many have historically had a strong interest in collecting stamps?

Hard to say, but if one collects covers, you start to see that most if not all those counties have/had stamp collectors. There's special cancellations, shows and such. Perhaps they were all marketed to Americans, but I've seen Russian correspondence and such from people wanting to trade stamps. I will have to dig into my covers and see if I have anything. I was once saving a postally used cover from as many different counties as I could, but if one thinks stamps take up a lot of room, try collecting covers!

As for the number of stamps, I draw the line with counting every plate number of Penny Reds for instance, but it is fun to collect those too! ;)