World Largest -Biggest Stamp Collection

rogdcam all good questions. I remember an article in one of the UK magazines in the 80s or 90s about the largest vintage philatelic stamp journal horde in a castle. And it filled the castle. Much was ruined, but also rare issues too. I'll have to find the reference. So yes, tons is probably what I'm thinking here. Pity about the carton lots. I once handled something like that where I had to fill a large garbage can a few times because of moldy stamps. That was from a basement of stamps that needed to be shoveled out (and basement cement came with it) CJD I'll have to check out that count. I don't know of anyone else who has that many different to that precise of a number. I just find these stories fun. And perhaps somewhat of a cautionary tale.

Here's the header for the article on the philatelic journal horde: GSM October 1994.

I can think of one dealer who would qualify, he could literally populate a whole shows worth of booths.

The largest postage stamp collection needs to be define better because there are three separate groups that need to be broken down to and not mixed as one .

The first is institutional / museum they are the Postal museum /Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and the other is the British Royal Philatelic Collection ,these are maintain by paid staff and most of it in both cases is a room of file cabinets with a small amount in exhibits in both cases .

The second group that comes into play would be large stamp dealers , this group like the first easy can run into the millions of stamps . Just look at A & D Stamp and Coin . with their 594 red boxes , 215 small binders and 125 large stockbooks plus their inventory of other material .

The third group ,which I can talk about is the private collectors. This is the area less information is known as to who got what . This is were a lot of information goes dark . The people who know this best is the owners of major stamp auction firm and their policy is not to give names of their long time customers and who they are , or what they are buying .

The largest collection WHICH HAS BEEN MOUNTED/ARRANGED AND CAN BE VIEWED might well be held by The British Library.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briti..._Collections

Regarding private collectors, NO ONE knows what is out there.

Take the case of Sir Gawaine Baillie. He built an absolutely fantastic collection but was a member of no philatelic societies, never exhibited and attended no public auctions. Apparently, he dealt solely with half a dozen dealers; all instructed to keep their dealings with him to themselves. It was a private hobby of a very rich man. Not pages and pages of $2 sets that anyone can amass should they be so inclined, but a massive collection of the very best British Empire material.

You can google him if you are interested.

I wish I was closer to the British Library!

It's next door to St Pancras Station, so you could stay in Radlett or St Albans and commute in.

Turn right as you exit the station- don't turn left or you'll end up in Kings Cross, and who knows what will happen then

Zendo59 ---- Thanks for that information about Sir Gawaine Balillie . Interesting person .

The British Library only shows half of the Tapling worldwide collection (which is 2000 pages of material to 1890) at a time for six months. A-Mauritius is up now. Mexico-Z will replace it. It occupies half of the frames shown with British material in the other half.

So, you'll have to visit at least twice. Across from the frames is an original Perkins Bacon printing press used to print the penny blacks.

King Charles could be in the running for largest collection (by cost or volume) in private hands. His collection, previously his mother and grandfather's collection, is not owned by the State, but by him. They have sold some things in the past to fund further acquisitions. Each of the monarchs used a different color for their albums. I think George V used green, Eliz. used Red. Not sure what Charles is using, if anything, for recent acquisitions.

I find that this is an interesting topic, that will, unfortunately never end with everyone being satisfied. I am convinced that somewhere:

There is a person that owns more stamps than anyone else.
There is a sales firm that owns more stamps that any other sales firm.
There is a state affiliated entity that contains or displays more stamps than any other entity.
There is a collector that owns more unique stamps than anyone else.
There is a collector that has a collection that has a catalog value more than anyone else.
There is a collector or sales firm that has more stamp albums than anyone else.
There is a home/castle/business that has more moldy and worthless stamps than anyone else.

And I am sure we can subdivide by most in one country, most from the 1800's, most topicals, etc.

In any case, an interesting endeavor but with no real ultimate value to our community (in my mind).

The Royal Philatelic Collection is not, I repeat IS NOT, an institutional but a private collection.

Whether or not a private owner pays someone to maintain a collection - which is not the case either - does not make a private collection institutional. It, only, evidences the owner has so much money that he or she can blow money on someone to maintain the collection.

I imagine that a lot of well-known collectors - from Ferrary to Gross - have had minions to do a lot of the dirty work. I doubt that Charles has ever stuck a stamp in an album.

I don't think that auction firms, dealers etc play any part in a "large collection" discussion - they don't collect anything, they just keep stock to sell. Having a truckload of boxes of unsorted stamps isn't a collection either - just an accumulation.

There has not been a chief minion in Buckingham palace for over seven years.

Here is a flyer I received from a stamp dealer that I did regular business with . This was mailed to me about the mid-1990's .

There was two reasons for not buying it after viewing the collection at that time

They are first too much of the collection was duplicates to what I had and the second reason most of the better pre-1940 material was pulled out by the former owner .