Philatelic and Postal History Primer
Types of Collections
Introduction//Stamp Types//Collection Types//Getting Started//Associations

Different Types of Collections

Stamps are issued by virtually every country in the world and they are issued in various types of formats. One type of specialty collection might consist of only the stamps in one of these formats. Listed below are some of the various types of stamp issue formats.

Select/click on the links below for more information and a full size graphic. 

Types of Collections

In the previous section we looked at the various types of stamp issues. In this section we will look at the variety of ways in which collectors specialize in certain stamp areas, topics and themes.  This not only helps to make the collection more manageable,  but also allows the collector the freedom to tailor his or her stamp collection more in line with their own personal interests. For instance; a submarine sailor might start a topical collection of  U.S. submarine commissioning covers or collect submarine souvenir sheets from around the world. Some collectors concentrate on one or two issues, thus our submarine collector might want to collect all covers, cancellations, and postal material relating to the Artic Explorations issue of 1959 which pictures the USS Nautilus.

A collector of Rhode Island Issues might wish to specialize in the Rhode Island Tercentenary Issue of 1936 or they might wish to collect Postal Cards with Rhode Island Themes such as the Nathanael Greene or Redwood Library Postal Cards. All of these collections discussed so far are known as themed or Topical Collections.

A collector could also specialize in First Day Covers, First Flight Covers, Plate Blocks, or collect only Air Mail stamps. Some collectors opt for collecting a single country and attempt to obtain at least one single issue of each stamp issued by that country. An even more generalized type of collection would be collecting singles from as many countries world-wide as possible. 

The main idea is to have fun! 

Now let's look at some of the different types of specialty collections in a little more detail. Select the links below for a further look into the different types of collections.

Introduction//Stamp Types//Collection Types//Getting Started//Associations