Stamp Collecting Tips - Dead Countries

What's a "dead country," you might ask. Well, in the stamp collecting world, a dead country is a country that either used to issue its own stamps and no longer does (for example, Bavaria) or a country that does still issue stamps but under a different name than it did before so that the old name is no longer used on its stamps (for example, the old U.S.S.R. is now issuing stamps as Russia).

Philatelists who collect dead countries enjoy a couple of extra benefits:

1. Since the country they collect no longer issues stamps, they know exactly how many stamps they will need to have a complete collection - there will be no more stamps from that country in the future.

2. These stamp collectors don't need to deal with the flood of new stamp issues by many countries during recent years.