Topical Stamp Collections - The Wave of the Future


In the "good old days," most stamp collectors collected stamps from a wide variety of countries throughout the world. When there began to be "just too many stamps" for that to be practical, some collectors began to focus more on stamps from a single country or a group of related countries, such as the British Empire. But now, topical or thematic stamps are beginning to become extremely popular. Topical stamp collecting is collecting stamps according to their topic or subject (theme) and not which country issued them.

There are some advantages to topical stamp collections. You don't have to collect complete sets of stamps - unless they all relate to your favorite subject - and you can collect only what you want to, instead of trying to collect all the stamps of a particular country whether they appeal to you or not.

Unlike the good old days, now there are millions of different stamps so it's important to narrow down your field(s) of interest. Topical stamps are a great way to do this and they're a natural extension of a subject that you're already interested in.

To get you started thinking this way, here's an alphabetical list of a few general topical stamp subjects. You can collect one or more of these subjects or you can pick something entirely different - I'm just giving you some food for thought here. One of the beauties of topical stamp collecting is that you can pick any topic(s) you want!

Airflight and Space (Airplanes, Hot Air Balloons, Helicopters, Zeppelins, Space Satellites, Rockets, Manned Space Flights, etc.)

Animals (with or without subcategories such as Birds, Dogs, Cats, Horses, Fish, Monkeys, Elephants, Tigers, etc.)

Art (Paintings, Sculptures, Statues, etc.)

Charities (Fight Against Cancer, Anti-Aids, Freedom From Hunger, World Peace, etc.)

Clubs and Fraternal Groups (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Rotary, Masons, World Wildlife Fund, etc.)

Education (Universities, Colleges, Teachers, etc.)

Electronics and Electricity (Light Bulbs, Thomas Edison, Computers, etc.)

Explorers (Christopher Columbus, James Cook, Roald Amundsen, etc.)

Flags (Current Flags of Countries, Flags of Countries That No Longer Exist such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the USSR, etc.)

Flowers and Plants (Flowers, Herbs, Crops, Trees, Cacti, Forestry, etc.)

Health (Anti-Malaria, Doctors, Nurses, Hospitals, Red Cross, etc.)

Insects (Butterflies, Ladybugs, Hummingbirds, Bees, etc.)

Military (Soldiers, Tanks, Fighter Planes, Naval Ships, World War Two, etc.)

Music (Composers, Song Lyrics, Jazz Musicians, Conductors, etc.)

Science and Technology (Astronomy and Astronomers, Chemistry, Medicine, etc.)

Sports (Olympic Games, Football (Soccer), American Football, Cycling, Basketball, Boxing, Ice Hockey, Tennis, etc.)

Transportation (Trains, Ships, Automobiles, Airplanes, etc.)


Purchasing stamp assortments is a great way to begin a new topical stamp collection. You never know what you'll get, but there will certainly be stamps that have a wide variety of subjects and even better, they're very inexpensive. So join the wave of the future, begin a new topical stamp collection!