Stamp Collecting Specialties

A complete worldwide stamp collection would be absolutely enormous, with thousands of volumes. It would also be incredibly expensive to acquire. Many collectors begin as worldwide stamp collectors, but after a while they they tend to get a bit overwhelmed by it all. Many eventually limit the scope of their collections, but their collections may be "deeper" (more in-depth, including varieties, errors and other interesting items). Some collectors limit themselves to the stamps of particular countries, time periods or topics. Other collectors limit
themselves to collecting specific types of stamps.

Some of the more popular stamp collecting specialties include:

• Particular countries and/or time periods

• Definitive stamps - the most frequently used stamps

• Commemorative stamps - issued to commemorate events, anniversaries etc., on sale for a limited time

• Pictorial stamps - often featuring images of a country's scenery, animals, plants or lifestyle (some pictorials are definitives, others are commemoratives)

• Revenue stamps - issued to pay tax in small amounts. Some early stamps had Postage and Revenue printed on them, to indicate that they were acceptable for both uses
  

• Postal stationery - government-issued postal cards, aerograms, air letter sheets, etc.

• Sheetlets - a format now issued regularly by postal administrations. Instead of issuing stamps in large sheets of 40 or more stamps, smaller sheetlets with 16 or 20 stamps are issued with a large selvage area which may incorporate part of the stamp design or theme
  

• Miniature sheets - very similar to Souvenir sheets, minisheets are a form of sheetlet with a single stamp or a few stamps embedded

• Souvenir sheets - stamps printed in a format that look like a sheet with a large picture. Various parts of the picture are actually stamps can be removed and used as postage
  

• Corner blocks or plate blocks - a block of stamps from one of the four corners of a stamp sheet. Collectors usually collect blocks of four stamps, complete with the selvage area which sometimes bears printing details or plate number(s)
  

• Postage due stamps

• Federal Duck Stamps (stamps for duck hunting licenses, mainly U.S., but Canada and New Zealand also have duck stamps

• First day covers (FDCs) - envelopes with stamps attached and canceled on the first day that the stamp was issued. Most modern FDCs bear designs, called "cachets," related to the theme of the stamp issued
  

• PHQ Cards - pictorial postcards issued by the British Post Office (Royal Mail). Each PHQ card shows an enlarged color reproduction of a commemorative stamp
  

• First Day Ceremony Programs - folders or brochures given out to attendees of the First Day Ceremonies of postage stamps, with historical information on the stamp, a list of speakers, and an attached stamp, canceled on the First Day of Issue
  

• Souvenir pages - first day cancelled stamps on a page describing all design, printing and issuing details
  

• Topical stamps (thematic stamps) - many collectors choose to organize their stamp collection on the theme of the stamps, covers, or postmarks. Popular topical themes are animals, dogs, cats, butterflies, birds, flowers, art, sports, Olympics, maps, Disney, scouting, space, ships, Americana, stamps on stamps, famous people, chess, Chinese new year, and many others

• Cinderellas - stamp-like labels that are not valid for postage

• Counterfeit and forged postage stamps. There are several types of collectible fake postage stamps: 1. postal counterfeits produced by criminals for fraudulent use as postage stamps; often scarcer than the stamps which they were intended to represent in part because counterfeits are subject to government seizure and selling them may be illegal. 2. forgeries of rare stamps. 3. reprints produced by government printing offices or private organizations using the plates used to produce the original stamps. 4. faked stamps are common stamps which have been altered to resemble rare stamps such as forged overprints, forged cancellations, chemical alterations of a stamp's color or altered perforations

• Postmarks or postal markings in general

• Vintage stampless covers - common from the period before postage stamps were first issued to prepay postal charges