Post by Aaron J on Dec 14, 2013 17:10:00 GMT -5
I have long been intending to start up a German stamp collection and have a few stamps and also a German stamp catalogue (the Michel Deutschland-Katalog 2013/2014, if anyone was curious)...
I have noticed to what the Deutsche Post do, which is somewhat different to Royal Mail, and that is how they issue stamps in series.
As most here will know, Royal Mail tend to issue stamps at, say, ten or six stamps a time (such as the Butterflies issue this year and the Merchant Navy, etc.)... but after looking through the German catalogue, Deutsche Post also do series of stamps on the same topic, but they tend to issue one or two stamps a year on that topic (one example that stands out is their 'Leuchttürme' (lighthouses) stamps... the series started a couple of years ago, and they issue two per year. The same for their 'Für den Jugend' and so on.
And it's not just series like that. For an anniversary, or a famous German birthday or commemoration (like '800 Jahre Dessau' of 2013 or 125. Geburtstag Theodor Heuss from 2009) there is only one stamp issued for that. But there are loads of those types of issues, and they can be categorised into 'birthdays' or 'anniversaries' - based on time.
So how do you organise German stamps by this? Do you simply place the stamps by chronological order of their issue date (or catalogue number) or do you group the stamps into their thematic nature, with all the stamps of their series together and all the birthday and anniversary related stamps together, regardless of when they were issued?
It seems to be more structured to put them together in relation to their series/theme... for example, a 1952 stamp celebrating the 100 years of the National Germanic museum in Nuremberg (100 Jahre Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg) could be alongside (with subsequent anniversarial issues inbetween) the 2008 stamp celebrating 1100 years of the founding of Eichstätt. And once the 'anniversary' section is done with, there's the 'birthdays' section and then the 'other thematic' section...
Does any collector organise their album in such fashion? I'm rather warming to the idea, and it seems more interesting and challenging to simply stick stamps in order of issue. And that's it... that way, only their order of issue will be the only thing in order. It would seem rather untidy to have things all mixed up with singular stamps all over the place - to me, it may look as if I hadn't gotten around to completing the set! (This is a personal opinion, however - it's not a slight to anyone who does things this way!)
I have noticed to what the Deutsche Post do, which is somewhat different to Royal Mail, and that is how they issue stamps in series.
As most here will know, Royal Mail tend to issue stamps at, say, ten or six stamps a time (such as the Butterflies issue this year and the Merchant Navy, etc.)... but after looking through the German catalogue, Deutsche Post also do series of stamps on the same topic, but they tend to issue one or two stamps a year on that topic (one example that stands out is their 'Leuchttürme' (lighthouses) stamps... the series started a couple of years ago, and they issue two per year. The same for their 'Für den Jugend' and so on.
And it's not just series like that. For an anniversary, or a famous German birthday or commemoration (like '800 Jahre Dessau' of 2013 or 125. Geburtstag Theodor Heuss from 2009) there is only one stamp issued for that. But there are loads of those types of issues, and they can be categorised into 'birthdays' or 'anniversaries' - based on time.
So how do you organise German stamps by this? Do you simply place the stamps by chronological order of their issue date (or catalogue number) or do you group the stamps into their thematic nature, with all the stamps of their series together and all the birthday and anniversary related stamps together, regardless of when they were issued?
It seems to be more structured to put them together in relation to their series/theme... for example, a 1952 stamp celebrating the 100 years of the National Germanic museum in Nuremberg (100 Jahre Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg) could be alongside (with subsequent anniversarial issues inbetween) the 2008 stamp celebrating 1100 years of the founding of Eichstätt. And once the 'anniversary' section is done with, there's the 'birthdays' section and then the 'other thematic' section...
Does any collector organise their album in such fashion? I'm rather warming to the idea, and it seems more interesting and challenging to simply stick stamps in order of issue. And that's it... that way, only their order of issue will be the only thing in order. It would seem rather untidy to have things all mixed up with singular stamps all over the place - to me, it may look as if I hadn't gotten around to completing the set! (This is a personal opinion, however - it's not a slight to anyone who does things this way!)
On the serious side I think the thematic way is a much nicer presentation and as said before, it would stand out.