Links to useful online philatelic resources
What stamps do you collect: mint, CTO or used?
As a topical collector, I like to see every detail on the stamp, therefore I collect mint stamps.
Mint stamps are more expensive, but also more valuable and usually increase their value with the time.
I do add some CTO (cancelled to order) stamps, mostly Souvenir Sheets with clear commemorative postmarks.
I also have very few used stamps, but those are exceptions.
For example, some old and expensive stamps
98%-99% of my stamps are mint stamps in full sets.
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| Namibia 1997, Triceratops skull on mint, CTO and two used Souvenir-Sheets. I prefer fine circulated letters, but sometimes add nice used stamps or Souvenir-Sheets to my stock books too. | |||
What do you do with stamps of sets including different topics?
In most cases, I place irrelevant stamps in a dedicated stock book.
It is often the case for famous personalities.
Charles Darwin,
for example, often appears in sets of “Anniversaries of famous personalities” or
“Famous Naturalist/Explorers/Inventors” together with other personalities who had
nothing to do with
Paleontology or
Paleoanthropology.
There are also some sets with a mix of prehistoric and modern animals.
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| Mix of fossils and minerals on stamps of Angola 1970 | Mix set of modern animals and fossils on stamps of Hungary 2002 |
How do you store your stamps?
I store my stamps in stock books.
It is an easier and economical solution.
When I started collecting, I had only one stock book
that held all my stamps: a few pages for fossil stamps,
a few pages for stamps of prehistoric animals etc.
Now, after 15 years of serious collecting I have a dozen stock books.
Stamps of fossils, prehistoric animals, personalities, Natural History Museums
and fossil locations are stored in different stock books.
As I have 5 stock books with dinosaur stamps, I sorted them per continent:
one stock book for stamps of North and South America, another for Europe, etc.
To maintain my stamps easily, I keep stamps of different topics in stock books
with covers of different colours: fossils – black cover, dinosaurs – green,
other prehistoric animals – brown, etc.
What stock books do you use?
Most of my stock books are A4 size with 60 or 64 pages,
depending on the production company.
I also have 30-32 page stock books for special topics.
One of the 30 pages red stock book is filled with stamps
of Charles Darwin for example.
Every stock book is placed in a slip case for better preservation.
I also have some A5 stock books which I take with me to the stamps shows
and trade events, to store acquired stamps.
I also have an extra stock book for oversized stuff, like large covers and stamp sheets.
My stock books occupy several shelves in a bookshelf located in the corridor between two bedrooms.
There is more or less constant temperature and no windows in the corridor,
to keep the stock books away from direct sunlight.
Do you try to collect all stamps and covers issued in the world related to your topics?
No, of course not.
There are too many stamps and covers related to
Paleontology and
Paleoanthropology
produced over the last 75 years and many more
are produced each year.
Some collectors like to have a “complete” collection, which includes every stamp produced anywhere.
It is a challenge, especially due to the fact there are some agencies which print 1.000 or more stamps
per year for a single country they represent - and even may include 50-100 stamps with a
prehistoric theme for a single set!
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| "Paleophilatelie" related stamps issued by Stamperija agency on behalf of Central African Republic and Togo in 2022. Are you sure you want to be "complete"? | |
Therefore, collectors who try to get a “complete” collection usually limit themselves by the location, dinosaur stamps of Europe for example, or by the issue date, such as stamps issued prior to 2000.
The problem with the issue date limit is where to set the line. Should you stop by 2010, 2000, 1990 ... ?
The famous Stamperija started to overflow the philatelic market from 2011, but it is not the first company who tried to make revenue from collectors. Impressor is another example - they were active in the 1990s and 2000s.
Should you stop in 1990? But then you will have almost no dinosaur stamp in your collection, because the "dino-mania" started after release of the Jurassic Park movie of Steven Spielberg in 1993 and even then, your collection will include some stamps, such as "Animals" set of Fujeira 1972, which collectors who don't try to be "complete" might exclude.
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Impressor's "Dinosaurs and Minerals" stamps,
issued on behalf of Congo Kinshasa in 2007. |
IGPC's "Prehistoric Animals" stamps, issued
on behalf of Guyana in 1996. |
"Animals" stamps of Fujeira 1972 - mix of modern and prehistoric animals from all around the world. |
In my opinion, “your collection has to be complete” argument was invented by sellers who want to sell you the stuff you might not buy otherwise. I don’t buy the argument and skip the stuff I don’t like. I collect for myself and don’t let anybody else force me to buy one or another stamp or cover. To me, my collection is a “Natural History Museum in Stock Books”.
Any museum in the world cannot buy every relevant object related to its collection, instead they try to select the most interesting items that their visitors will enjoy.
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| In the same year, 2022, many other countries in the world issued very interesting "Paleophilatelie" related stamps - Australia and Mongolia for example. Why ignore them, by limiting yourself to collecting stamps published before a specific year? | |
I do collect stamps and covers issued by any country anytime, but follow the checklist I prepared.
There are many philatelic items which make no sense to me, I marked as “undesired”.
What are desired and undesired stamps to you?
Desired are stamps and covers with some background story.
When I get a new item for my collection, I scan it in high resolution,
usually 600dpi, to inspect every detail on a big display.
Beside the technical details I try to find a story about the object(s) depicted
there.
Results of my study end up in articles
published on this website and in the
philatelic magazines.
Stamps of the countries who depicted dinosaurs,
for example, not discovered there, not stored in any museum in the country are
good candidates for my “undesired” list.
The same is true for the stamps that depict prehistoric animals in too inaccurate or
abstract style.
The stamps with the mix of objects totally unrelated one to another:
Charles Darwin and dinosaurs for example.
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Examples from my ignore list. Dinosaurs were depicted on stamps of Spain 2015 in too abstract, inaccurate style, especially Tyrannosaurs rex. The dinosaurs have nothing to do with Charles Darwin. Stegosaurus on salvages of the Souvenir-Sheet, for example, was named in USA in 1877 - five years before Charles Darwin died and almost 20 years since publication of "Origin of Species". |
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Only a few dinosaurs were named prior to the date Darwin published “The Origin of Species”, in 1859 (the first dinosaur was described in 1824 and the word “dinosaur” was coined in 1842).
In Darwin's time dinosaurs were seen as gigantic beasts that seemed to have little connection to earlier or later types of animals, therefore they didn’t contribute to Darwin’s work on his evolution theory.
Some stamp production agencies mix many popular topics together to increase the sales for collectors of different topics who try to be “complete”.
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| Examples of mix of unrelated topics on the stamps: prehistoric humans, dinosaurs scouts, minerals and vulcans. Haroun Tazieff, was a volcanologist and geologist, but some dinosaurs were depicted on stamps with him. | ||
Do you collect any other philatelic items except stamps?
I do.
I collect
artworks, proofs and other design elements that go into the design of the stamps,
First Day Covers
(clean and circulated with and without autographs of the stamps designer),
specialized booklets, albums, or folders that go along with an issue,
Postal Stationeries,
letters or postcards (when possible circulated through the post)
with special postmarks and meter franking
and fine circulated covers
with stamps related to my topics.
I also buy some postcards, mostly in the museums I visit or sent to me by friends
who visited them.
Postcards collecting belongs to Deltiology rather than Philately,
however.
Sometimes I add nice Maximum cards too.
Letters to/from famous
paleontologists,
paleoanthropologists
or letters to/from major paleontological or paleoanthropological institutions
are welcome in my collection too.
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| FDC with Australian dinosaur stamps from 2013, autographed by the artist James Gurney, who also hand painted Australovenator on the bottom side of the cover. | Maximum card of Kyrgyzstan with prehistoric animal stamps from 2024. It was designed for the Sberatel Stamp Show in Prague. |
Example of a letter with commemorative postmark:
Ichthyosaurs,
Germany 2015. |
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| The letter was sent by Professor Richard Owen, who coined the word "dinosaurs". | The letter sent to prominent American paleontologist Othniel Marsh in 1870s. | Letter from Benin with surcharged stamps of Dunkleosteus. |
How do you store your covers and postcards?
In the beginning I purchased dedicated albums for cover collectors,
produced by Deutsche Post.
They are good, but expensive and occupy too much space on the shelf.
I keep the albums I have for the most valuable covers, the rest of the covers
I store in shoe or office boxes.
Every cover in the box is stored in a separate transparent plastic sleeve,
produced by one of the major philatelic accessories production companies.
When there is nothing special on the reverse side, I place two covers
(back-to-back) in the sleeve.
Where do you get information about stamps and covers related to your topic?
Lucky collectors of a single country or region, may purchase one volume printed or
online catalogue, produced by the local
Postal Authority or one of the major stamp
catalogues production companies, MICHEL or Scott for example.
For topical collectors it can be challenging, because many if not all countries
of the world might have produced some stamps or covers related to their topics.
Topical catalogues can be a good solution, but not many of them exist on the market
and they are not updated very often.
For example, in 2019 MICHEL printed "Dinos - Ganze Welt" - 160 A5 pages with
approx. 2.500 colour illustrations and about 20.000 price quotations for
prehistoric animals’ stamps, mainly dinosaurs.
If you collect dinosaur stamps – lucky you, even though over 50 stamp sets
published prior to the date of the catalogue are not listed!
No update has been printed in the five years since.
A similar catalogue prior to the issue of “Dinos - Ganze Welt”, was printed by
the Spanish company Domphil in 2002.
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Colnect and StampWorld can be a good free alternative.
The problem with searching through world-wide catalogues, is you have to know what to search for. Some dinosaur stamps, for example, might not appear in the search results until you search for the species name, because some stamps might have the title “Stegosaurus” for example and the catalogue administrator listed it as is without assigning it to dinosaurs’ category.
Another challenge is to get information about brand-new and coming issues.
To get information about coming issues, I search through stamp issue plans of Postal Authorities around the world at the beginning of the year. Many of them publish their plans on the Internet. I also get information from international members of my Facebook group, Paleophilately about the upcoming issues in their countries.
If you collect the same philatelic stuff: fossils, dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, paleontologists ... just visit "Current Year" regularly to keep yourself updated.
Study Units of major Philatelic Associations can be of help.
The “Biology Study Unit” of the American Topical Association publishes “Biophilately” magazine every three months with the lists of all new stamps related to biology topics. Since 2015 I have run the Paleontology column there and in 2023, I was elected to the board of directors.
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Another example is Arbeitsgemeinschaft "Bergbau und Geowissenschaften", in English "Mining and Geosciences", study unit of German Philatelic Association dedicated to studying postage stamps related to mining, geology, paleontology, paleoanthropology, mineralogy and speleology. "GLÜCKAUF" magazine of the club publishes list of new stamps related to their topics, but in German. Some articles are written in English by international members of the study unit.
Some clubs and associations offer topical checklists in MS-Excel format to their members.
The American Topical Association, for example, has a big list of such checklists. The checklist in MS-Excel format can be purchased by the members of the association only. The association offers a free of charge update to members for the lists they have previously purchased on an annual basis.
How do you get your collectible objects?
There are many options to obtain stamps and other philatelic items.
You can buy them directly in the post offices or philatelic desks,
philatelic shops, from stamp dealers or from other collectors either in
offline or online stores.
You can also swap your duplicates with other collectors.
Since I was a child I enjoyed swapping my duplicates with other kids.
The swap connects you with other collectors and sometimes allows you to
get the stuff you cannot get in your country or save a lot of money.
Later you might even develop friendship with some of them
to help each other over their lifetimes.
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| Examples of FDC and fine circulated covers posted to me by swap partners from Facebook. | ||
Where to find swap partners?
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| Welcome to join "Paleophilately" group of Facebook. |
Traditionally, stamp collectors organize clubs and societies who organize
regular meetings including swap sessions.
With the development of the Internet, the process for searching for a swap partner
became much easier.
There are several philatelic forums which include swap threads.
Collectors platforms such Colnect can be used to find the swap partners too.
TradeOnlyStamps is the website to search for swap partners, but its capability
is very limited.
My favourite swap partner search internet resource is Facebook.
Facebook has many public and private groups covering every topic you can imagine,
such as politics, travel, cooking, and even philatelic topics.
There are several “stamp swap” groups, groups for “cover collectors” etc.
The good thing is you can chat with international collectors online.
In case of the language barrier
Google-Translator or similar tool can help.
There are two Facebook groups related to the topic of this website:
"Paleophilately",
created and run by myself, and
"Evolution of mankind and Philately".
Where do you buy your stamps and covers?
I use all the possibilities.
I try to buy brand new stamps directly from the post offices or their
philatelic bureaus,
either offline or online.
Many Postal Authorities in the world have online shops where they offer their
stamps and other philatelic items.
This is the cheapest option to purchase brand-new stuff.
One or two times a year I visit stamp trade shows.
Several Postal Administrations of the neighbouring countries have their booths
where they sell their philatelic products at a nominal price.
Old stamps, covers and postcards can be purchased from dealers.
Many of them have special prices.
Once I found a big box of covers with fossils and prehistoric animal stamps
for €1 each – I bought a lot, part for my own collection, part to swap or
give as a gift to friends.
Philatelic stores are also an option, but in the last 10-15 years many of them
have closed.
All philatelic stores in Munich, where I live, moved out of the downtown area.
Some of them closed completely, others rented small rooms in the shopping malls
or elsewhere and sell their stuff mostly on the Internet.
The philatelic desk of Deutsche Post has moved from downtown and is now much
smaller than before.
The good thing is, it is easy to find the parking area nearby.
Today, the Internet is the best option to buy collectible stuff and find
swap partners.
One additional benefit to ordering online (or in the old days from catalogs)
is that sellers tend to use interesting stamps (and sometimes a lot of them!)
on the package when they send you your item.
And it can be a good way to get used examples of stamps you collect or get stamps
that can be traded or given to your swap partners and friends.
This is especially true of international dealers - some of whom take care to
create nice covers
(Probably to entice sales but also as an understanding of the importance of stamps).
For more details about how to buy stamps on the Internet please read
“How to collect stamps in the XXI century”
article.
Sometimes I even ask the seller to use a particular stamp on the cover for me.
When it works, I might get an additional nice cover for my collection or for swap.
When I have been informed in advance about the coming issue, I try to find a swap partner
or even a seller in the country of the issue to ask to make me an addressed FDC and
nice circulated covers.
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| Examples of FDC and fine circulated covers sent to me by the sellers from the Internet. | ||
Is it expensive to collect stamps?
Some stamps are expensive.
Once I saw an offer
of a block of four “Penny Black”
(the first stamp in the world issued in Great Britain in 1840)
stamps for GBP 75.000 – most of us will probably prefer to spend the money to
buy a new car or even two.
Fine used stamp of "Penny Black"
can be purchased for much more affordable price of one hundred Euro or even less.
The good of Philately - there are always a possibility to find something you like
at reasonable price.
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“British Guiana 1c magenta” - the most expensive stamp in the world.
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Used "Penny Black" can be found for affordable price today, even with the matching "Penny Red" (successor of "Penny Black"). |
The most expensive stamp in the world is the “British Guiana 1c magenta”.
It was purchased by the oldest stamp dealer in Great Britain – Stanley Gibbons
for USD 9.480.000 at Sotheby's auction in New York, in 2014.
The price per weight makes this stamp the most expensive object ever
produced by man.
Most “Paleophilatelie” related stamps
are much cheaper and can be purchased at a reasonable
price between €1 and €20.
For example:
- The set of two stamps "Giants of the Ice Age" issued by the Swiss Post in 2024 was CHF 2.20 (approx. €2.34).
- The set of 8 stamps “The Age of the Dinosaurs” issued by the Royal Mail of Great Britain in 2024, was sold for GBP 14.60 (approx. €17.4).
- The first stamp with reconstruction of prehistoric animals - "Centenary of Geological Survey of India" from 1951, can be found for €3-€4 in mint (clean) condition, the cancelled (CTO) stamp can be found for €2 or even less.
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| Examples of beautiful, old, but inexpensive stamps: Poland 1965, San Marino 1965, Bulgaria 1971. | ||
Is it not dangerous to buy and swap stamps and covers on the Internet?
Well, the risk is there.
Whatever you do on the Internet you have to be careful.
There are always some cheaters mixed with the many serious users.
Most of the trading platforms allow you to rate the partner at the end of
the transaction.
Check the rating of your partner and read the feedback left by other users,
before press on “buy” or “bid” button.
Facebook doesn’t have a rating system, but there are several “swap cheater”
groups where users report about the issues they faced and ask one another about
their experience with swap of a specific person.
When you buy anything on the Internet, including stamps, check the rating of
the seller, read the rules of the platform and sales conditions of the seller.
Use payment methods such as PayPal that offers buyer warranties.
This protects the buyer by returning the money either fully or partially if
the item is not received or is received in a condition different from described
by the seller.