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A Philatelic Quest for Everywhere JOHN SEIDL Like many stamp collectors, I started out with worldwide packets as a young boy. Unlike most stamp collectors, 50+ years later I still avidly collect worldwide: all years, all countries, all issues. While this may in fact be a bit crazed, there is a challenge that I know you will find much harder than you’d first think: Collect one issue from every stamp issuing entity that has put forth stamps to move the mails. I first climbed this mountain many years ago, both as an exercise in philatelic exploration but also as a way to give myself something to look for at stamp shows. I have several specialist country and topical collections but after some time and money have been invested, it becomes difficult to find new material without converting to postal history. So I took on the “everywhere hunt” as a new way to engage with our hobby. 20 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / JANUARY 2021
Where is everywhere? Defining the scope of your quest is the first problem. What do you want to include or exclude? For my personal definition, I decided on the following: existing countries, dead countries, military occupations, government agencies, and international organizations. I chose to exclude philatelic fantasies, cinderellas, micronations or political entities that tried to create credibility though issuing postage stamps such as Mantanzas or the Republic of South Moluccas. One of the great aspects of stamp collecting is each stamp collector is free to make their own decisions about what to include in their collection and that certainly applies here. Now that you have your categories, you must determine which entities actually qualify to be included in each. There are many sources to follow and even a few albums have been published that seek to answer this question. You can create “the list” by consulting any of the following: • Entities included in your favorite catalog (Scott, Michel, Unificado, Yvert, Gibbons, etc.) • Included on your favorite online resource (Stampworld, APS StampStore, Stamp Atlas, eBay, Wikipedia, etc.) • UPU membership • Published specialized albums (see below) You will find yourself in a personal debate as you define your own criteria for which entities should make your list or not. As an example, I chose to exclude some recent “puppet” states like Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria, but I suspect some of the people in what most consider to be Georgia or Moldova would not agree with me. I am aware of two specialized “one-from-everywhere” albums that have been published. The Single Specimen World Gazetteer Stamp Album published by Cliff Brown (Terra Nova Publishing) in the early 1990s is now long out of print and would fail to include some recent global changes like South Sudan, Kosovo or Timor-Leste. More recently in 2013, the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum website published an electronic album titled A Stamp for Every Country Album (Figure 1). The Smithsonian album was inspired by the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery exhibit of “A Stamp for Every Country.” While no longer directly available from the Smithsonian’s website, you can download a copy from the APS web site: https://aps.buzz/EveryCountryPDF. Both albums had spaces for about 800 stamps. While the Gazetteer is alphabetical for “active” and “dead” countries, the NPM album is sorted by geographic region and does a better job of showing the lineage of a region. Here is a sample page from each (Figures 2 and 3). I am also aware of one enterprising philatelist who created his own album. Mark Jochim’s work from 2015 is a thing of beauty, with each stamp-issuing entity getting two full pages of background information, a map of the country and even an illustration of their flag along with room for the example stamp (Figure 4). The point is that this is a creative Figure 1. A Stamp For Every Country album, published by the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. Figure 2. From the “M” section of the alphabetized Gazetteer album. Note the maps and brief historical details. Figure 3. Page 94 of the Smithsonian album - Malaysia. The album is sorted alphabetically within regions, includes precedent countries and other subcategories with dates, and is cross-referenced where necessary. JANUARY 2021 / AMERICAN PHILATELIST 21
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