Stamp Collecting in the 20th Century

A Stamp Tag is a text box used to identify stamps and collectibles. home Blog EMail EBay

This is Jim Bryden's Book

Part I: Stamp Collecting

Part II: Photos, History, Genealogy

Part III: Denver & Driving

Jim Bryden's Book
Part I: Stamp Collecting

1:::Stamp Tags is a free program to help you print framed boxes for identifying stamps

2 :::Stamp Tags screen shots

3 :::Download Stamp Tags free

4 :::History: Stamp Collecting in the 20th Century

5 :::Great Britain Machin heads, Phosphor Bands, etc.

6 :::Machin Head List

7 :::About Precancels

8 :::Precancels: San Francisco Breaks

9 :::Kans & Nebr Overprints

10 :::Revenue Stamps of Mexico

a Timeline of Human Transportation and Communications

Stamp Collecting in the 20th Century

A History of Stamp Collecting in my Lifetime
No, I'm not really THAT old, I guess it's really a history of stamp collecting in the last half of the 20th century.

The Minkus System

H. E. Harris --- Scott --- non-U.S. albums & stupplies

The Minkus System of 2-post Stamp Albums:

Minkus Albums all use the same size of pages, 9½ x 11 inches (approximately). All of the pages have the same frame and the same hole punches. So all the binders and all the pages are interchangeable. (The one exception is the Specialized U.S. pages, which have a different frame, but still same size and punches. There are also some 3-ring Specialized Albums.)

The Minkus World-Wide Albums:
(Loose-leaf 2-post 9.5 x 11 inch pages, page frame looks like the outside of a stamp)

1. The New World-Wide Album (1.5-inch binder, up to 400 pages)
2. The Comprehensive World-Wide Album (2-inch binder, up to 800 pages)
3. The Master Global Album (4-inch binder, up to 1200 pages)
4. The Supreme Global Album (2+ 4-inch binders, over 2000 pages)
5. Minkus regional (aka "Specialty") albums (various sizes, pages printed on one side, 1.5 to 3-inch binders); includes US "All American" album, different page frame.

The bigger the album, the easier it is to keep the pages grouped together. The pages actually vary by as much as a half inch in size, but all are about 9.5 x 11 inches. The earliest albums had numbered pages and an index.

The binders were various types, starting with fold-over screw-post, then vinyl screw-post. Metal-post and wire were always used for the larger binders.. Later, under new ownership, slip-lock posts were used (they have flat backs on the binders.) The colors were (in chronological order) black, dark blue, and maroon. All had gold imprinting. Later pages were also punched with 3-hole binder-sized punches (5 holes), and outsized 3-ring binders were available. Various 3-ring albums also exist in 8.5 x 11 page size, including U.S. Plate Blocks, Canada, Vatican, Israel. The smallest world-wide album was "My First Stamp Album" (hard-bound Juvenile).

Minkus changed the Stamp Collecting Style by listing all postage stamps together: no separate pages needed for Postage Dues, Airmails, Semi-Postals, etc. Then they made the pages tend to come out even so that you could put the countries in any order you wanted; they could combine the little "dead" countries in smaller albums and still have a smooth flow of the collection. Those small albums grouped the world by Political Areas, the way Specialized Collectors already collected. That also encouraged collectors to actually get to know the world. (Again, the exception was that the US stamps were divided even further, keeping Commemoratives and Definitives separate.)

Jacques Minkus began his Stamp career by making cachets in the era of World War II. Those patriotic cachets are still much sought after in the stamp collecting world. After the War, Minkus began producing stamp albums with pages that were artistically laid out, and by the late 1950s, he was well on his way to starting his stamp catalogs. The catalogs actually never got very wide acceptance, but the Albums began appearing with catalog numbers under the stamps, which would have made for perfect albums if only the numbers had been from the widely accepted Scott catalogue.

To distribute his stamps and supplies, Minkus chose to use Stamp Departments in Department Stores, most notably Gimbel's in New York City. In Denver, the department was in May D&F through the 1960s, then moved into The Denver Dry Goods Company. None of those stores and none of those stamp departments exist any more. Minkus Publications does not exist any more either, though it seems someone still owns rights to the name, and who knows? The Minkus albums bring really good money on E-Bay, many people who want to collect in printed albums look for Minkus.

Like Stamp Collecting in general, Minkus albums were greatly hampered by the plethora of stamps put out starting in the 1960s. Yearly supplements became giant books in their own right. Stamp collectors began limiting their stamp collecting: they went from collecting everything to collecting only certain areas or only certain times or etc. You can still get blank pages, even binders from the big dealers like Subway Stamps, they print their own. You can take even the smallest of the old albums, and with the Minkus System you can add loose pages and blank pages where and when you want. I have greatly enjoyed designing and printing my own pages; that is why I made my software program Stamp Tags work with Microsoft Word.

The Country Groupings in Minkus
(Historical or Political Groups, not necessarily in this order):

1. U.S., with Puerto Rico, Hawaii, etc.

2. British Commonwealth

3. Latin America

4. Independent Asia & Africa

5. Western Europe, their colonies and former colonies

6. Eastern Europe ("Iron Curtain" countries)

I did not start collecting with Minkus products. As a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, about the only stamp supplies that were available to me were from H. E. Harris and Company. There were stamp departments in all the "dime stores," (later discount stores) like Woolworths, Hesteds, Kresge's. Stamp collecting was so big that even the convenience stores like 7-11 and Big Top sold at least stamp hinges. Harris had a virtual monopoly on all the local stores. To get other brands you might find them at a hobby shop or an actual stamp store, but in Denver, even then, you were mostly limited to mail order. Mail order, stamps on approval, were huge. Boy's Life, comic books, other kid's magazines and newspapers were loaded with advertisements for stamps.

Harris Albums did have some advantages. You could cram a lot more stamps onto a page, and that actually does make it nice so that you can turn fewer pages to view the stamps. But they used the Scott system of back of the book separate from postage issues. So when you added pages the pages never came out to the right place. They never got the idea to keep the countries as separate modules as Minkus did. And there was not enough room to use stamp mounts. Furthermore, Harris's mounts, Crystal Mounts, tended to destroy album pages. If Harris had been a little more careful, their albums would still be in great demand.

STAMP TAGS home page ---- STAMP TAGS lots on E-Bay

A Stamp Tag is a text box used to identify stamps and collectibles. home Blog EMail EBay
This is Jim Bryden's Book	Part I: Stamp Collecting	Part II: Photos, History, Genealogy	Part III: Denver & Driving

	Minkus Albums all use the same size of pages, 9½ x 11 inches (approximately). All of the pages have the same frame and the same hole punches. So all the binders and all the pages are interchangeable. (The one exception is the Specialized U.S. pages, which have a different frame, but still same size and punches. There are also some 3-ring Specialized Albums.)		The Minkus World-Wide Albums: (Loose-leaf 2-post 9.5 x 11 inch pages, page frame looks like the outside of a stamp) 1. The New World-Wide Album (1.5-inch binder, up to 400 pages) 2. The Comprehensive World-Wide Album (2-inch binder, up to 800 pages) 3. The Master Global Album (4-inch binder, up to 1200 pages) 4. The Supreme Global Album (2+ 4-inch binders, over 2000 pages) 5. Minkus regional (aka "Specialty") albums (various sizes, pages printed on one side, 1.5 to 3-inch binders); includes US "All American" album, different page frame. *The bigger the album, the easier it is to keep the pages grouped* *together.* The pages actually vary by as much as a half inch in size, but all are about 9.5 x 11 inches. The earliest albums had numbered pages and an index. The binders were various types, starting with fold-over screw-post, then vinyl screw-post. Metal-post and wire were always used for the larger binders.. Later, under new ownership, slip-lock posts were used (they have flat backs on the binders.) The colors were (in chronological order) black, dark blue, and maroon. All had gold imprinting. Later pages were also punched with 3-hole binder-sized punches (5 holes), and outsized 3-ring binders were available. Various 3-ring albums also exist in 8.5 x 11 page size, including U.S. Plate Blocks, Canada, Vatican, Israel. The smallest world-wide album was "My First Stamp Album" (hard-bound Juvenile).
	Minkus changed the Stamp Collecting Style by listing all postage stamps together: no separate pages needed for Postage Dues, Airmails, Semi-Postals, etc. Then they made the pages tend to come out even so that you could put the countries in any order you wanted; they could combine the little "dead" countries in smaller albums and still have a smooth flow of the collection. Those small albums grouped the world by Political Areas, the way Specialized Collectors already collected. That also encouraged collectors to actually get to know the world. (Again, the exception was that the US stamps were divided even further, keeping Commemoratives and Definitives separate.)
	Jacques Minkus began his Stamp career by making cachets in the era of World War II. Those patriotic cachets are still much sought after in the stamp collecting world. After the War, Minkus began producing stamp albums with pages that were artistically laid out, and by the late 1950s, he was well on his way to starting his stamp catalogs. The catalogs actually never got very wide acceptance, but the Albums began appearing with catalog numbers under the stamps, which would have made for perfect albums if only the numbers had been from the widely accepted Scott catalogue.
	To distribute his stamps and supplies, Minkus chose to use Stamp Departments in Department Stores, most notably Gimbel's in New York City. In Denver, the department was in May D&F through the 1960s, then moved into The Denver Dry Goods Company. None of those stores and none of those stamp departments exist any more. Minkus Publications does not exist any more either, though it seems someone still owns rights to the name, and who knows? The Minkus albums bring really good money on E-Bay, many people who want to collect in printed albums look for Minkus.
	Like Stamp Collecting in general, Minkus albums were greatly hampered by the plethora of stamps put out starting in the 1960s. Yearly supplements became giant books in their own right. Stamp collectors began limiting their stamp collecting: they went from collecting everything to collecting only certain areas or only certain times or etc. You can still get blank pages, even binders from the big dealers like Subway Stamps, they print their own. You can take even the smallest of the old albums, and with the Minkus System you can add loose pages and blank pages where and when you want. I have greatly enjoyed designing and printing my own pages; that is why I made my software program Stamp Tags work with Microsoft Word.