Philippine Stamps and Topical Stamp Collecting, 2nd Edition

     What are Philippine topical stamps? These are postage issues released by the Philippine post office for public use in the mail and these items depict a specific topic. A postage issue consists of one or more stamps. Sometimes, it is a combination of stamps, souvenir sheets and miniature sheets. Occasionally, the release of a postage issue is accompanied by a few special items such as booklet and commemorative or souvenir folder.

 

     Postage stamps which depict a particular topic are known as topical stamps.  There are several topics that can be found on stamps: people, places, animals, flowers, arts, architecture, transportation, science, religion, etc. A set of stamps which has orchids for its theme can be called "orchids on stamps." A set of stamps which depicts musical instruments can be called "music on stamps." A set of stamps which features dogs can be called "dogs on stamps." Orchids on stamps, music on stamps, dogs on stamps: all of these are topical stamps and, if the stamps are postage issues of the Philippines, then they are Philippine topical stamps.

 

     A good collection of topical stamps consists of stamps from different countries. A collector begins by securing some stamps from his own country. For example, the collector collects "basketball on Philippine stamps." Then, he proceeds to gather "basketball on stamps" from a few countries the collector is interested in, from countries where basketball is quite popular and/or from the country where basketball started. Later, the collector can expand the collection by simply collecting "basketball on stamps" issued by various countries.