An Unusual Approach to a Classical Period Album

1840-1952 Classical Era Collection: 1920-1929 Section

Scott International Brown & Vario Pages housed in Scott Specialty Binders

An Unusual Approach to a Classical Period Album by Ron Olin

Jim's Note: Readers may be aware that I have had reservations about using only stock pages, such as Varios, for a collection. To me, they lack the historical context, fine presentation, and "permanency" of a printed album. 

But no one can deny Varios and other stock pages present a clean and muss-free way to house stamps, without the need to use mounts or hinges, to say nothing about the arrangement freedom they provide.

And, what if there was a way to combine, in a synergistic way, the advantages of both presentations?

That is why I was most taken with the "outside the box" fresh approach of Ron Olin, who recently wrote a comment for the post Which Stamp Album is best for WW Collectors?

I've asked Ron if he would explain his interesting arrangement, and he has graciously agreed.

Jim

USA 1893 Columbians: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

A couple of years ago, after deciding to step back a bit from a money-management firm that I founded some 30 years ago, I began looking around for a hobby that could expand or contract as time and inclination permitted. 

I tried becoming an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego’s) person but, after acquiring the pieces and expanding Lego’s Frank Lloyd Wright house kit to quadruple its size, I found further projects somewhat unsatisfying.  

I then remembered the joy I felt as a kid identifying, sorting, and moving my couple of thousand item world-wide stamp collection from one new album to another (Scott Modern, Ambassador, White Ace, Blue Scott International etc.) and decided to investigate the state of Philatelic pursuit in current times.  I discovered Ebay’s facilitating opportunities, stamp collecting blogs (especially Big Blue, Filling Spaces, and John Apfelbaum’s blog), internet based wholesale stamp dealers, the album choice conundrum, etc.  I relished the decisions and choices represented, attacked them in earnest, and have never looked back.

19th Century Scott International Brown Album

After deciding to become a Classic World Wide Collector (1840-1952), and purchasing several fairly advanced collections housed in the Browns and Stanley Gibbons New Imperial albums, I faced important and deterministic decisions regarding the packaging and presentation of my collection.

I had a barely touched, pristine, three volume set of the Scott Blue International (through 1960) left over from my teen years.  But I remembered having a few stamps even then that could not find a home, and so I rejected the somewhat limiting decision to “collect to Big Blue” (although I highly respect the discipline and satisfactions therein contained).    

I signed up for the Steiner pages, and played around with the PDF pages and reformatting possibilities.  

Classic 19th Century Egypt

From International Scott Brown Album

But I kept coming back to the warm, satisfying feeling I had when viewing the yellowish sepia pages of the Nineteenth Century Brown Scott album which housed one of the collections I had purchased to get started.  

The pages were fairly well populated, and the stamps had been mounted with care (a combination of Dennison hinges and some clear mounts), but the thing was literally “falling apart”.  Loose glassine interleave pages had been inserted often to separate all the stamps mounted on two sides of the pages, but some items would catch on each other and be pulled off the page.  Used stamps were hinge mounted beneath their unused brethren, and the album was “bulging”, as you can imagine.  

This was all very charming from an historical perspective, but far too messy and unkempt for my tastes.  I decided I would love to collect to this album, since it covered all major Scott numbers.  But the prospect of a substantial collection, so housed, offended my sensibilities.

So now you are thinking I would soon discover the Subway reprints of the Classic Scott Brown albums, printed on one side on thick paper, spread across 19 volumes and a lot of shelf space.  Right you are!  This must certainly be the way to go, or so I thought.  

But wait!  I already had some 40,000 or so stamps to identify, classify, cull out, catalog, AND MOUNT.  The good Dennison hinges cost two cents apiece when you can find them on Ebay.  

A better choice for the money, in my opinion, is Hawid clear mounts at about four cents a stamp, which allows you to easily change out and upgrade your collection over time.  However, there is no way around it: you have to carefully cut the mount, insert the stamp (or vice versa), and attach it to the page.  It wasn’t the $1,600 or so bucks for material that bothered me so much as the time and tedium involved in such an undertaking.  I imagine some people love this part of stamp collecting, carefully mounting their painstakingly obtained treasures, but I am not one of them.

I love filling spaces, but hate mounting stamps.

1840-1952 Classical Era Collection: 1840-1900 Section

Scott International Brown & Vario Pages housed in Scott Specialty Binders

Another wrinkle, as I formulated my choices, was a Stanley Gibbons New Imperial Album (since out of print) which housed an advanced British Colonial collection I purchased.  Here stamps were densely mounted on one side of a page only, on numbered squares, with the facing page containing descriptions of the stamps to be mounted in each of the numbered squares (dates, watermarks, perforations, pictures, etc.).  How civilized and organized are the British?  

They only missed one thing.  The page with numbered squares should have been a black Vario Stock page with the requisite number of rows of clear plastic in which to insert one’s carefully obtained acquisitions. 

Here I digress.  Mounting about 30 stamps each on two pages of an album costs $1.20 with Ebay purchased Dennison hinges and costs $2.40 or so in Hawid mounts.  A new two sided Vario Stock page can hold the same number of stamps and be had for about fifty cents.  The more important consideration, in my opinion, is the time and effort it takes to mount 60 stamps versus inserting them in stock pages.

Therein was born my decision regarding the presentation and packaging of my collection, and an idea that I have not previously encountered in my stamp blog and internet Philatelic reading.  

Canada 1851-1869: "Brown" page mirrored with a "Vario" page

I have found that I can purchase relatively pristine original editions of the five Scott Browns on Ebay for less money than Subway charges for their reprint pages.  (I did need to purchase the sixth Brown from Subway as it apparently never existed as an original edition.)  I have become adept at breaking down the binding and square cutting the binding side of each of the original bound pages.

Scott Specialty 3-Ring Binders (Primary Collection)

Vario G Binders (Duplicates)

Each two sided page is then spared any mounting related attack and instead placed in a Scott specialty page protector and the protected (and beautiful, historic, sepia) pages are then placed in a new, Green Leather(ite), hidden metal hinged Scott Specialty 3-ring binder to which I apply my gold, laser printed, removable, custom labels.  In my opinion, my “shelf space” looks great and I have the utmost of flexibility in organizing and expanding my collection as I see fit.

Costa Rica 1923-1924: "Brown" page mirrored with a "Vario" page

Between each two sided, protected original Brown album page, I insert a black, two sided Vario Stock sheet with the requisite number of rows to accommodate the rows of stamps illustrated on the facing album page(s).  It is a very simple and expedient matter to insert each stamp in my collection opposite its place (and description) on the historic Brown album page.  Each stock page shows off its contents simply and beautifully, in my opinion, and each stamp is kept in historic context by glancing at the pristine facing page (which is quite attractive and well preserved in its own right).

Duplicates: 1840-1900 Section - In Vario G Binders

For me, at least at this stage of my Philatelic development, this approach suits me well.  I can focus my time on selecting, cataloging, and musing over my acquisitions and can avoid the messiness, and tedium, of the parts of the process that I don’t like.  Everything stays perpetually neat and organized, and presents well.

Expansion from 1940 to 1952 is handled by patient accumulation of relevant matching Scott Specialty album pages and placement back to back in page protectors.

I maintain my duplicates in a less expensive and attractive, but similarly organized structure. Here I cut down the album pages to fit in inexpensive 8.5 by 11 inch Office Depot protectors and use Vario G Binders. If I were collecting to the "Big Blue" pages, this is probably the approach I would use for my primary collection.

Vario G Binder for Duplicates

Scott Specialty 3-Ring Binder for Primary Collection

For completeness, I should mention a few items as an addendum.  They say perfection is the enemy of practicality.  There are a few “perfections” to my approach (or perhaps “deficiencies”), the resolution of which have so far eluded me, and which I will now chronicle in the hopes that others may have some suggestions or alternatives.

First, Vario black, two sided stock pages are sized at 8.5 by 11 inches.  Scott pages and page protectors for 3-ring binders are 10 by 11.5 inches, which I believe is a much more attractive sizing.  The Vario pages are easily placed in the binders and are large enough to handle the presentation area for stamp placement within the Scott page border, but I wish they were closer to 10 by 11.5 inches in overall dimensions.  This is an aesthetic rather than a practical issue, but it “bugs” me a bit.  The Jumbo StarSheet stock pages offered by Subway purport to be closer to the right size, but they have pockets on one side only, requiring more shelf space (and page turning) and the cost is about eight times more than Vario for the same coverage using my implementation.

USA 1893 Columbians: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

These are Duplicates housed in Vario G Binders

The second issue has to do with whether one collects unused, cancelled, a mixture, or both.

On less populated album pages, one can envision an attractive presentation on the Vario stock sheet of both unused and cancelled versions of the same stamp.  I have decided that there are attractive aspects to both unused, unblemished stamps and their brethren with interesting, and sometimes historic, cancellations.  Further, there is a certain authenticity and aura related to items that have traveled to exotic destinations and been affixed to actual correspondence, so I have decided to collect both unused and cancelled versions of each stamp.

However, on many Brown album pages, particularly those related to the nineteenth century, there would just not be enough room on the Vario stock sheet for both unused and cancelled versions to be adequately displayed.  The solution here is probably to acquiesce to the use of Hawid mounts for the overflow of unused/cancelled dual items on the actual facing album page under sheet protection.  This would represent a lot of work, particularly tedious work of the type I don’t like, but a substantial collection containing both unused and cancelled versions of most stamps might truly be striking in such a presentation.

Anyway, that is my two cents worth.  Any commentary and observations regarding the above approach would be greatly appreciated by this admittedly neophyte collector.

Ron Olin

A Portfolio of Brown-Vario Country pages (Click and enlarge for examination)

Hungary

Hungary 1920-1925 Semi-Postal: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

Lithuania

Lithuania 1921-1922 Air Post: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

Luxembourg

Luxembourg Semi-postal 1927: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

Martinique

Martinique 1920-1923: "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

Peru

Peru 1920 : "Brown" Page mirrored with a "Vario" Page

End of Portfolio....

Big Blue & Vario Page for Canada

Jim's Comment

Most impressive!

Ron may be relatively new (as an adult) to collecting, but his approach to housing his collection in a novel way is genius itself!

It occurs to Ron and myself that his arrangement could well be used for any printed album or pages. That opens up a myriad of possibilities.

Note: All scans and pics are courtesy of Ron Olin, except for the Brown Egypt page and the 19th Century Brown Album cover scans. 

Comments appreciated!

Inquiry About Lindner-T or the like overlay sheets...

Here is what they look like....