Professional stamp dealers get asked from time to time from collectors to recommend a country to collect. I have a few favorites that I often suggest. My criteria are simple. First the stamps of the particular country have to be attractively produced. Second, they have to be readily available so that the search doesn’t replace the collecting. And third, the country has to be affordable. Accordingly, I don’t often recommend the United States as a collecting country for the simple reason that it is not affordable. There are many US stamps that sell for $5000 or more. Similarly I don’t recommend Great Britain or Germany. I find the stamps of most Central American countries unattractive, and the stamps of many of the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish Colonies too difficult to find.
So what countries do I suggest people collect? My favorite is Canada. The stamps are beautiful and engraved, widely available and with the exception of #3, not particularly pricey. Iceland has a number of high catalog stamps but usually sells at a low percentage of catalog and the stamps are beautiful. Denmark has no rare stamps and about the highest production values worldwide. Norway is about the same. So if you are at the level of your US collection where there’s little more you can afford, there really are plenty of countries to collect where you could get the entire country complete for only one of the US stamps you still need.