Cuba is one of the few philatelic areas that has quadruple specialist appeal. Before 1898 Cuba was a Spanish Colony, and there are over a hundred different stamps that were issued by Spain for use in their colony including the first issues which are interesting because they were issued for use in both the Philippines and in Cuba. Mint stamps of these issues are are identical; they can only be told apart by cancellation when they are used. The 1898 US Occupation issues begin with the Puerto Principe issues which are among the most counterfeited of all postage stamps. So ubiquitous are forgeries of these stamps that most collectors stay away from collecting them at all, similar to the way that the near certainty of catching malaria or yellow fever kept Europeans from exploring the interior of Africa until nearly the start of the Nineteenth Century (interesting the first certificate from the American Philatelic Expertization Service was for a Puerto Principe stamp.
After the US Occupation issue came the Independence period which has hundreds of well designed and scarce stamps that have a feel like US stamps probably because of the shared designers and printers. And after 1960 come the Communist issues, largely propagandistic but often quite scarce and issued in quantities that would never really satisfy any sustained collector demand. Collectors should consider Cuban philately because of its intrinsic interest but also because of the fact that the Castro regime must be nearly over. A more capitalistic system will surely follow and given the proximity to the US and our desire to make Cuba a showcase for the transition from communism to capitalism, the Cuban economy has a good likelihood of being a booming one in years ahead. Booming economies create collectors who want older stamps. Add to this the large expatriate Cuban community in the United States, and the chances are good that the stamps of Cuba will become quite popular in the years ahead.