Philatelic Entities

The Scott Classic catalog lists over 2500 separate stamp issuing entities from Aden to Italian Offices in China-Peking. And this is only for stamps issued to 1940. Add in the different listings since 1940 and you probably have 4000 or so different counties/political subdivisions that have issued stamps. Some, like Russia are approaching 10,000 stamp issues. Some like France-Offices in Egypt-Port Lagos have a few. And others like the Indian native state of Jasdan have one. And these are only the geopolitical divisions that Scott lists. Add in the specialized catalogs, which often list locals and specialty items that are beyond the scope of the Scott catalog and the number of stamp issuing entities is over 7500. The United Nations has 194 members which means that currently there are less than 200 recognized nation states in the world. So stamp collectors recognize nearly forty times as many counties as the UN does. Now some of this is historical. Danzig is now part of Poland and no longer issues its own stamps. Stamp collectors have always had an edge when it comes to geography. We are the one at the cocktail party who know where Libya is. But philatelists have an edge in historical understanding too. We know that Italy’s close relationship with Gaddafi is not just Berlusconi’s affection for another sexual predator but has historical roots in Italy’s experience in being Libya’s colonial overlord. And we understand too that the long history of Western involvement in the political life of Egypt and Libya (Great Britain, France, and Italy maintained post offices of their own throughout Egypt in the nineteenth century) makes it very problematic that Western aid during this revolutionary period would be any real help at all.