There are a handful of countries that issued stamps from the very first period of philatelic issues which, through a confluence of historical circumstances, have come down to us as philatelic countries where collectors can obtain all of the stamps for a modest price. Two factors are usually necessary for this to happen. First, the issues need to be plentiful enough, or unpopular enough, that the stamps are not too expensive. And second, the country has to have had a short lived philatelic history so that there are not too many different stamps. Some countries such as Saxony issued less than twenty different stamps before being incorporated into the German Empire in 1870. But the rarity and price of the first stamp of Saxony (Catalog value currently $5500) has always kept Saxony off this list.
Prince Edward Island is probably the prototype of the interesting, completable and challenging Nineteenth Century philatelic country. The first three stamps are very scarce and difficult to find, and yet sell for only a few hundred dollars. The rest of the ten or so stamps that follow are quite inexpensive and were remaindered out to stamp dealers after Canadian Confederation (which was the reason that Prince Edward Island issued stamps for such a short time) and are quite common. Other Canadian provinces are very pricey, but Prince Edward Island is a country you can complete with a moderate amount of money and effort and is first on our list of completable countries.