What Can Be Done: Victoria is a very specialized country. The first 60 catalog numbers comprise only two stamp design types – the differences in the stamps coming down to denomination, color, paper, perforation and watermark. This is what traditional philately, in the era before pervasive new issues, was like. Remember, in the 1920’s, when philately was beginning its climb to major hobby status, most countries issued only two or three stamps per year. Collecting stamps was not about matching the picture of the stamp to the picture in your album. It was about finding an older specimen of a stamp from, say, Victoria. Then the collector carefully evaluated the paper type, determined the perforation number, watermarked the stamp and then checked his catalog to see where it belonged. Collecting countries like Victoria can give a philatelist a qualitatively different experience from collecting more modern stamps. For many, it is too time consuming and laborious, but for others, often people of a more technical bent, it can be very satisfying.
Stamp Catalogs: Most Americans and Canadians use the Scott catalog when collecting Victoria and the other Australian States. The rest of the English speaking world uses the Stanley Gibbons catalog.
Stamp Albums: People who collect small specialized areas like Victoria should consider making their own album pages. There are several advantages. First, no printed Victoria pages exist by themselves. Collectors need to buy these pages as part of a larger Australian States album or Australian Area album. Both Scott and Lighthouse (and others) make good printed albums. But they are expensive and, if you need only the Victoria pages, wasteful. Second, the printed albums have spaces for only the major numbers. This means that varieties (and collecting varieties is one of the pleasures of collecting countries like Victoria) have no place on the main page. Further, many very rare stamps do have spaces, so that a collector who uses preprinted pages is always reminded of what he doesn’t have. Making your own album pages allows you to incorporate what you want on your pages and allows even a modest collection to be set up to look as good as a much more valuable one.
Availability of Material: Victoria is one of the most popular of the Australian States which is itself a very active specialty. There are many listings of material and many specialized dealers. Collectors have no trouble adding Victoria stamps to their collections.
Expense: Victoria has some expensive and rare stamps. But collectors who concentrate on varieties can find hundreds of elusive and difficult to find stamps at very affordable prices. Like all classic stamps, the catalog prices are meant as guides for only the finest specimens. Good looking stamps with small faults sell for low percentages of catalog value.
Overall Grade: A-