Commemorative stamps are often issued for anniversaries. The first United States commemorative set was the 1893 Columbian Exposition issue. This set was sold in conjunction with the World’s Fair type exposition that was being held in Chicago that marked the four hundredth anniversary of the European discovery of the New World. Later US commemorative sets continued this theme of honoring anniversaries of American discoveries, settlements, and expeditions. This pattern was repeated in the Trans-Mississippi Exposition issue of 1898, the Pan American issue, the Hudson Fulton series, and on and on through the 1920s. By the early 1930s, nearly every worthwhile event relating to the founding of American settlement had received philatelic honors.
Even though stamp collectors have come to love commemorative stamps,the investment performance of the earliest commemoratives was initially problematic. The Columbian set, in particular, was initially a poor performer. The high face value of the set, with its many high dollar values, was unaffordable for many collectors of the time. For nearly twenty years, defective dollar value mint stamps sold at a discount from face value. But by 1920, philately had begun its fifty year upward spiral towards becoming the great hobby it is today, and these early commemorative stamps are one of the most popular areas of stamp collecting. Commemorative stamps throughout the 1920s were very popular and quantities that were put away by these earliest collectors have performed well as an investment.
We are now at a philatelic period where we are beginning the commemorative cycle again. The 2020s will be an additional century of commemoration for the original events that these first commemoratives were issued, as well as a century since they came out. Here is a distinct possibility