Collecting British Commonwealth Stamps c1840-1970

A New Hobby for You!

If you are looking for a new hobby that could well become a good investment in the future, then why not start to collect British Commonwealth Stamps 1840-1970?

The whole stamp market throughout the world has grown at a vast rate of knots over the last ten years as new money comes into this very popular collecting area from the Eastern developing countries.

British Commonwealth stamps just happen to be at the forefront of this surge in the market, with countries like Dubai, Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya and India all pushing the market ever upwards in their quest to buy back some of their past history.

Just five years ago I could buy a very good mint collection of King George VI British Commonwealth stamps for £2000 at auction, now a similar collection will cost in excess of £6000 at the same auction house!!.

The good thing about British Commonwealth stamps is the shear size and number of countries and states that you can look to collect, in fact over 300 in total. Prices vary considerably with stamps fetching from as little as 10 Pence for low value used stamps, on-the-other-hand some stamps from countries like Mauritius can cost you up to 700,000 Pounds each.

Like all collecting fields, the one golden rule is to specialize in one area and always buy the very best that you can afford.

In stamp collecting the condition of the stamps is paramount, top collectors want stamps in unmounted condition, bright original colours, good perforations on all sides of the stamp and the design to be well centred, in other words perfect. Alas very few stamps are in that good a condition, so most collectors have to make do with what they can afford. Consequently lots of collectors buy only used stamps as these tend to fetch about 50% lower than their more illustrious mint counterparts.

A very good place to start Collecting British Commonwealth stamps is King George VI reign c1937-1952, this is the HOT AREA of the past few years and looks like continuing for quite a while into the future.

All countries have seen unprecedented increases in the last five years with all the higher value i.e. 5/-, 10/- and one Pound stamps in unmounted or mounted mint condition doing particularly well.

The high value used examples of the same period seen to be lagging behind a little, but should prove to be a good investment for the future.

If you want to start collecting in a less expensive area then you can do know better than the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. This looks to be a good time to collect with prices just starting to increase right across the whole spectrum.

As with the King George VI stamps the higher values have seen the most interest, but only with the stamps issued between c1953 - 1976. I also think that the used high value stamps from this same period are well under priced and during the next ten years should see a good rise in their values.

Recapping on what I have said, if you have some money to spare and are looking for a good hobby/investment then, Collecting British Commonwealth Stamps could be just the thing you are looking for.

I trust you will get as much enjoyment out of stamp collecting as I have.