• Introduction
  • Welcome
  • About BNAPS Education
• Canadian Philately
  • Canadian Philately - An Outline
  • The Canadian Posted Letter Guide
• Novices
  • Youth
    • Introduction
    • Canada’s Art and Artists on Canadian Stamps
    • My Favourite ... Cartier, 1534-1934
    • Collect Canada’s 1953–57 Wildlife Stamps
    • A Ship from History
    • First Day Covers
  • Adult
    • Introduction
    • A Small Start Can Build a Grand Collection
    • Canada's prime Ministers series of 1951-1955
    • The Admiral Stamps of Canada
    • An Introduction to Canadian Machined Slogan Cancels
    • Topical Collecting
• Experienced Collectors
  • Stamp Collectors
    • Introduction
    • Grenfell on Stamps of Newfoundland and Canada
    • Bluenose is Still Considered Canada’s Finest Stamp
    • The Open (or Shut) Case for Booklet Collecting
    • 1946 Stamps Show Canada’s Return to Peace
    • Issues of WWII: King, Country, and Conflict
    • The 1932 Medallions are Modern Classics
    • Canadian Stamps Marked Montreal Olympics
  • Postal Historians
    • Introduction
    • Canada’s ½¢ Small Queen had Multiple Uses
    • Covers Commemorated the Royal Visit of 1939
    • Some 19^th Century Mail That Took it on the Chin
    • Markings on Canadian Naval Mail of WWII
    • Crashes, Fires, and War Interrupted the Mail
    • Paquebot Covers: Mailed on the High Seas
• Exhibitors
  • Introduction
  • Aid to Exhibitors and Judges
  • Getting Started in Philatelic Exhibiting
  • Use resources to help solve puzzling covers
• The Press
  • Commercial publications
    • Introduction
    • Stamp Society Supports Youth Philately
  • Society publications
    • Introduction
    • Stamp Society Supports Youth Philately
• EDUCATION SECTION MAP

Topical Collecting
by Peter Jacobi (ENA5)

Topical collecting, as the name implies, is the collection of philatelic material all belonging to one topic or theme. Popular topics include animals, particularly horses, cats, dogs, birds, butterflies, etc. Other topics I have seen at exhibitions are Christmas themes, Santa Claus, the Pope, airplanes, ships, trains and lighthouses, but anything is fair game. One member of our stamp club has exhibited Mushrooms, another, a retired Pharmacist, has a collection dealing with Pharmacological material (medicinal plants, Pharmacists honored for their contribution to their profession and the like.)

So you're ready to start a topical collection, right? How are you going to pick the topic?

Will it be something you have always liked such as dogs or cats or will you chose a topic for which you already have quite a bit of material?

Let's say that you pick the Olympics as your topic. This would be a good topic with a lot of material available. Now you may wish to confine yourself to a certain year, otherwise the topic could become overwhelming. The elements for your collection could then include:

1. Stamps of the host country
2. Stamps of other countries saluting the event
3. First day covers
4. Commemorative blocks & souvenir sheets
5. Post cards of the Olympic venues
6. Letters and postcards sent from the event with special cancels
7. Picture post cards of the host city
8. Picture postcards of known athletes together with their autographs
9. Post office advertising material for the event, etc.

Since my background was in the mining industry, this is the theme I was most comfortable with and started collecting. In order to confine myself to an area of manageable proportions, I chose the mining industry in the Province of British Columbia, where I had spent most of my professional time and working life. So what does one collect for this sort of field? Note that I have written the following from the point of view of an exhibitor, meaning a person who exhibits his/her stamp collection at a local or national Exhibition. Here are the elements of the collection which I included :

1. Corner cards of mining companies
2. Corner cards of associated enterprises such as smelter, brokers, machinery and service suppliers.
3. Picture post cards that fit and support the topic.
4. Historical photographs available from the Provincial Archives
5. Collateral material which supports the story. In my case this could be many things such as:
1. Stock certificates
2. Free Miners Licenses
3. Pay stubs
4. Union membership cards
5. Vignettes, letter enclosures, bar tickets, etc. ,virtually anything that would support the story/exhibit.

There are 3 or 4 Canadian stamps depicting the mining / minerals industry and to display those would be pretty boring! I am more of a historian than a stamp collector so I approached this subject as follows: Where and when did the mining industry flourish in British Columbia? Who were the principal players / companies? How can I round out the story and who were the main contributors of the topic or the theme? What do I need to tell a complete story? In my case the complete story involved the actual mining and exploration companies themselves, the smelters, the financial community which raised the funds for exploration and the suppliers of goods and services which were all part of the Mining Industry. So this is what I used in my collection:

1. Corner cards (back addresses) seem to be the first and most obvious items. See some examples below.


Omenica Consolidated Hydraulic Mining Company

Now you want to insert a bit of research you've done on the company. For this subject I had spent quite a bit of time at the British Columbia and Yukon Chamber of Mines, downtown Vancouver, for other subjects you obviously have to consult different sources.


Sunshine Mining Company, Ltd




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2. Associated Subjects (For my choice of topic, that meant smelters, brokers, assayers, engineering companies, suppliers, etc.)


Smelters


Stock Brokers


Merchants / Suppliers




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3. Picture Post Cards

Here you have to make sure that the topic of the post card supports your story. A couple of examples shown below.


Private picture post card


Commercial picture post card

If no post cards of the subject you are dealing with are available, you could insert a commercial photograph and give credit to its source. For example Provincial Archives are a good source of historical photographs, so why not utilize them ? Here are a couple of examples:


Columbia Avenue in Rossland, B.C. circa 1896
(This sort of picture can be used for a number of different topics, mine was mining, but it could also be used for a town cancel collection.)


Guarding the "Lucky Jack" mineral claim at Poplar Creek, May 1903

Collateral material

This is where the fun really begins. Here you can throw in almost anything that will support your story, particularly if you are exhibiting in the "Exhibit" class. For my mining exhibits, the following seemed to be appropriate:

1. Stock certificates
2. Free Miner's Certificates
3. Company Tramway or Railway Passes
4. Pay stubs
5. Vignettes, letter enclosures, even bar or drink tickets as long as the material supports the story of the collection. Examples below.


Stock Certificate of the Whitewater Mines , Ltd.

Normally these stock certificates are too large for a single exhibit page so I scan them and then print them at one – half the original size as I did with the one shown above


Bank Note Engravings, suitable for feature pages