| After you have been collecting
for a while, you may decide to narrow your interest to collecting one or several countries. People usually collect stamps
from the country where they live because they are so easy to research and get. New issues may be purchased at face value from
the Post Office; and older issues will be found at the dealers. Swapping with collectors is also easier to do.
You could possibly collect a foreign country because you may have
lots of stamps from that country, or because your parents or others may have come from that country. You may have relatives
or friends in that country who are willing to supply you with stamps. Or you may just like the looks of the stamps from that
country.
Before you choose a country, check the catalog for that country.
You may find a Scott catalog at your local library. Determine if the country has issued large numbers of stamps. Would you
try to collect all the stamps? Or would you narrow down your interest to a part of that country's history? You could choose
a particular ruler or history of that country. Be sure you pick a country that is well known; otherwise you may have trouble
finding its stamps.
You can extend your country collection beyond the scope of the
catalog by looking for errors and varieties. Add stamp booklets and postal stationary. You could even show cinderella stamps,
stamp-like labels with no postal validity. They may have perforations, gum and deigns that imitate real postage stamps.
The collection could extend backwards by showing the postal history
of that country. This would include letters used before stamps were available. You could also show special uses like registered
mail: or show postal rates for different pieces of mail. Postmarks, rail marks, ship movements all show a country's history | 