Topical Stamp Collecting
Expanding Horizons

Soon, postage stamps began to commemorate a person (other than royalty of head of state), an event, or a historic anniversary. Thus came the stamp-collecting term “commemorative,” referring to such issues … which normally were available for sale for only a limited time.

• In 1888 Australia commemorated its first British settlement, New South Wales, to take honors for the first commemorative stamp.
• First U.S. commemoratives, a set, were those that honored the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

Expanding a bit, the souvenir sheet—or miniature sheet—incorporate one or a few stamps and have very wide non-stamp margins when compared to normal sheets/panes of stamps. This margin area will include design and/or inscriptions that continue the commemoration.

• Luxembourg issued the first souvenir sheet in 1923
• First U.S. souvenir sheet honored the 1926 international philatelic exhibition in New York City.

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