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What countries do you consider to have the most visually pleasing stamps, overall? The ugliest? Nothing complicated, just opinions.

This evening, while cataloging a few Hungarian acquisitions, I asked myself this. Within the scope of my collection (U.S., Canada, most of Europe), I'd have to say the countries that I'd consider to have the prettiest stamps are Germany (pre post WWII), The Vatican, and Hungary (pre 1960s). The ugliest: Bulgaria (not sure why I even collect it).

Prettiest: Israel, UK, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Sweden. (and other Scandinavian nations). Czechoslovakia (apologies for the spelling) issued some very nice stamps as long as they were engraved... Otherwise I don't find them overly attractive.

Ugliest: not sure, all countries have a selection of hideous stamps, but I think I will nominate some of the wastepaper the USSR produced.


Edit: Panama has also produced some pretty bad stamps as well. It may be worse than even Russia!

For general attractiveness, and for mostly sticking to local themes and (mostly) not issuing stamps commemorating things like Obama's first baby steps, high on my list are

Papua New Guinea
New Zealand
Tokelau
Austria (+++ - beautiful stuff)
United States (this may surprise some people, but they do a lot of good work)

Of course every Country has it's "oops, what were they thinking" moments. Some countries have these moments all the time, so for my worst, because they should know better are:

Netherlands
Great Britain

Others I dislike include many Central and South American Nations, but I don't think they were trying too hard, so I wont be too harsh.

I also have my own category, "most intimidating, and Russia wins this by a street, because they squashed so much into every stamp they designed from the 20's to the '80's, they must have had a committee inspecting each design with a standing order to "add more stuff to it".

Norm

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Geelong, VFA Premiers 1878, 1879, 1800, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1886, AFL Premiers 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951, 1952, 1963, 2007, 2009, 2011, .

Most admired- generally the country/collection I am working on at the moment.

Least desirable- stamps newer than, say, 50 years.


Now to answer the question.....

For some reason, I really find the stamps of Austria "classically pretty ".

Ugly? By definition the Indian States.

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Classical era collecting with Scott's "Big Blue" Album
http://bigblue1840-1940.blogspot.com/

This won't surprise anyone ( ) but the Sydney Views and large square diadems from New South Wales are very attractive stamps.

I'm very fond of the 1865-1881 issues of Belgium. Such a myriad of shades !!

I'm also partial to the classics, eg: USA 1869 pictorials, GB QV surface printed, Japan kobans.

Cheers,

Robert

Scandanavia and Belgium come to mind as having attractive stamps...must be all those engraved issues.

For ugly, there's a lot of wallpaper rubbish from parts of Africa (some places, like South Africa & Namibia do a better job).

For some reason Paraguay comes to mind as an ugly producer.

Oh, Clive Feigenbaum-era Cook Islands and its hangers-on (Aitutaki et al--excuses to quadraple the number of face-different stamps produced).

But everybody has what look in retrospect like "a bad time"...consider 1970s-era Canada...some of the designs look dated and 'tacky' now.

Its all about the (point of view) P.O.V. from which you look at the stamps...70s fashion was 'stylish' at the time, but now older people will look back at their old photo albums and say "what was I thinking "

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Collecting Mongolia; Thailand; Indo-China; Mourning Covers; OHMS.
My online 'store': http://stampsfromaethelwulf.blogspot.com/

Strictly from my personal point of view...





The 1907-1951 definitive series of River views from Brunei is the most attractive

That's just my 14 cents worth

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FORESTS OLD, PASTURES NEW
(An expert is one who knows more and more, about less and less)

Hi

Colombia has some beautiful stamps especially those printed by Carvajal Printers. There are no stamps that do not pertain to the country and it's resources.

Jerry B

Definitely Austria. I like loads of stamps from loads of countries, but everytime I open my Austria book, I fall in love all over again. They all look so superior in quality, design, and so many engraved stamps as well.

Though, having loads of engraved stamps funnily enough isn't a guarantee to be placed high up my ladder of beautiful stamps, for I'm not very keen on the greater bulk of Scandinavian stamps, and they're almost all engraved. If I think of e.g. Denmark, I just picture myself a boring see of red unimaginative stamps, which I know doesn't do them justice, but there you are.

Adrian

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Adrian
My blog: http://blog.stampmagazine.co.uk/

What else can one say concerning stamps, which the novice has difficulty in determining which way is 'up'?

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With kind regards, Jim