The Stamp Catalogue

1 TheStamp CatalogueAn Introduction for English-speaking readersSchwaneberger Verlag M nchenEnglisch 14:10 Uhr Seite 1 Contents 3 Introduction3 The MICHEL Stamp Catalogues4 Basic German5 Typical Set Listing6 The Catalogue Listings8 The Front and Back of the Catalogue8 Glossary of Colours10 Glossary of Country Names11 Glossary of Philatelic Terms,Symbols and AbbreviationsCompiled: Martyn Yeo, Printed in Germany 2003, Schwaneberger Verlag GmbH, Muthmannstr. 4, 80939 M nchenPhone (0 89) 3 23 93-02, Fax (0 89) 3 23 24-02E-mailsales use of the MICHEL numbering system in catalogues, albums and other systematic listings of postagestamps is only allowed with the express permission of the publishing 14:10 Uhr Seite 2 MICHELI ntroductionHugo Michel s first Stamp Catalogue was published inApolda, a town some 10 miles north-east of Weimar,in 1910.

2 By today s standards it was a slim volume its 112 pages listed the stamps of European countriesand their post offices MICHEL Catalogue rapidly became a standardwork of reference, used by dealers to identify theirstock, by philatelists to check their collections and asa reference for buying and exchanging stamps. HugoMichel subsequently sold the rights to his catalogueto the Stamp album publishers Schwaneberger Ver-lag, who still retain basic Catalogue now occupies 13 volumes cover-ing the stamps of all countries despite its vastincrease in size its basic structure has never beenaltered. Over the years it has won more than 200medals at national and international Stamp exhibi-tions, including 20 gold medals.

3 More than 400,000 MICHEL catalogues are printed every year, and theyfind their way to collectors all over the Catalogue numbers are used by most col-lectors in German-speaking countries and in easternEurope, and they are the standard reference numbersfor stamps of these countries. Because of the clearand authoritative listings which they provide, MICHEL catalogues are gaining in popularity in many othercountries too. New editions appear regularly, andeach one includes detailed editorial changes, em-bracing new philatelic research, newly listed errorsand varieties, revised Catalogue prices and MICHEL Catalogue is published in German bySchwaneberger Verlag GmbH, whose offices are atMuthmannstra e 4, D-80939 M nchen, the volumes and other MICHEL products areavailable from good Stamp dealers or, in case ofdifficulty, directly by mail order from the followingMICHEL agents.

4 United KingdomSafe Albums (UK) Ltd, 16 FalconBusiness Park, Ivanhoe Road, Hogwood Lane,Finchampstead, StatesLighthouse Publications Inc., 274 Washington Avenue, Hackensack, NJ MICHEL Catalogue is supplemented by themonthly useful articles on collecting, but for English-speaking Catalogue users the more important part isits listing of new issues, presented in a matching MICHEL Stamp CataloguesThe 15 volumes of the main MICHEL Stamp cata-logue are as follows:GERMANY (MICHEL-Deutschland-Katalog)cover-ing all German Stamp issues. These include GermanStates, colonies, mandated territories, protectorates,post offices abroad, occupation issues, Danzig, Saar,and the former postal adminstrations of West Berlinand East Germany.

5 Published with colour AND CENTRAL EUROPE (MICHEL-Europa-Katalog, Band 1)contains Austria, Liechtenstein,Switzerland, France, Monaco, countries of the IberianPeninsula and UNO Geneva and Vienna .SOUTHERN EUROPE (MICHEL-Europa-Katalog,Band 2)contains Italy with San Marino and Vatican,the countries of the Balcan Peninsula, Bulgaria,Turkey and AN NORTHWEST EUROPE (MICHEL-Europa-Katalog, Band 3) contains Scandinavia, theBaltic States, Great Britain, Ireland and the EUROPE (MICHEL-Europa-Katalog,Band 4) contains Moldavia, Poland, Rumania, Rus-sia, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic,Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and AND CENTRAL AMERICA (MICHEL- ber-see-Katalog Band 1, Nord- und Mittelamerika)

6 Covering continental countries from Panama ISLANDS (MICHEL- bersee-KatalogBand 2, Karibische Inseln)covering the islandsround the Caribbean Sea as well as the Bahamas andthe AMERICA (MICHEL- bersee-KatalogBand 3, S damerika)does not include the FalklandIslands and antarctic AND EAST AFRICA (MICHEL- bersee-Ka-talog Band 4, Nord- und Ostafrika)covering Africanorth of the Sahara and the east coast countries fromEgypt to AFRICA (MICHEL- bersee-Katalog Band 5,Westafrika)covering Africa south of the Sahara fromCape Verde to the former French AFRICA (MICHEL- bersee-KatalogBand 6, S dliches Afrika). The remaining countriesof Africa as well as the islands in the Atlantic and In-dian Ocean and the Gulf of , OCEANIA, ANTARCTIC TERRITORIES(MICHEL- bersee-Katalog Band 7, Australien,Ozeanien, Antarktis).

7 SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA (MICHEL- bersee-Katalog Band 8 S d- und S dost-Asien)additio-nally covering Indonesia and the AND EAST ASIA (MICHEL- bersee-Katalog Band 9, Mittel- und Ostasien)coveringAsia north of the Himalaya, also including Iran, Af-ghanistan and EAST (MICHEL- bersee-Katalog Band10, Naher Osten).3 Englisch 14:10 Uhr Seite 3 Other MICHEL CataloguesApart from the main Catalogue , MICHEL publishesalmost thirty other philatelic titles. There is a range ofspecialized catalogues and other books coveringspecific subjects, ranging from postal stationery tominiature sheets. They include the following collect-ing areas.

8 Austria SpecializedCEPTU nited Nations SpecializedGermany Junior Catalogue (simplified and in colour)Germany SpecializedGreat Britain SpecializedCroatia SpecializedPostal Stationery GermanyPostal Stationery Western Europe/Eastern EuropeScandinavia/The Baltic StatesSwitzerland and Liechtenstein SpecializedUnited States SpecializedA full colour brochure showing the complete rangeof MICHEL publications is available from your localdealer or MICHEL to Find the Country You WantAs you see from the list above, the arrangement of thevolumes is on a straightforward geographical you will find Belgium in the North and NorthwestEurope volume, Chile in the South America volume,Japan in the East Asia volume and so on.

9 You should,however, keep the following in mind:1 ) German spellings of country names result in an al-phabetical order which differs from the English or-der, so for example in the Eastern Europe volumeyou will find Czechoslovakia under T (for Tsche-choslowakei) and Hungary under U (for Ungarn).For more German country names look in the ) Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia are in theSouthern Europe ) The Azores, Canary Islands and Madeira are re-garded as part of Western Europe and groupedafter Portugal or Spain as ) German colonies (for example Cameroon) and is-sues for territories occupied by Germany (such asBohemia and Moravia) are in the Germany vol-ume, irrespective of their geographical )

10 Issues for post offices abroad follow the coun-try which ran the post offices, so that the sectionfor Spanish Post Offices in Morocco follows Spainin the Western Europe GermanThis introductory guide has been specially written forMICHEL and is designed to help English-speakingcollectors use the Catalogue to the fullest extent, eventhose who have no knowledge of the German you do not read and understand German fluently,you will of course not be able to decipher every lastpiece of information presented in the MICHEL cata-logues, which are the result of decades of editorialwork and philatelic research.