25,252 Philatelic Products Cataloged :)

The category of philatelic products was created only 6 months ago and we have already reached an impressive number of 25,252 philatelic products cataloged.

«Les plumes d'écriture», Annual Gift, France, 2016, Colnect catalog

Philatelic Product category would not have happened without a dedicated work and passion of category coordinator Carlo-Bassi. We endlessly appreciate the work of the category coordinator and all philately lovers who contributed to the category with new items, translations, and editings.

Tropical fruits and plants of Madeira, FDC, Madeira Islands, 1990, Colnect catalog

The category of philatelic products includes 15 formats. Let us figure out with the most popular of them making top 3. 

The biggest number of items, 17,879, belongs to the format of First Day Cover. What is a First Day Cover?

A First Day Cover (FDC) is a postal card or envelope that has a newly issued stamp and a postmark for the first day the stamp was initially placed on sale by postal authorities.

A day of release of the new stamp is usually significant one to the subject of the stamp such as anniversary, commemorative date, opening and closing an event, etc. On the day following the First Day, the stamp is available in the post offices of an issuing country.

Int. Philatelic Expo Rio Grande, Postal Stationery, Argentine, 2012, Colnect catalog

The second bigger number of items in the category, 5,726 items, belongs to the format of Postal Stationery. We may define postal stationery as all the stationery issued by the postal authorities on which a design includes showing the item's value for postage.

The postal stationeries commonly are stamped envelopes, stamped letter sheets, postal cards, letter cards, and newspaper wrappers. Other kinds of stationery, such as forms for postal savings, money orders, or telegraph are also can be defined as postal stationery if they have value stamps printed on them.

The number 3 in our list of the popular formats in the category of philatelic products is First Day Sheet.

The first day sheet may be defined as a card which usually issued to commemorate a significant day, it includes stamps, cancellation, and information about the event, stamp issue, and cancellation on the back of it. The majority of first day sheets in Colnect catalog is from Germany. There is a special German term for the format, Ersttagsblatt. 

You can see a classic Ersttagsblatt "Europa (C.E.P.T.) 1993 - Modern Art" issued in Germany, 1993, here on the left. More details on the item are in the catalog.

Our catalogs are open to contributions of all members of our community. If you want to join us and develop Colnect together, please read our Catalog Contribution Guidelines.

25,252 Milk Cup Lids on Colnect :)

We are very glad to announce our very unique catalog of  Milk Cup Lids is reaching a new great number of

25,252 items

Thomas Ott, 2016, Switzerland, Colnect catalog

Colnect Milk Cup Lids catalog is one of it's kind and we are delighted to be a sweet home for milk cup lid collectors from all over the world :) This category was suggested on the forum and after the discussion, it was created. We are open to everyone's suggestions on adding new categories to our catalog on New Categories forum.

Miele, 2016, Italy, Colnect catalog

Colnect collection management tools allow sharing and displaying a personal collection in an easy way. If you are not familiar with how to manage your personal collection on Colnect read our Help pages.

I love cats, 1992, Switzerland, Colnect catalog

We are very grateful to all contributors, editors, translators who day by day develop Colnect Milk Cup Lids catalog. Special thanks to super cool coordinator Els Van Gastel [leeuwin] for taking care of the category.

Praha, 2011, Slovakia, Colnect catalog

For now, there are 143 collectors of milk cup lids on Colnect. The biggest collection belongs to the coordinator of the category [leeuwin] with 16,869 items(!), the second collection belongs to [Ribouldingue] with 16,325 items, and the third collection belongs to [Bruun01] with 8,299 items.

Colnect has been built by collectors for collectors and any help is much appreciated. Want to start contributing to Colnect? 

There are many ways you can help us make Colnect catalog better: add new items, add images and information to existing ones, translate catalog to your language, edit the catalog, write wiki articles, and even create a new category.

650,650 Stamps on Colnect

Let's celebrate a new milestone in our Stamps category together :) Colnect Stamp catalog expands every day and today it passed a beautiful number of

650,650 STAMPS

Parrots, Antigua and Barbuda, 1973, Colnect catalog

We are proud of the stamp collector community on Colnect. It's big and active that's why the category grows so fast. We very appreciate all the help of all the contributors, editors, and translators. Actually, the Stamps category is the biggest one on Colnect. It has been led for a long time by two dedicated coordinators - Guido Fußhöller [footy68] and Klaus Jochimsen [Lola22]. Thank you guys for all you do for Colnectors and Colnect catalog.

The world of stamps is interesting and diverse! We found some interesting stamp issues from our catalog and facts about them. 

Light Opal, Australia, 1995, Colnect catalog

In 1995 Australia issued a postage stamp that looks like just a gem. Special technology was used to produce the look of real opals on the postage stamp. The design of the issue highlights the picture of Opal, the diversity of its sparkling beauty. Another set of postage stamps that look like real diamonds were issued in 1996.

Royal Bhutan Anthem, Bhutan, 1973, Colnect catalog

The Kingdom of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayan Mountains, issued in 1973 a series of postage stamps, "Recordings".  The stamps were literally phonograph records. The stamp series had native folk songs, national history, and national anthem of the Kingdom of Bhutan recorded on one side and could be played on a record player.




The world’s first undersea post office was established in 1939 as part of John Williamson scientific expedition on the seabed off the Bahamas. It was opened in 1939 and closed in 1941. The post office used a special oval postmark. It was inscribed the text "SEA FLOOR/BAHAMAS". Below you can see Bahamas undersea post office depicted on 5 shilling stamps issued in 1965.

1914 Williamson film project, 1939 underwater post office, Bahamas, 1965, Colnect catalog

Do you want to join us and develop Colnect together? We always welcome and appreciate any help. If you've never contributed information to Colnect before, please read our Catalog Contribution Guidelines.