Top Dead Countries to Collect - SBC

Forgotten names of countries that once existed. A dead country in philately is/was an entity that used to issue postage stamps and now no longer does. This is a fun top 10 countdown to explore the concept of dead countries in philately.

The two books:
Dead Countries of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Aden to Zululand - Les Harding
Lost Countries: Exotic Tales from an old Stamp Album - Stuart Laycock and Chris West.

Check out this resource!:

Note: Reference to USSR size is land area and not population count. The USSR occupied 1/6th of the worlds land surface, and was 2.5 times the size of the USA.

#philately #stampcollecting

[roccoroth]

Carpatho-Ukraine is my favourite. Only a country for a day! Czechoslovakia issued a stamp commemorating the inauguration of their government, it's interesting stuff! I personally collect, among many other things, dead country/state/town stamps from places that existed for less than 25 years.
Here are some good ones that issued stamps, and the time they were around for:

Lajtabansag, 37 days
Hungarian Soviet Rep., 133 days
Peoples State of Bavaria, 280 days
Ukrainian Peoples Rep., 785 days
First Hungarian Rep., Under a year
Italian Social Rep., 610 days
Rep. of Central Lithuania, 530 days
Prov. Govt. Of Hawaii, 534 days
Dem. Fed. Yugoslavia, 731 days
2nd Hungarian Rep., Under 2 years
Azad Hind, under 2 years
1st Nigerian Rep., under 3 years
South Russia, under a year

Some other fun places that issued stamps:

Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic

Russian Army of the North 1918-1920

Manchuria

Hope this helps someone looking for some interesting stuff to collect!

Edit:
British-Occupied Batum

British Military Administration of Malaya

[knut]

Graham, I’m so impressed with your videos — the topics are very accessible for the new collector or would be collector. And even though I’ve collected for years, I’ve learned many interesting things from your work. Rarely do I find stamp shows a welcoming environment to share/learn information, but watching your high quality videos has been a wonderful experience. I hope there is a season 4 and beyond. You are the kind of collector, educator and creative artist this community needs.

[siam]

I think this is the third or fourth time that you have re-opened a door to a collecting area that I once enjoyed, but had largely forgotten. Time to e-look at my album of dissolving empires that included the USSR, the British Empire and the French international holdings. Really great to see you back with new content!

[carloslizzelaya]

Because I live in the area, I would give an honorable mention to British Honduras, now Belize, and the Canal Zone, now incorporated into Panama.

[sauravkumar]

Hey was eagerly waiting for a philatelic video during this lockdown!! I still have a lot of postage stamps from these dead countries like noyta cccp, Grenada gremadines, Yugoslavia, ceskoslovensko, Deutsche ddr, berlin, uar and indian native states like bahawalpur, hyderabad, idar, bamra etc. It is fun knowing about them. Also a lot of Africa and asian countries have since changed their names like burma, Kampuchea, siam, Ceylon, nyasaland, rhodesia, basutoland, bechuanaland..and many more!

[johnsimper]

Another superb video Graham. Really informative and interesting.

[MyLion]

First of all, welcome back! Nice video as usual!
My list of 10 dead countries to collect:
1) Carpatho-Ukraine (Ruthenia)
2) Saar
3) West Berlin
4) DDR
5) Czechoslovakia
6) Boemia and Moravia
7) Trieste Zone A and/or Zone B (Zone A Italian overprinted stamps, Zone B Yugoslavian overprinted stamps)
8) Somalia AFIS (Italian administration 1950-1960)
9) Bavaria
10) Yugoslavia

But there are many others.

[thecrazycoder]

This is such a cool video. Thanks for posting this. Just getting into stamp collecting but I'm also a history buff. This video just reinforces that fact - by following stamps you're following the history of a country. Way cool.

[ChacoteOutdoorRecreation]

I hope top ten, becomes a format on this channel, you learn at a rapid pace and it highlights why philately will always be the hobby and passion that has no restriction, or limits unless self imposed from within, nothing that man can accumulate in the course of life captures time, in a limited space with often the art of the masters mixed with the tongue moisture or tears and DNA of that frozen moment that can never be again. Stamps are the offspring of the marks and traces of human existence and all that comes with it.

[georgeloveday]

I plan to begin collecting asap. I have recently spent my time viewing stamp videos. I must say that your productions are top quality productions.They are not only high quality, but well organized just like a teacher with a lesson plan. So professional.

[masterblaster]

USSR rightly deserves the top slot. I've always loved collecting Soviet stamps, they were big & colorful and a thematic delight.
Of all Indian princely states, I think Jaipur issued the most beautiful stamps. The commemorative set of 1931 was a masterpiece in engraving!!

[gillesdupouy]

I had my dad's collection for years and just got interested a few days ago by a collector friend (I'm mostly collecting coins and notes). I have more than a thousand stamps to go through, mostly from the 1880s to the 1980s and the dead countries are my favourite : I found Danzig, Kiautschou, Transvaal, Natal, Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Bavaria, Ottoman empire, and I've not even been through all of them. I'm sad that I didn't get into stamps before ! I hope I'll stick to it, thanks for your videos, they're really instructive, well made and entertaining !

[opusknowledge]

Great video, as always. Rhodesia was I think the most interesting of them all. The best philately channel on Youtube.

[alexmocanu]

My top 10:

10 - Heligoland
9 - Hawaii
8 - Tibet
7 - Confederate States of America
6 - French Indochina
5 - Austria-Hungary
4 - Czechoslovakia
3 - Yugoslavia
2 - Ottoman Empire
1 - U. S. S. R.

[sergioarturoaldabacarreon]

Good to see a new video uploaded from you. Hope you and your beloved ones are well in these hard times. Blessings!

[fkehar]

I have some stamps from Aden, Bahawalpur, British East Africa, and USSR.
8:12 Indian annexed Hyderabad by a military action called Operation Polo.

[stevenreed]

My Top 10 List
10) Yugoslavia
9)Danzig
8) Hatay
7)Bohemia and Moravia
6) Abu Dhabi
5) Basutoland
4)Heligoland
3)Bavaria
2) Confederate States of 'Merica
and last but not least
1)Ryukyu Islands (only because I spent 2 and a half years there)
Keep up the good work.

[alifitz]

You have the best videos on stamps. I am now binge watching your videos. You are so informative and knowledgeable. One video taught me more than 6 months of researching has. Thank you.

[bevviljoen]

Thank you for the very informative talk. Just started collecting stamps, taking over my dad's collection. Besides lots of Rhodesia (I am a Zimbabwean), my dad had lots of USSR, so I am finding your talks very helpful.

[jeffglant]

This is such a good topic Graham 👏 Seems to have generated a good discussion too.

I suggest the Scott Germany II album. It houses stamps for Danzig, Saar, Memel, Upper Silesia, Bohemia Morovia, and German Military occupations.

Scott used to issue a book called the Scott Stamp Atlas. You can find used copies cheap online. I have found it very useful.