What can Be Done: Switzerland is one of the most specialized countries to collect. As part of the Central Europe German speaking band of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, Switzerland is highly specialized in all of its phases. Before issuing stamps as a country, Switzerland issued stamps by various Swiss states (called Cantons). These Cantonal issues from the 1850s are nearly all very scarce and pricey and have long represented some of the most sought after classic issues in our hobby. The Swiss issues proper are divided by specialists into several periods. The imperforate period is prized, and many of the classic imperf issues (called "Rayons" by specialists) are plateable, and many specialists try to reassemble full sheets. The second united Swiss issues picture a seated allegory of Switzerland. Called Streubels by specialists, this issue is highly differentiated with paper and printing types and even the color of the thread that was placed in the paper stock as an anti-counterfeiting device, providing scores of varieties. The later nineteenth century issues are highly specialized by perforation type.
Twentieth century Switzerland is also high specialized. The Semi-postals, or Charity stamps, are broken down into two broad types—those that benefit children’s charities and those that are for the country. The airmails are very interesting and are often collected just by themselves. Switzerland is the home to a significant branch of the United Nations (and was the headquarters of the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations). Several hundred stamps have been issued for the use of those organizations, and they are very popular with philatelists and collected as part of Switzerland. Switzerland has issued many semi-official military stamps which are prized by collectors, and the coil and booklet combination stamps (called Zussamendrucke) are very popular.
Most collectors who specialize in Switzerland do so in a general way and have some of the areas discussed in the previous few paragraphs as part of their collection. But avid specialists could easily make separated volumes of any of these subspecialties.
Specialized Catalogs: The Scott Classic is very good for pre-1940 Switzerland. The real specialist’s catalog for this issue is the Zumstein catalog which lists many varieties in specialized Swiss philately discussed above. Zumstein is written in German but is easy to use, and only a few words need to be translated. As one of the countries with the most avid philatelic specialists, the philatelic literature of Switzerland is vast. There are numerous specialized studies and articles which make for good reading, and they can be accessed at the American Philatelic Research Library.
Specialized Albums: The album of choice for specialized Switzerland is the Lighthouse Hingeless specialty album. Scott, Safe, Linder, and Minkus all make specialized Swiss albums, but none are as nice as Lighthouse. Lighthouse is expensive, but because Switzerland has not issued as many stamps as many other countries, the album is only a few volumes and is affordable.
Availability of Material: Switzerland is one of the most avidly collected countries in the world with millions of collectors and active specialty groups and specialized dealers. Nearly every aspect of Swiss philately has its own specialty dealers, and material is easy to find. There are so many recognized varieties of some issues that nearly every stamp can be categorized as some shade or perforation variety if you study them enough. Many Swiss collectors buy larger lots with hundreds of stamps in them and enjoy for themselves the search for the plethora of varieties.
Expense: Classic Swiss stamps have come down in price considerably over the last twenty years. The Swiss Franc has remained strong, so the reason for the price decline has been the gradual lessening of the number of Swiss collectors. At its height, there were estimates of twenty million collectors in the Central Europe Germanic zone (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). That’s down to a few million now. At current price levels, Switzerland is an attractive and interesting specialty.
Overall Grade: A