Among the most popular areas to collect are the stamps of the British Commonwealth of nations. Comprising hundreds of stamp issuing entities, these are all former British Colonies. British colonial stamps have always been popular not only with collectors residing in Great Britain. Rather, they have been the second most popular collecting specialty in nearly every geographic area since the beginnings of philately. In the United States, after American stamps, collectors collect British Commonwealth the most. In Russia, after Russian stamps, people collect British Commonwealth the most. And the same is true throughout the world (with the exception of China and Japan where US stamps are number two and British Commonwealth number three).
This has made the stamps of the British area not only popular but very price resilient. When the prices of European stamps have skidded in the last year or so due to the weak Euro, the stamps of the British Commonwealth, due to their truly worldwide popularity, have remained strong.
British Commonwealth collectors further specialize by country and by reign of the monarchs that are pictured on the stamps. Victoria’s reign neatly frames the classic philatelic period. She became queen in 1838, and the first postage stamp was issued in 1840. She died in 1901 thereby making British stamps under the reign of Queen Victoria essentially a collection of all of the classic nineteenth century stamps of the British Commonwealth (a complete collection of Queen Victoria stamps of the British Commonwealth has never been made, and would be worth well over $100 million if one could accomplish it). But the most popular of all the British monarchs philatelically is King George VI. The reason for this is that George VI was king during one of philately’s most active periods (the 1930s), and he was an avid stamp collector himself. But, most importantly, because of both his short reign and the fact that his stamp issues were so avidly collected, it is possible for collectors to make complete collections of King George VI stamps.