Ever since childhood I have had a fascination with unusual/neglected countries. Tannu Tuva, Chamba, Obock, all seemed mysterious and challenging. This interest remains. I’m still thrilled to find a stamp from one of these out-of-the-way places. I found this article originally published in Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal (Dec. 1926) especially interesting.

We should all consider collecting a new country. Variety is the spice…

It is not a bad plan, when looking for a new country to specialise, to consider the merits of countries which have at one time been in bad odour for one reason or another, but which have since reformed. Many such countries, which have been neglected by all but a few canny collectors for years past, are now coming to the fore, and should prove profitable fields for investment.

Nicaragua and Salvador were at one time prolific of new stamps, and as-a result collectors began to consider that their issues were speculative and unnecessary, though, in the case of these two countries, this was very rarely the case. Now, however, the stamps of both are in keen demand, and as dealers have paid little attention to them for some years past, stocks have dwindled, and soon there should be all-round rises in price.

Liberia cannot claim a clean bill as regards unnecessary issues, for many of her stamps were frankly made for collectors. The early issues are, however, of the highest philatelic interest, and the later unnecessary stamps are usually of such beauty, and lend themselves to such attractive display, that their artistic merits may well be allowed to outweigh their philatelic deficiencies. Some of the quite legitimate provisionals of the war period are now getting very scarce.

Haiti, too, has lived down its past reputation and has given us only ten new stamps in the past six years. As a consequence a good deal of attention is being paid to the early and middle issues, and the former are rising rapidly, while among the provisionals there are a number of items whose rarity is hardly suspected.

In all the countries referred to, the demand from the United States has played a large part, as it does also in the increased vogue for the stamps of Hawaii, Panama, and the Canal Zone.