Table of Catalog Numbers

by Year of Issue

The table below shows the approximate starting number in each catalog for stamps issued each year.

Hopefully this table will be of some use to you - if someone refers to a stamp by catalog number or by year, you can quickly use this table to get an approximate idea of what year or where in the catalog it may appear.

However, there are some important limitations to the value of this table.  One important limitation is the fact that all catalogs don't number the stamps strictly in sequence of issue date - this means that where we show, for example, that Scott starts 1954 with stamp number 1689, that does not mean that there may not be occasional stamps listed before 1689 that were actually issued in 1954 (or even later!) and it also does not mean that stamps numbered after 1689 might not occasionally have an earlier issue date (although this scenario is less likely).

It is also important to realise that you can't work out the number of stamps issued in a year by simply calculating the difference in catalog numbers between the start of one year and the start of the next year.  Even after allowing for the lack of sequential numbering, different catalogs count stamps differently.  For example, Scott excludes semi-postal and air stamps from its main numbering sequence which both SG and Michel include them.  Both SG and Michel have a separate numbering sequence for "blocks" of stamps.  All three catalogs occasionally add letter suffixes to numbers so that between, eg, stamp number 50 and stamp number 51 there might be 50A, 50B, and 50C, making the simple maths a very unsimple and deceptive thing!

I have added a column showing the number of stamps issued each year, with the data taken from various sources such as dealer auctions on eBay.  There is some variation in these numbers from one source to another, and it may not be exact, but hopefully it is not too far wrong and provides a quick way of seeing the various changes in activity levels of the stamp issuing authorities.

So, with all of these limitations present, here is the table.  I hope you can still make some occasional use of it.

Note - if you are considering purchasing year sets, have a look at our page that gives year set sales price values.

*** Note that Michel did a crazy and illogical thing.  With Russia independent again, they restarted numbering from the end of when Russia was last "independent" - even though this same numbering series was also used in the Soviet Union period.  So for Michel stamps numbered from 220 on, they can refer either to early Soviet or new independent stamps.