The Catacombs The Merchandise Guide
Annual 1975

Stamps with Space Themes

SPACEQUEST in STAMPS


From Sputnik to Saturn, through Surveyor,
Soyuz and Skylab, the race to space has--in
one certain way--involved practically every
single state and country in the whole world;
Afghanistan and Ajman, Zaire and Zambia,
everyone in between. They've all had a hand in
it--through the simple medium of the postage
stamp!
Technically speaking, Year One of the Space
Age was 1957 when, on October 4th, the
Russians launched Sputnik One, the first arti-
ficial satellite ever to go into earth's orbit. As for
the beginning of the 'space race' on stamps, that
was in 1962, when Albania issued their Sputnik
commemorative. Since then, the release of
stamps dealing with all aspect of man's journey
beyond his natural environment has snowballed
to literally thousands of issues, many of them
cheap and easy to obtain, others which have
already become expensive rarities.
The reason isn't difficult to see. Stamps are
big business, and with the rise, over the last few
decades, of interest in 'thematics'--stamps
dealing with specific subjects--the collector has
been fair game for issuing authorities.
Actually, the collecting of space stamps is a
fascinating and extremely worthwhile hobby.
On the one hand there's the satisfaction of
having an extremely colorful picture gallery
of pocket size--one that at least has the poten-
tial of increasing its value in time. On the other,
you have at your fingertips a ready reference of

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