It’s National Geography Awareness Week.  Geography is one of the first topics we learn about as school children.  And it is then that we begin to discover that the World  is a much larger place than we were previously aware.  In school, we learn of distant cultures perhaps with special bias toward differences as an educational tactic.  But upon postage stamps, we see first the similarities.  Stamp collecting and geography teach of both cultural differences and similarities.

While some topics may always remain a bit too taboo to adorn a nation’s postage, we see common points of interest like children, national monuments, great leaders, and holiday themes.  Of course, we also see diversity in the art of postage stamps.  But we also find similarities among the values expressed in Worldwide stamp art.

It is those topics with which we identify that help us to learn.  For example, look in any mushroom topical stamp collection and you’ll likely discover new species.  You’ve seen mushrooms.  But you may not have seen those indigenous to a certain stamp’s issuing country.

Why do they only survive in the location they do?  Why do they look so different?  These are the types of questions that begin to entertain and educate the mind.  Geography is just one of the many topics one can learn from World’s most fascinating hobby — Stamp Collecting.