Forbin
The last comprehensive catalog of Revenue Stamps of the World was issued by the French dealer Forbin in the year 1915. After that date, the collecting of worldwide revenue stamps began to fall off in popularity. In a very few countries, the United States and France come to mind, the collecting of native revenue stamps continued to be popular. But for the vast majority of the world, by 1930, Revenues simply were not collected anymore. The reason was simple. By 1930 there were enough worldwide stamps (and even within countries enough specialized stamps) to keep all but the most ardent philatelists happy. So Revenues became less popular and in hobbies, less popularity breeds lesser popularity until, today, it is a very unusual collector, indeed, who collects any revenue stamps at all.In the 1970’s, I was involved with a group who was trying to reissue and update the Forbin catalog. It was a formidable task. Forbin itself listed tens of thousands of different revenue stamps and was not complete. But as we looked at the revenue collecting world in 1975, we saw that many additional tens of thousands of revenue stamps had been issued since the last edition of Forbin. For some countries, a few tireless old time specialists had maintained collections of Revenues after 1915. Where these collections were comprehensive we could have updated Forbin with the newer revenues to make it a useful up to date catalog. But most countries had no decent revenue collections that we could use as a basis for catalog listings. We didn’t even know what stamps had been issued and what should be in the catalog (This is a paean, in a way, to the wonderful achievement that is the Scott catalog – there would be no philately without it.)
Worldwide revenue collecting has died out and hasn’t been missed. The lesson is that catalogs and philatelic promotion and the popularity of various philatelic sub-specialties are intimately intermixed. When catalogs stop being issued, areas of the hobby die. Right now the American First day Cover Society is undergoing financial problems. If this society fails, an entire area of the hobby is in danger. FDC’s have become less popular over the last twenty years for the same reason that foreign revenues did- too many new issues means that newer collectors don’t need to collect FDC’s to have enough to do in their hobby. If the American First Day Cover Society fails, it will be like having no new editions of Forbin. The First Day hobby won’t die immediately, but it will be weakened. If you care about this segment of the hobby at all you should be sure to join the American First Day Cover Society as soon as possible to give them your support.