Transition Charts

Regional Transition charts help understand how a dead country fits into the overall movement of nations within a region. Someday I will complete these charts for all areas, but for now, I will add them to the site as they become available.

Feel free to reference or link to the charts for personal use, but they cannot be used for profit or sold in any way. If you use the charts, please give credit to Michael Adkins.

If you have suggestions, additions or questions, please leave in the comments section below.

NORTH AMERICA AND HAWAII

Canada
Hawaii

SOUTH / CENTRAL AMERICA

CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

ATLANTIC ISLANDS

WESTERN EUROPE

GERMANY / POLAND AREA

ITALY AREA

Italy, prior to unification
Italy, after unification

BALTICS

Baltics Area

CENTRAL / EASTERN EUROPE

GREECE / BALKANS

AEGEAN / IONIAN ISLANDS

Crete
Ionian Islands

RUSSIA AREA

North and West Russia (including Finland)
Russian Central Asia and Mongolia
Siberia and Russian Far East
Transcaucasia
Ukraine and South Russia

OTTOMAN EMPIRE AREA

MIDDLE EAST

Arabian Peninsula
Jordan / Palestine Area
Syria / Lebanon Area

NORTH AFRICA

Libya Area

WEST AFRICA

British Nigeria
French West Africa Area

EAST AFRICA

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Mozambique Area
Rhodesia / Nyasaland Area
South Africa Area

INDIA AREA

CHINA AREA

FAR EAST

AUSTRALIA / SOUTH PACIFIC

24 Responses to Transition Charts

  1. Hi Michael,

    I have just come across your website in my search for what you have called Transition Charts. Our stamp club is going to do Dead Countries as a theme for a one-frame showcase exhibit which will contain 15 one-page exhibits and a unifying page.

    I was thinking of making up at least one quiz of transitions where members have to fill in the blanks I leave. I am looking forward to preparing these based on your charts. In the meantime, it will give the potential exhibitors ideas on which countries they might like to choose.

    Thank you for your hard work on these, and I will attribute any charts I use (even in a simplified form) to you, and provide a link to your website at the end of the quiz).

    • Michael says:

      Hi Sheryll
      Again, Sorry for the late reply. I hope your event went well, and that you were able to do the “quiz”. Let me know if you need anything else.
      Michael

      • Thanks Michael,

        Yes, we did the quiz but it came across awkwardly. I hope to use another of your charts as a basis for a future quiz, and will make it much simpler than a”fill in the blanks” of a transition chart.

        BTW, I forgot to attribute your website in the last quiz, but the quiz to be published in the Feb newsletter will we attributed solely to you/your website.

  2. Rob says:

    Great site.

    As a beginner, it helped me a lot in making sense of the many names on the stamps, and pushed me to learn about the history of DC.

    There are two things that I wonder if they’ll appear in your transition charts:

    1) Can you add your name or your site to the pages? I downloaded several of them, and when I wanted to refer someone to them, I couldn’t find your name (at the end I did).

    2) Will you consider adding the changes of the country name on the stamps? There are countries that did it, some made significant changes (Siam – Thailand) And some, like Lybia and Romania, smaller ones.

    Either way, thanks for being a great source of knowledge.

    Rob

    • Michael says:

      Hi Rob
      Welcome to DCStamps, and I apologize for not answering for a while, I took a year off of stamps and dead countries, but am back now. To answer your questions —
      1) I do put my name and the DCStamps site in each transition chart, along with the copyright. (I am glad you found it).
      2) At the moment I don’t think that I have any transition charts including countries with name changes. In general, I don’t necessarily consider a name change as a “new country.” The changes from Siam to Thailand, Ceylon to Sri Lanka, Persia to Iran, etc. are not new countries, just a new (or old) name. However, I think on a transition chart, I will at least need to indicate the name change, or it would look wrong. Probably I will do it in the same box though.
      Regards
      Michael

  3. randy says:

    Hi,
    Would yourself or Mr. Adkins have a way to print up and sell the Transition/Dead Country charts/maps ?

    • Michael says:

      Hi Randy
      Welcome to DCStamps. I don’t sell the Transition charts, and they are free to use for any non-profit / educational purpose, provided you keep the copyright statement with a reference to DCStamps.com.
      Michael

  4. Alex says:

    Amazing work!

    Please could you make a Transition Chart for former Russian occupied Central Asia?

    Thanks!

    • Michael says:

      Hi Alex, welcome to DCStamps.
      I haven’t done Russian Central Asia, primarily because there are very few dead countries in the region which issued stamps. However, I will put it together per you request — Stay Tuned.
      Michael

      • Alex says:

        Thanks Michael!

        • Alex says:

          Welcome back!! I eagerly await the Russian Central Asia Transition Chart 😉

          Alex

          • Michael says:

            Hi Alex
            Thank you for the reminder. I took a look at the work in progress, and I have a rough construction already together. I will put it on my priority list and publish it next week.
            Michael

          • Michael says:

            Alex, I finally finished the transition chart for Russian Central Asia. Take a look, and let me know what you think. As a side note, I moved Mongolia and Tannu Tuva to this chart.
            Michael

  5. Marcelo Cristino Gama says:

    GREAT WEBSITE.

  6. Nick says:

    Hi Michael

    I have just found your site and expect to spend many happy hours here. The transition charts are particularly elegant and useful.

    I am a collector of first issues and a member of FICC (can I link to URLs?) on http://www.firstissues.org/ficc/main/index.shtml

    I started documenting first issues on my web site ten years ago and on the second time round tried something similar (in concept, at least) to your charts. Here’s my Africa from around 2002 – http://www.snap-dragon.com/fit_-_africa.htm. They were developed in MS Office and processed through MS Front Page which produced bloated and obscurantist code.

    I am now rewriting my first issue pages with a more narrative feel (http://www.snap-dragon.com/FIDisplay.html) and just this week thought about rewriting the charts (I called them timelines). If it’s ok with you, I’ll code links to your charts instead.

    Regards, Nick Blackburn, London

    • Michael says:

      Hi Nick
      Thank you for your kind words, I am really glad that you have found some of the information helpful. I took a look at your timeline chart — wow, trying to make a transition chart for all of Africa would be a daunting task indeed.

      You are most welcome to link to anything my site, all I ask as that you give some sort of credit somewhere. I will continue to add new countries, albums and transition charts, so check back from time to time to see what is new. Currently the transition charts are posted as PNG graphic files as I found that the easiest way to put them on my site, but I am playing around with changing them to a .pdf format (like my album pages).

      Good luck on snap-dragon re-write.

      Michael

  7. Bruce Warrender says:

    Hi,
    Just visited your website for first time. I’ve noticed you have not listed Schweizer Renecke.
    This town near Bechuanaland border was occupied by a British garrison from July 1900 to
    9 January 1901. Stamps of Transvaal and CGH handstamped Besieged.

    • Michael says:

      Hi Bruce

      Thank you for visiting DCStamps, I hope you found it useful. I was unaware of stamps from the Schweizer Reneke seige, so I will do a little research and, as appropriate, add it to the Dead Country List as well as modify the Tranistion Chart (which is already quite busy). Thanks for the information.

      Michael

      • Bruce Warrender says:

        Hi,
        Spinks Collector’s Series sale 15-17 April features Schweizer Renecke stamps (5 of the 6 issued) with photo’s of all. Pages 132/133 in the catalogue (under Transvaal) take a look.

        • Michael says:

          Bruce

          I appreciate the references you pointed me to, and I found the 6 stamps in my Scott catalogue under Transvaal (although I do list countries that are not necessarily listed in Scott). I have now added Schweizer Reneke siege to the list of Dead Countries and I will update the Transition chart in the next couple of days. I also found the stamps you mentioned in the Spinks Collector’s Series.

          Thank you for taking the time to point out dead countries which I am missing, it helps make the list more accurate and complete. I welcome comments from anyone who can help make this site better.

          Regards
          Michael

  8. Dale Sparks says:

    Stunning Site! WOW!

    I have spent the past week creating ‘Transition charts’ so that I can organize my Scott #1’s project… it’s not easy! French West Africa, just based on Scott Catalogs, is especially vexing.

    My past project I referred as ‘Colonial Ghosts’ – Mozambique Company, Belgian Congo, German New Guinea, etc…. this site is tremendous.

    I have spent a fortune on albums from Palo (and like them very much)… but just saw your virtual album concept and am realizing how brilliant that is!

    Anyway… thank you! If there is anything I can do to help please let me know. If I run across any of the stamps not pictured in your albums, I’ll send them to you, I have some duplicates in those areas, but will have to sort through them. I assume you want to just have stamps you own pictured, but I’d be happy to ‘loan’ you a photo or a stamp to photo if I have one for one your spaces.

    Also if you find yourself in Phoenix, open invitation for a beer or glass of wine.

    Dale Sparks

    • Michael says:

      Hi Dale
      Thanks for the nice words. The transition charts have helped me a lot in understanding the history of a region. Sadly, I don’t think that Scott is a good reference in helping develop such a chart. It takes a little bit of history reading to try and understand the ebb and flow of “nations” (including those that never issued any stamps).

      Also, every stamp in the albums I display, I own, so I am not looking to add “photos” to my albums. I also have many, many “dead countries” which I have yet to develop an album for, and will get around to putting them together over time (usually a few a month). Regarding sending stamps, I would be happy to make trades. I have lots of duplicates, and also have lots of classic stamps (<1950) which are not dead countries, so feel free to let me know what you have to trade, and what you are looking for. Just drop a post and I will answer.

      Michael

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