Collecting Costa Rica
If this is the first time you have heard of The Society for Costa Rica Collectors, welcome to
our website! SOCORICO is here to help you enjoy collecting the stamps of Costa Rica
in every way we can. If you examine the rest of our site you will see that we offer a
special catalog just for Costa Rica stamps, a newsletter with information on Costa Rica
collecting, and even a free set of album pages to house your collection! In addition, we
often have auctions of hard-to-find Costa Rica material and sell several books covering
particular areas of Costa Rica collecting. We hope you will find Costa Rica collecting
interesting enough to become a member!
If you are just visiting this site out of curiosity, you may wonder why you might enjoy
collecting the stamps of Costa Rica. Although everyone has their own reasons for
collecting whatever area they choose, here are eight reasons you might want to collect the
stamps of Costa Rica:
Costa Rica stamps illustrate an interesting philatelic history. Right from its first
issue in 1863, the stamps of Costa Rica include interesting overprints, strange
issues, telegraph stamps used as postage stamps, separate issues for a remote
province, and a variety of bogus issues produced by both local and international
scoundrels. Costa Rica follows a conservative stamp issuing policy. You won't have to
collect five thousand stamps to get a complete collection! And Costa Rica doesn't
issue "special imperforate sheets", limited-edition proofs, or other philatelic
garbage made solely to get collectors' money. Sorry, no Elvis stamps or faces on
Mars, either. The stamps of Costa Rica are affordable. Almost all our stamps are less than a
few dollars and hundreds are only a few cents apiece -- take a look at the catalog.
Yes, there are a few rarities that cost hundreds, but you can assemble a near-
complete collection without ruining your budget. You won't have to buy an album to house your Costa Rica stamps. Elsewhere on
this website you will see how you can download and print an album for your
collection that contains spaces for every stamp issued by Costa Rica -- not for
every minor variety or color shade, but all the major listing you will find in any
catalog. Just print out the pages and put them in a three-ring binder! Modern Cost Rica stamps are topically interesting. Costa Rica has a rich cultural
heritage and a diversity of wildlife found in few other places. Costa Rica stamps
illustrate these many topics. Are you an advanced collector? Costa Rica has great opportunities for specialized
research. We've published research in our newsletter for over 140 issues, and
there are still questions to be answered. Costa Rica philatelic information is accessible. Our specialized catalog, our
newsletter, and other specialized publications are all available in English. All are
moderately priced, and many of the early newsletter issues are available
on CD! And if you read Spanish there are a variety of Spanish-language
publications as well! Costa Rica is great for collectors of postal history. You can get (at remarkably
modest cost) items representing every era from pre-stamp covers of the Spanish
era, the first issue, railroad covers, and even early airmail experiments.
Costa Rica collecting is enjoyable and affordable. Join us!
| 