There is no doubt that topical stamp collecting is the fastest-growing segment of the hobby.  The topic can be almost anything, but the most popular topics are animals, art, birds, Europa, flowers, ships, space, sports and stamps on stamps.

I am going to attempt to review each of the most popular topics but for now I will start with animals.  This is a very diverse topic.  Most people collecting animals tend to specialize.  You could choose domestic animals, such as cats, dogs, cattle or other farm animals.  You could also choose wild animals, worldwide or limited to a specific geographic area, such as Africa.  Endangered species is a very popular topic.  The following is a very attractive souvenir sheet showing the "Endangered Species of Tanzania".


My personal favorites are dogs on stamps, and I really like the following, which is a souvenir sheet issued by the Scottish Isle of Stroma in 1969 showing Foxhounds participating in a fox hunt.


The best place on eBay to find topical stamps is Stamps > Topical & Specialty.   If you don't find what you want there try searching all Stamps using your chosen topic as the search word.  Here is an example dogs in Stamps.

Here are a few more topical souvenir sheets from the Scottish Isles of Stroma and St. Kilda.




To be continued