I Muse...On Some Statistics

Yesterday I sat down and counted the total number of stamps issued that were engraved by Slania or in which The Master had some form of involvement. You're probably thinking "Is this guy mad!" If you are you may be right. Now where was I? Oh yes! I also counted the number of unique designs Slania engraved. I used the fabulous site by Anne Mette Heindorff yet again to do my count.

Now in my defence there was a LOT of counting involved, and it will be probably be a good idea to do a double-check of my numbers. So there is every chance that my numbers may be off a little (or a lot!) But they are close, and for now they serve as a decent general guide.

My totals:

• Total number of stamps issued: 1417 
• Total number of unique designs: 1119

These numbers are truly staggering even if they are a little off!!

While counting I had to create some guidelines for me to follow to make life a bit easier. For instance, Slania engraved several Souvenir Sheets containing multiple stamps, but because these were issued as a single entity I have counted them as such. So it could be argued that the total number of unique stamp designs should include each different stamp within a Souvenir Sheet. Feeling head-achy yet? I did make note of all these numbers, but I haven't counted them yet. When I do I will update the totals with a separate figure for unique designs including those in Souvenir Sheets. 

When it comes to booklets, I have counted each stamp separately since the purpose of booklets is to tear them apart (shudder!) and use them individually. There are probably other criteria I used while counting, but I can't really think of any others as I type this, so that'll do it for now.

For fun, I also knocked together a quick bar chart illustrating the total number of Slania engraved stamps issued by country. Here is the chart for those interested (I hope it comes out readable):

As you can see the three countries that will keep me the busiest - and indeed every other Slania collector out there - are Sweden, Denmark and Monaco. I was also surprised to see that Slania engraved so many stamps for Faroe Islands. If the chart is unreadable: he engraved 99 for Faroe Islands.

I shall do another blog in the near future setting out the total number of stamps The Master engraved for each country, and maybe if I'm feeling sprite I'll do it by year. Anyway, that's me done for now!

Stay Slania Crazy!