Displaying Your Stamp Collection as Exhibits

At all stages, be aware of the budget for yourmoving the material at will.
exhibit. Building your competitive exhibit is great,5. Be sure that you covered everything included
but it must be kept in perspective. My personalwithin your exhibit title and make sure you have
preference is to distinguish the exhibit through thenot included anything beyond the title's scope. Let
level of research and knowledge involved, ratherme explain some pitfalls. Perhaps you are
than how expensive the material is. When planninginterested in the stamps of Bermuda and you
your exhibit, keep the following factors in mind.want to build a competitive exhibit based on that
They are general by design; being too specificinterest. The first part of your planning (knowing
may force you away from that aspect ofwhat you want to exhibit) is under control for the
uniqueness that you need before you begin tomoment. You then set a tentative title: no
form the exhibit within the accepted judgingsurprise, Stamps of Bermuda. That honest title is
guidelines. Spending additional time with theseyour way to explain the contents of your exhibit.
items will pay off for you later when you are ableTo the judges, however, it suggests that you will
to move through the "building" stage much morebe showing all the stamps of Bermuda, including
smoothly.the most valuable that may cost more than
1. Know what you want to exhibit.$100,000 each!
2. Know how to define your exhibit for theSo, you need a subject that you can develop,
judges through the exhibit title and the title page.preferably without undue expense and use titles
3. Know how large your exhibit should be. Thesuch that you convey to the judges what they
maximum number of pages allowed in the stampcan expect and grade you against.
show competition is a limiting factor; you need aIf the Bermuda commemorative stamps are your
solid handle on this before you build your exhibit.exhibit approach, presuming this exhibit is for a
Then, get a feel for how much material you havelocal show, you may use each of Bermuda's
that fits under the umbrella of your exhibit's title.commemorative set titles for the year span you
4. Outline your exhibit. Your exhibit is a logicalchoose to show as a major heading. Subheadings
story that needs to flow like a book. What sortmay be any minor varieties that you have. You
of story are you planning to tell? When you aremay also have provisions for first-day covers or
developing your outline, you may want to begin toexamples of some/many of the stamps that
lay out your exhibit pages on stock pages, whichwere used and are still on their envelopes.
allow you the flexibility of adding, deleting and