Tim Choy Stamp and Postcard Collection

The collection includes postage stamps and postcards from countries around the world, with a particular emphasis on China and other Pacific Rim countries.

The stamp portion of the collection includes several thousand stamps from every continent except Antarctica, with particular emphasis on China. Other notable historic stamps are present from early 20th century Korea, Nazi Germany and the British Commonwealth. There are many stamps from the United States, with a particular strength in stamps related to Hawaii. Most of the collection is made up of used stamps, but there are also first day covers (i.e. envelopes mailed on the first day of issue of a particular stamp), commemorative sheets and envelopes in good to mint condition. Several commemorative books and albums contain Chinese stamps in mint condition from the 1960s-2000s.

The postcard and ephemera portion of the collection contains several thousand postcards that Tim Choy acquired while on trips between about 1980-2003. Choy organized the postcards into binders and files, the structure of which has mostly been preserved in this collection. The binders (Boxes 3-4) contain mostly single photographic postcards from museums and major tourist attractions such as churches and castles. The files (Box 5) mostly contain sets of postcards issued in series, and are predominantly from China and neighboring East Asian countries. About a dozen tourist brochures are included with the files.