"Zumstein (stamp catalogue)"

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Zumstein is a catalogue of postage stamps in Europe, published annually since 1909 in German and French.

Description
The catalog currently consists of four volumes:
I. Northern Europe - Scandinavian countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus.
II. Central Europe - Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany (including the GDR and West Berlin), France, Monaco, the French Post of Andorra, Austria and the European offices of the United Nations.
III. Southern Europe - countries of the Mediterranean basin (including also the countries of the former SFRY, San Marino, Vatican and Turkey), Portugal, Andorra (Spanish and French).
IV. Eastern Europe - Russia, the USSR and the former Soviet republics, Poland, the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia), Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania.

The names of the countries are arranged alphabetically. Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus are included in Northern Europe as the present and former possessions of the United Kingdom. The same can be said of the French post office in Andorra, which is catalogued twice. The catalog is also the company’s price list. Zumstein is not a specialized catalog, but it contains data on paper grades, perforation options, colors, etc., as well as various warnings about the possibility of dissolving paints in water, gasoline, the effects of light, glue, etc.

Marks of Russia are given with options for the position of watermarks, perforations, inverted centers, background are given. All stamps of money are indicated (without own numbers). After the country's state post stamps, issues of Russian post in China and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Wenden stamp (now Cesis) and local issues of the Civil War period are considered.

There are special features in the cataloging of Swiss issues. The second volume - "Central Europe" begins with postage stamps of this country: standard and commemorative stamps, stamps of printing machines, airmail, postal and charitable and memorable with an additional denomination for charitable purposes. This is followed by official stamps for the needs of the federal government, the League of Nations, the International Labour Organization, the International Bureau of Education, the World Health Organization, the United Nations European Office and others. Complete the section surcharges and stamps of exemption from postage, Franco-labels and telegraph stamps.

History
In 1905, a young collector, Ernst Zumstein (1880–1918), founded a philatelic firm in Bern and soon began publishing a small newsletter called Philatelic Exchange News. He then published a handbook of Swiss stamps, and in 1909, the first catalogue of stamps in Europe, which gained popularity around the world.