The stamp wall

Every country’s stamp, rarest first

Every country and territory in Globestamp has its own stamp, 250 in all, each drawn after a real entry stamp. Its finish shows how few travelers get there: plain Ink for the most visited, then Metallic, Foil, Colour-shift, Hologram, Prism, and Mythic for the places almost nobody reaches.

Mythic 27

A living finish taken from the place itself, for places with fewer than 50,000 visitors a year.

Prism 62

The full spectrum with glints, for places with 50,000 to 500,000 visitors a year.

Hologram 53

Cracked ice, a mosaic of small mirrors, for places with 500,000 to 2 million visitors a year.

Colour-shift 41

One colour straight on, another at an angle, for places with 2 to 6 million visitors a year.

Foil 34

A hot-stamped foil block in the ink’s own colour, for places with 6 to 15 million visitors a year.

Metallic 21

Ink with mica in it, for places with 15 to 40 million visitors a year.

Ink 12

Plain rubber-stamp ink, for places with 40 million international visitors a year or more.

How a finish is chosen

The finish comes from UN Tourism’s count of international arrivals, each country’s latest year before 2020. Places the figures leave out, mostly small territories, are placed by hand from what is known of their visitors. In the app the finishes shine: foil catches the light, a hologram breaks into small mirrors, and a Mythic stamp carries something of its place, like water for an island or an aurora for the far north. See the least visited countries for the figures.

Questions people ask

Which country has the rarest stamp?

The Mythic stamps belong to places with fewer than 50,000 international visitors a year, such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Pitcairn Islands, and to places with almost nobody at all, like Antarctica and Heard Island.

Are these real passport stamps?

They are Globestamp’s own drawings, each made after the style of a real entry stamp, with its shape, border and words. Many countries no longer stamp passports at all: since the EU’s Entry/Exit System, Schengen borders record visits digitally.

How do you collect a stamp?

Globestamp reads where your photos were taken, on your iPhone, and stamps every country you’ve been to. You can also hold a country on the globe to mark it.