Philately. Postage and non-postage stamps

Internet auction of philately

The Swedish writer Tove Jansson, in her well-known tales about the Moomins, wrote about the essence of philately. Probably even about the essence of collecting.

One of the characters in Scandinavian folklore - Hemul, a passionate collector of postage stamps, suddenly fell into depression. Everything has lost its meaning for him. After all, he achieved his goal - he collected all the postage stamps in the world. This could probably happen to every philatelist. Of course, this is an exaggeration as nowadays there are so many more opportunities.

Albert Einstein once said that collecting, and philately in particular, is a great form of an active hobby. When a person of intellectual work is distracted from the daily process of intense reflection, going headlong into an album with stamps, switches to a different way of creative mental generalization and systematization of what is before his/her eyes.

Рhilatelic items are not only postage stamps, but also stamps, postcards, envelopes. Despite the fact that paper letters have lost their relevance, the number of philatelists in the world is not decreasing.

Of course, at first an inexperienced collector gets almost everything, any postage stamp. Over time, one begins to study the matter more deeply, and chooses the most interesting topics. These can be postal signs of a particular country or themes: animals, historical figures, cars, etc.

Collection of philatelic stamps

Stamps become the subject of in-depth study. The history of postal signs can be distinguished as a separate discipline. However, it is closely connected with world history.

Most countries' first postage stamps depicted a head of state portrait. Therefore, collecting stamps has become literally a royal hobby. Let's talk a little about the philatelic preferences of royals of the postage stamps homeland - the British Empire.

At number 41 Devonshire Place in London is the world's oldest association of collectors "Royal Philatelic Society" (Fellow Royal Philatelic Society, London - FRPSL). It was founded in 1869, and in 1906, King Edward VII added the word "royal" to the name.

His son, the Duke of York, was President of the Society until his accession to the British throne under the name of George V (1910), in 1924 he granted the right to depict the royal coat of arms on Societys’ business papers.

It is George V who is the founder of the royal collection. He spared no expense to fill his collection of stamps. In 1947, the royal mail philately had 350 folios, including sketches of all stamps of the British Empire. Their content is priceless, because it has no analogues. Before the war, when an exhibition was held in London to mark the 100th anniversary of the brand - "Penny Black", the newspapers estimated the approximate cost of the royal collection. According to some reports, it exceeded a million pounds.

Articles on philately sites often recall the following story: In 1948, eight (two quarter blocks) St. Vincent's stamps were printed in London to commemorate the royal couple's silver wedding anniversary. The entire shipment was loaded onto a ship bound for the West Indies, but it was caught in a storm and sank.

The unique copies ended up in album of George VI, because England is a country where traditions are sacredly preserved for many centuries. The royal collection has long been a symbol of Britain, and it regularly participates in all world exhibitions.

The name of the first stamp collector is not known for sure, as well as the exact day when philately was born. The writer from Kyiv, Joseph Levitas said: “In May 1968, in a London philatelic auction a letter was sold for 12 thousand pounds, paid for by ten uncut marks, dated May 6, 1840. Who could send such a letter if only one “black penny” was needed to pay for it? Probably a collector who sought to preserve such an envelope.”

By the way, "Black Penny" is probably the most famous philatelic stamp. This is the first postage stamp in history. Made in black and has a denomination of 1 penny. The stamp was printed on sheets: 240 pieces in 20 horizontal rows and 12 vertical columns. The letter in the lower left corner denoted a row in alphabetical order, and in the right - a column. Thus, by letters it is possible to determine the place of the mark on the sheet. Many stamps have been preserved because envelopes were not common at the time.

But even now, when everything is done online, stamp collecting is also undergoing major changes. Online philately makes life much easier for collectors. Auctions, societies, clubs, magazines, dealers, research centers offer online tools to expand and improve collections.

Рhilately book

Nevertheless, there is some inexplicable charm in the first paper editions dedicated to philately. The feeling of the past and history is expressed well in the preface to one of the first books on philately : "Pocket catalog of postage stamps" by Dr. Gray: "Collecting stamps is a fashion that is not limited to England ... This fashion, like any other, is ridiculed, but if postage stamps are properly studied, collected and classified, then there is no reason to deny that they can be as amusing and at the same time informative as collections of books, prints, coins, butterflies and other objects.”

Philatelic evaluation

Before the advent of the Internet, collectors tried to systematize knowledge, to structure philatelic evaluation of already issued stamps from a scientific point of view. This literature appeared not so long ago - in 1861, when the first list of postage stamps was published.

The list was simply called "Postmarks". It was compiled by Oscar Berger-Levrault from Strasbourg. It was written by hand and reproduced by lithographic method. The compiler sent it to his friends and acquaintances.

But one of the complete philately catalogs was the work of Mount Brown. This catalog gained wide popularity, although the author did not include any illustrations in it. The first edition - now a rarity - is a small book of 72 pages containing a list of all known stamps.

A collection of philatelic stamps can be found in probably every home. But, besides the British royal family, there were a lot of famous people who were interested in philately. For example, Claude Cartier. Yes, this is Cartier, founder of the world’s most famous jewelry brand. Claude became interested in philately in the mid-1950s, and this hobby stayed with him for the rest of his life. He collected unused stamps from the British colonies in the Caribbean and North America.

Another famous philatelist who needs no introduction was president Roosevelt. During his tenure as president from 1933 to 1945 he directly or indirectly took part in the creation of all US postage stamps of that time - he determined the subject, and participated in the development of stamp designs.

All these people understood philately, systematized their collections, deeply studied the history of the subject.

If you have a collection of random stamps, then philately dealers are unlikely to buy it. Or it will be sold at a very low price. Online philately auctions help to objectively evaluate your collection, find the stamp of interest, as well as just keep an eye on the market.

An important factor is, for example, the completeness of the series. After all, many stamps are issued not one by one, but several, connected (as a rule) by one theme, and often a postal block or blocks are attached to such a series. The state of the item, its circulation, history, etc. affect the value.

Over time, philately can become not just a hobby, but a lifestyle, a subject of deep study and interest, as well as a good investment of money.