STAMP & STAMPS COLLECTING
- Postage stamps are adhesive labels affixed to letters or parcels to indicate that a specified amount of postage has been prepaid for delivery. Stamps are usually issued by a government or an agency representing a government, such as a national post office. The collecting and study of postage stamps and related items such as postcards is known as philately, a word derived from Greek meaning, literally, “love of what is free of further tax.” Stamp collecting is one of the most popular hobbies in the world.
COLLECTING
- The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world. Others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest, perhaps 19th century postage stamps, milk bottle labels from Sussex, or Mongolian harnesses and tack.
THE ITEMS COLLECTORS
- collect may be antique, or simply collectible. Antiques are collectible items at least 100 years old; collectibles are less than antique, and may even be new. Collectors and dealers may use the word vintage to describe older collectibles. Most collectibles are man-made commercial items, but some private collectors collect natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells.
TYPES OF COLLECTING
- From the earliest years of the hobby, most philatelists have preferred to collect by country, specializing in the issues of one or more nations. Since about the mid-1950s, however, many philatelists have become interested in topical collecting, acquiring stamps illustrating certain themes or subjects. Among the wide range of pictorials are stamps devoted to sports, art and music, aviation, birds and flowers, literature, scouting, ships, and telecommunications
STAMPS
- The idea for the adhesive postage stamp was first suggested by the English schoolmaster and civil servant Rowland Hill as one of the many postal reforms in Britain in 1837. Hill's conception, for which he was later knighted, was derived from similar labels that had been issued almost a century earlier in many parts of Europe as a way of collecting a tax on newspapers. In a treatise on post office reform, Hill also suggested that mail be prepaid, that charges be based on weight instead of the number of pages being sent, and that the rates be low enough to allow ordinary citizens to mail letters.
DEVELOPMENT OF STAMPS
- Brazil became the second country to use adhesive postage stamps in 1843, and the United States was the third in 1847. By 1860 most nations had adopted the use of the postage stamp. Early designs imitated those of Britain. Monarchies and their territories issued stamps with portraits of their reigning king or queen. The United States depicted George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, two deceased statesmen, on its first stamps. Some countries used national symbols.
Nonportrait designs became popular by the end of the 19th century, and stamps created to commemorate important events began to be issued. Today almost all countries issue large, colorful pictorials, often solely for the revenue obtained from sale to collectors. Portraits of presidents and others who have made significant contributions to American life have since been featured on U.S. stamps. Portraits of living people, however, are forbidden—a person’s likeness cannot appear on a U.S. stamp until at least ten years have passed since his or her death. The only exceptions are presidents, whose portraits may appear on stamps immediately after they die.
POSTAGE STAMPS
- eventually took on a wide variety of special purposes. Postage-due stamps (or simply “dues,” as collectors call them) were affixed to envelopes to indicate insufficient postage. Special stamps for airmail, newspapers, military delivery, income tax, railway delivery, special handling, and all sorts of other purposes were created. Semipostals, or charity stamps, became a popular way for governments to raise funds for various causes. These stamps cost more than their postage value, with the difference going toward the charitable cause.
- Stamps have historically shown a specified amount of prepaid postage. But in recent years many stamps have been printed without denominations, the majority from the United States, which often prints huge quantities of one-ounce, first-class stamps in anticipation of a postage increase. The exact amount of the increase is not known at the time the stamps are printed, so they are simply marked with a letter of the alphabet or some other designation to indicate they represent the going rate for a one-ounce letter. The year of issue is commonly placed at the bottom of U.S. nondenominational stamps to avoid confusion.
THE LAST MAJOR POSTAGE
- innovation of the 20th century was the development and wide distribution of self-adhesive stamps—stamps that do not have to be moistened. Consumers love them for their convenience, but collectors hate them because they are difficult to store in a stamp album. Eventually, the only “lickable” stamps will likely be those intended primarily for collectors and souvenir hunters, such as America’s enormously popular Elvis Presley, James Dean, and Marilyn Monroe stamps. The 21st century is apt to bring major changes to the postal industry, due mostly to the growing use of e-mail and other electronic means of transmitting information. As post offices become less and less important and postal revenues decline, stamps commemorating events and folk heroes will likely become more common as a means of increasing sales.
BEGINNING A COLLECTION
- Some novice collectors start purchasing items that appeal to them, and then slowly work at acquiring knowledge about how to build a collection. Others (more cautious or studious types) want to develop some background in the field before starting to buy items. The term antique generally refers to items which were made at least 100 years ago or more. In some fields, such as antique cars, the time frame is less stringent — 25 years or so being considered enough time to make a car a "classic" if not an antique. In the area of furniture, some experts claim that a true antique must be at least 150 years old.
In general, then, items of significance, beauty, values or interest that are "too young" to be considered antiques, fall into the realm of collectibles. But not all collectibles are limited editions, and many of them have been around for decades: for example, the popular turn-of-the-century posters, Art Deco and Art Nouveau items, Carnival and Depression era glass, etc. In addition, there exists the "contemporary collectibles" category, featuring items like plates, figurines, bells, graphics, steins, and dolls.
Many collectors enjoy making a plan for their collections, combining education, stimulation and experimentation to develop a personal collecting style. And even those who reject the notion of "planned collecting" can refine their "selection skills" with some background information on the how-to's of collecting.
COLLECTING PROCEDURES
- One of the attractions of stamp collecting is the ease of starting a collection. With access to enough incoming mail, especially from abroad, a person can build a collection without any expense. Literally tens of thousands of stamps, however, including many of the older issues, are priced very cheaply.
Little special equipment is required. A collector needs only an album to house the collection, some hinges or other types of mounts to attach the stamps to the pages, and a pair of stamp tongs with which to handle them. Stamps and accessories can be purchased easily. Nearly every city has a one or more professional stamp dealers. Thousands of other dealers operate exclusively by mail or the Internet.
Exchanging duplicate stamps is one of the greatest pleasures in philately. The best way to find trading partners is to join a school or other local stamp club.When collectors have accumulated a number of valuable stamps, they must take precautions for safe storage, preferably in a bank safety deposit box. If the stamps are in mint condition, they should not be overlapped; through changes in humidity, overlapping stamps may stick together and become seriously damaged. Collectors also should keep accurate written inventories of all their philatelic material.
OMNIBUS
- An omnibus issue is any group of stamps, generally with the same design, released by a number of stamp-issuing authorities to mark the same occasion. The British Commonwealth has by far produced the greatest number of omnibus issues, the first being the George V Silver Jubilee series of 1935, another being the series released on July 29, 1981, to commemorate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Frances Spencer.
