Stamp collecting: As a hobby

It is an enjoyable hobby for people of all ages. It’s also the most interesting ways to learn about the people and the culture of other countries. It caught the imagination of the young and old, the ordinary and the famous: President Roosevelt of USA and King George V of Britain were keen collectors. Today, the collectors have a huge choice, because many hundreds of stamps are issued every year by almost every country in the world. Many stamps are also works of art on a small scale in themselves. There are mainly 3 basic ways of stamp collecting:

• A general collection: It basically means saving all the stamps that come your way.
• Country collection: It mainly means collecting stamps of one or few countries or relating to a specific period.
• Thematic collection: It can relate to all the countries having a certain design subject: for example on sports, animals, birds, flowers, etc …

The first stamps

The trends of writing letters have been going on for thousands of years. Before paper was invented, messages were inscribed on clay tablets and during the middle ages on parchment. It was King Charles I, who in 1635, “opened” his Royal Post to all those who could afford to use it. His son Charles II has set the General Letter Office, which issued one stamp in 1960 to mark the 300th anniversary of the GLO. However, it was not until 1840 that the first stamp were introduced – the famous penny black and two penny blue, both of which featured the portrait of Queen Victoria. India issued Asia’s first stamp on 1st July 1852 in the province of Sind and hence, the stamp was named after the province as the “Scinde Dawk”. These were suppressed on the 30th September 1854 and the remainders were ordered to be destroyed in October 1854. Though thousands of stamps were printed and used, they still remain very scarce.

Starting a stamp collection

The best way to start your stamp collection is with buying large packets of stamps which you can buy from stamp shops, hobby centre’s or, from dealers. They range in content from just a few stamps from a single country or subjects to packets containing many hundreds of stamps from around the world. The other places where you can obtain stamps are from exhibitions, auctions, stamp clubs and the Post Office.

Different Types of Stamps:

There are basically three types of stamps:

• Definitives: These are the everyday stamps
• Commemoratives: These are the larger sized stamps issued to mark a particular anniversary or event.
• Specials: These are again larger size stamps, issued to depict the life of a country – it’s animals, buildings, cultures, etc.

Preserving your stamp

The easiest way to arrange the stamp is to keep them in a stamp album. The simplest type of album contains pages with printed headings for each country or, theme. Some have their pages bound like a book; while others have loose leaves allowing you to add pages as your collection grows.

For most serious collectors, the blank loose-leaf album is the best choice. These albums enable you to arrange the collection just as you want, as you do not need to follow any particular arrangement.

There are other albums available too for holding the covers, post cards, complete sheets of stamps and stamp booklets. These have leaves of transparent plastic pockets into which the item is slipped for protection.

Accessories

• Tweezers: Stamps are fragile items and can easily be damaged if you pick them up with your fingers. Tweezers enables you to handle the stamp without the fear of damage. Using tweezers at the first might seem a little strange, but after a while you will be able to handle them with ease.
• Magnifying glass: This will help you to examine the fine details of the stamp’s design, detecting errors and varieties and helping to identify the method of printing.
• Perforation gauge: A stamp’s value may be increased if its perforation (the tiny holes around its edge used as a mean of separating one stamp from another) is different from normal. A perforation gauge will help you to measure these differences. The perforation number is found by counting the number of holes in a length of 2cm. By matching the perforation on the stamp with the dots on the card or plastic gauge, you can discover the correct perforation measurement.
• Other Equipment: In shops and magazines you might find some other equipment for sale. But only experienced collectors really need to buy them.