PHILATELY
Brief History
Philately has been defined as the study and collection of postage stamps and other marks of prepayment issued by post-offices. The idea of collecting postage stamps seems to have occurred soon after the issue of the first British là. and 2d. adhesive stamps in 1840. The first commercial transaction by a collector was possibly that springing from an advertisement in the London Times in 1841 asking for cancelled stamps for a young lady.
The first philatelic magazine was published in 1861, and the first large philatelic club formed in 1869 (the year the Suez Canal was opened, and the first trans-continental railway in the USA completed) by the founding of the Philatelic Society of London. General: Collectors' Requirements
The revenue from philately comes not from selling commemorative or other special stamps for ordinary postage of letters and parcels, but from selling them to collectors for their collections. It is not, therefore, desirable to sell special issues over the counters of post-offices, in substitution for or alongside, definitive issues,except for short periods (see "Periods of Sale" below).
Collectors are interested not only in ordinary postage stamps that have been used to frank or prepay mail, but in many other things. Apart from the cancelled stamps on delivered mail, collectors are interested in postmarks, in "penalty" stamps for excess postage, unused "mint" stamps, stamp booklets, machine rolls of stamps (used in self-service stamp machines), aerogrammes which incorporate pre-printed stamps and thus do not require adhesive stamps, except for extra postage charges, imperfectly-printed stamps, and various configurations or groups of stamps from the sheets printed, including "squares of 4 stamps, and "gutter" sets, i.e., stamps which straddle the blank space, or gutter, between adjacent, but not contiguous, stamps on a complete sheet of new stamps. Where some of these features do not exist in a country's postal service, it may sometimes be worth introducing them where the extra feature would be helpful to ordinary users of the postal services. In other cases, particularly in small countries, it may not be economic to bring in features that do not already exist.
Study Groups
Some philatelists join together in so-called "study groups" specialising in the stamps etc. of particular countries, and usually producing some kind of magazine or news sheet to keep in touch with each other. Members are usually keen to acquire all new
iscues from the country favoured, and accordingly it is desirable for the country concerned to co-operate with such groups to any reasonable degree. A study group will usually frankly admit that its interests do not always precisely co-incide with that of the government, since the group members are keen to see the values of their collections rise and thus they are not overkeen on the pro- liferation of new issues. Of course it is not in any event advis- able for a country to over-saturate the market, thereby tarnishing its own image. Most countries welcome comments and suggestions from study groups, even though it is not possible to follow all
of these.
Commemorative Issues
The main governmental revenue from philately comes from commemorative issues. There are no "legal" limitations on the number of such issues, but a common practice is to make not more than 4 per year. Britain makes on average 6 per year, but is much richer in historical events and other features giving rise to reasons for an issue, than many smaller countries.
Most small countries set up a "Stamp Committee" to consider what events and persons and subjects are worthy of commemoration, and it is best to try to agree upon these about 5 years in acvence
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.