Sunday 8 February 2009

Philately & It's Origins


Introduction


The story of philately is one that goes back to about the year 1841 when the first stamp collectors in the world began to emerge.

The Spanish Royal Academy defines philately (which comes from the Greek words Philos, meaning friend, and Ateleia, meaning deliverance) as the "Art dealing with the knowledge of stamps. and principally with postage stamps".

This first postal stamp – the Penny Black – featured a portrait of Queen Victoria . It got its name from the fact that it cost one penny and was printed in black ink. The first association of stamp collectors was founded in 1856 in the United States . It was called the “Omnibus club”. Its members, however, were encouraged to collect not only stamps – but also a wide variety of objects – including bugs!

The first “stamps-only society” was founded in 1866 in the United States and called itself “The Stamp Association”. As people began to collect stamps, these little squares of paper began to have another, secondary use apart from getting the letters across in the post. They began to have an additional value to collectors. Thus, was born the concept of the hobby called Philately!

With time, certain old stamps, or stamps with errors or misprints, and stamps with very limited copies in print, began to command great prices among collectors. These came to be known as rare stamps – for which people were ready to pay large sums of money!

Naturally, if a lot of people want a stamp that is in short supply, the value of the stamp will increase! The world’s rarest stamp is the British Guiana One Cent Black on Magenta issued in 1856. It is the most expensive stamp in the world – simply because there is supposed to be only one copy in existence!

Ironically, the oldest stamps -- the Penny Blacks -- are not uncommon in the collections of philatelists. They cost about rupees 20,000 today. By contrast, the Scinde Dawk (the red stamp in the series) may exchange hands at prices as high as Rupees 2,00,000 (US $ 5,000).

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