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ABOUT PHILATELY
Philately is a term applied to the study of and about postage
stamps. Not all collectors are Philatelists. Many people collect
just for the enjoyment of it without really knowing the history,
origin or value of a stamp.
Their goal is just to build a collection of stamps according to
whatever they chose as their theme. Philatelists, on the other
hand, are not necessarily collectors. They could be but their main
goal is to study rare stamps and gain knowledge about them without
any expectation of owning one. All serious collectors however,
could benefit from a general knowledge of philately. This could
assist a collector in determining the true value of a stamp and
avoid paying too much for a basically worthless one.
The study of stamps came about when people started observing that
some of the same types of stamps were on different papers, had
varying watermarks, color hues, perforations, and many other
little differences. This brought up questions on how and why they
were different. Consequently some of these individuals began
researching postal records to determine the origin of these stamps
and find out why there were variations on supposedly identical
stamps. Additionally, over the years people have found ways to
produce forgeries of these stamps. Some of them are excellent
copies and only someone experienced in studying stamps would be
able to tell the difference.
Basically philately is divided into two groups. There is technical
philately, which examines the technical end of the stamps and
topical philately, which specifically studies the designs on the
stamps.
Technical philately involves being intricately familiar with the
design process of the stamp. Understanding the type of paper
normally used for a particular stamp such as whether it’s a woven
or laid and if it includes watermarks. Knowing the printing
methods that are used, this includes engraving, typography and
such. Searching for stamps that have been reprinted over an
existing design. Study of these technicalities goes as far as to
investigate the type of separation and gum used on the stamps.
Technical philately is widely used to determine forgeries in
stamps.
Topical philately is strictly the study of a stamp’s topical
design. Sometimes famous pictures are edited before their use in a
stamp and topical philately includes learning about the story
behind the editing. Some stamps have the wrong pictures on them.
Learning about certain images and why those images came to be used
on stamps. With the wide variety of subjects that have been used
on stamps over the years, topical philately can provide an endless
number of topics to be studied.
Philately is an extremely detail oriented field of study, one has
to have a good eye for some of the tiniest detail that can be
found on stamps. Even someone who is just a casual collector would
benefit from just some of the basic knowledge about philately.
This information would help a collector understand better about
the various stamps and reasons behind their values. It may also
help someone avoid making costly mistakes in the buying or selling
of pieces in their collections. Some may hold value that a
collector isn’t aware of while others may be literally worthless.
Original Article Source:
http://www.RareStamp.com |
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