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HISTORY OF STAMP COLLECTING
The first stamp was issued in Britain back in the early 1800’s.
Sir Rowland Hill was the man who first came up with the idea of
using postage stamps to prepay for postal mail. It was called the
Penny Black, a picture of Queen Victoria. One had to use scissors
to cut each individual square from the sheet. The next country to
follow suit in using stamps to pay for postage was Brazil.
United States began issuing stamps at certain post offices in 1845
but it wasn’t until two years later before the first official
stamp was issued. It wasn’t long after this that stamp collecting
began. At first it was a hobby taken up by children. Adults never
showed that much interest in it. However, when these children grew
older they carried this passion for stamp collection into their
adult years. In the late 1800’s people began really studying the
postage stamps. They would publish results of their studies on
these stamps after researching everything from production findings
to possible printing flaws by certain plates. Establishments began
to open up specifically geared towards the number of stamp
collectors that were growing daily. This is when stamp collecting
truly took off and is still going strong today.
Collectors found that if they were able to come across an older
stamp that it would be worth much more than its face value due to
the rarity of finding unused stamps in mint condition. As a result
of this, they began saving stamps throughout the 1930’s in hopes
of having a valuable mint stamp years later. This idea backfired
because too many people had the same idea and as a result one can
still find a surplus of unused, mint condition stamps from this
era even today. Typically the rare stamps found today that are
worth a substantial amount would be those souvenir sheets from
other countries, certain plate number coils or printing mistakes.
In the beginning stamp collectors would collect stamps from every
country because there really hadn’t been so many stamps issued at
that time. Now there are literally millions of stamps that have
been issued over time and from every country in the world. Those
early collectors would sometimes affix their stamps to wallpaper
as a way of displaying their collection. Of course it was hard to
maintain them in mint condition that way. As stamp collecting
evolved over the years, people began to look for ways to store
these stamps in order to preserve them for a long period of time.
Some of the biggest most varied collections of stamps can be found
in royal families, the most notable one being the British royalty.
They have one of the most extensive collections of rarities
especially those from Great Britain. There was a man named Philipp
la Renotiere of Ferrary who was known as the one with the most
extensive private stamp collection. He was wealthy and was able to
hire dealers to work only for him in obtaining certain rare
stamps. He was able to grow quite a sizeable collection before his
death in 1917. Today those stamps have been auctioned off and
there is no longer any one collection of such rare, unique stamps.
Stamp collecting can be quite an interesting topic especially if
one takes the time to research the history behind some of these
stamps.
Original Article Source:
http://www.RareStamp.com |
