Do you collect something? A lot of people do, and one of the most common things to collect is stamps. Here you will learn how stamp collecting can be so much fun, where and how to acquire stamps, how to organize your collection, and much, much more.
Philately means “love of taxes,” and since stamps are a tax on delivery of mail, Philately is now accepted as the love of postal items; in plain terms, collecting stamps and other things that have to do with stamps. And one more thing, derived from the word Philately comes the words Philatelic and Philatelist. These two words mean having to do with stamp collecting, and a stamp collector, respectively.
Did you know nearly all collectors are generally more inquisitive and thoughtful people? And if you made a list of the most beneficial things to collect to the least, stamp collecting would be at the top of that list? In stamp collecting, you collect whatever you want, from cats to boats, or education to music. Over 400,000 different stamps have been issued all over the world, so the possibilities are endless!
You may think that having a stamp collection will be too expensive for you, but stamp collecting can be extremely cheap or even free, just set aside envelopes with stamps on them that you get in the mail. Cut out the stamp from the envelope but leave about 1 cm margin. Soak it stamp side up in warm water and wait for about 15 minutes for it to drift off the paper. When this happens, feel the back of the stamp, if it is glossy, leave it in the water longer, if it is not glossy, put the stamp on paper towels and let it air-dry. You can acquire new issues at your local post office at face value, which is now 39c, hence each stamp will be 39c with some exceptions. Packets are little envelopes of all different stamps grouped by country or topic. These are very cheap, some go for only 1 dollar for 50-75 stamps! Kilo ware is unsorted stamps on paper (they still need to be soaked) sold by weight. This is even cheaper than packets because it is random what stamps you get ( there might be some duplicates). Approvals are when a stamp company sends you stamps that you examine for a certain period of time, usually 2 weeks or more. You send in the stamps you don't want along with payment for the ones you kept.. A mail order catalog is a catalog of stamps along with images. You fill out an order form with the catalog numbers of the stamps you want and send it in, they then send you those exact stamps. If you have a dealer in your area, you're lucky! They have lots of stamp packets, sets, and all the things mentioned above. They will also have many other Philatelic materials that you can collect along with equipment and catalogs. You can also join a stamp club and trade for stamps or even win some in contests!
With all these stamps, you'll want a place to put them! You could use an album, which has pictures of specific stamps and you mount them on the right pictures. You have two ways to do this, with mounts or with hinges. Mount are pieces of plastic with clear plastic sleeves on the front. You attach the plastic backing to the paper any way you want, and slip the stamp into the sleeve. Hinges are small strips of plastic coated with gum that only sticks when moisture is applied. They are folded so that one side is shorter than the other. You lick your finger and touch the shorter side and do the same to the long side. Then you stick the short side to the back of the stamp and the long side to the paper. Don't try to take the stamp off the paper until the hinge is completely dry, that's when the stamp will peel off easily. This will take a few hours. An alternative to a picture album is a blank album, which has titled graph paper so you can align the stamps any way you want. Still another alternative is the stock book, which is a book with plastic pages interleaved with glassing, an acid free semi-transparent plastic. The actual pages have many strips of clear plastic attached so you can just stick the stamps in. You title these pages yourself, but most people only use a stock book to store duplicates to trade. Dealers usually use stock books to showcase the stamps they have for sale that are low-priced. Sort your stamps any way you want. You could do it by country, by topic, or in no particular order, it's always your choice!
