Tips

For enthusiasts and experts in stamp collection and investments, the art of collecting and sharing one’s prized collection will not just bring knowledge, excitement and even cash. There are some instances when problems and issues will also arise, including one’ failure to extend appropriate stamp care and attention.  There will always be stories about damages and tear on the material, using inappropriate glue and attaching the stamps on poor quality materials, and even allowing the stamps to linger in poorly cleaned and maintained areas.

Coins aren’t just ranked and compared through their face values, but through the use of coin grading. Just like in the collection and trading of precious stones like diamonds where the 3Cs take center-stage, in coin collecting and investment, there’s a benchmark too that’s used to compare and contrast actual values. And this benchmark is called coin grading, or a professional and systematic way of determining the grade (or overall quality and ‘marketability) of the coins in question. Coin grade is critical information for many coin collectors and investment.

While insurance has been traditionally associated with fixed assets and real estate and even one’s life, keep in mind that it can also work for your stamp collection. According to industry bloggers like Carrie Van-Brunt-Wiley and Samantha Alexander, it pays to secure your stamp collection and to do it now. Philately is not just about searching and researching about valuable stamps; responsible philately also means securing your collection so that the future generations (and enthusiasts) can appreciate all these.

For the longest time, stamp collectors and enthusiasts have thought up creative ways on how they can source and collect stamps for their collections. One such strategy involves the use of the philatelic cover, or an envelope loaded with stamps and address and sent using the postal delivery system with the objective to boost one’s collections. It was a common practice for stamp collectors to exchange mails among themselves in the hope of getting their hands on the treasured stamps.

Some collectors may dismiss a parcel tag, but this parcel tag will surely get some tongues wagging, thanks to its record price at $5000. So would you pay attention and bid for this tag? Well, some are set to prepare for the scheduled frenzied bidding and will try to outsmart the rest to get this rare and important parcel tag.

If you are new in philately and you want to get involved in stamp collecting, then you should know some of the popular terms used and tossed around by hobbyists. A little education and familiarization of the terms will not just help you build your stamp collection, but it will also help you learn the story behind every stamp released. One important term that every serious collector should know is the ‘miniature sheet’.

Stamp collecting among enthusiasts traces a long history dating back to the early 19th century.  The art of collecting and studying these postage stamps is called Philately, taken from the Greek word ‘atelia’ which means ‘exempt from tax’.

Stamp Collections are commonly grouped based on their country of origin, and arranged based on date of issue. But there’s another creative way of collecting and saving the items that you have collected. One thing that you can do is to group these items according to a theme - this is known as a Thematic Collection. The idea behind ‘thematic philately’ is to group the stamps by theme so that the whole catalogue can tell a story.

Before the start of the 15th century, letters were used for communications and carried personally by messengers, mostly in the circles of the nobility and government. It was during this time when the modern Post Office that people know today started to bloom. Drafting and sending letters then was reserved to the elite and nobility since they were the ones who could compose and write letters. So if one takes a good look at the surviving letters from this period, it becomes apparant that most of these correspondences were done by merchants, clergy and nobility.