Collecting
Our purpose is to share information and to buy, sell or exchange stamps, postcards and/or coins. We will have occasional displays from visiting collectors or our own members. We may also arrange an occasional
visit to stamp &/or coin Fairs.
Stamp collecting, and Coin collecting remain popular hobbies enjoyed worldwide. The collection and study
can be carried out at many levels and does not require great expense to be enjoyable. The study of stamps
and postal history: old envelopes, letters and old postcards, etc., can provide a wonderful insight into social
and world history. Coins seem to be experiencing a revival with more collectors returning to the fold and
great fun can be had sorting your change or a box of foreign coins.
For the beginner some of the meetings may involve discussion about the basics: where to get stamps and
coins, how to look after them, what they are worth, etc., and the different ways of building a collection.
Examples of different types of collection will be shown.
Philately
In the reign of George V, stamp collecting was described as “the hobby of kings and the king of hobbies”. At that time there would quite probably have been a collector in every home in Britain.
As with many traditional hobbies there has been a decline in the number of people with an interest, but along with many other indoor pursuits the pandemic has been a shot in the arm. Competition for material has become fierce on online auction websites and the number of collectors would seem to be once again on the increase.
The stereotypical view of collectors is of solitary men poring over bits of coloured paper with a magnifying glass. Whilst this may sometimes be true, there is throughout the country a network of philatelic societies whose members meet regularly to listen to a speaker give a talk on a wide variety of subjects, where the history and geography behind the subject will be as interesting as the stamps themselves.
Unless they were fortunate enough to inherit a collection, most collectors will probably have started just collecting any stamps they come across. Most will quickly decide that there is a particular country or part of the world that they are interested in and will concentrate on that. Others may decide that there is a particular theme that interests them, for example horses or waterfalls, and they will restrict their collection to stamps featuring their subject.
Many collectors take their study to another level by concentrating on for instance the development of airmails, the usage of stamps or more arcane subjects like the Post Office Savings Bank or telegrams – these collectors would call themselves postal historians. Sometimes postal history can concern itself with surprisingly recent subjects which drew no attention at the time, and this can be a richly satisfying area in which to collect.
In its time the Post Office has been an incredibly important institution, vital to the development of communications but also in terms of banking and international trade. Britain was the first country in the world to introduce a stable postal system offering a standard charge across the whole country. Being the first is the reason that Britain is the only country in the world which does not have to name itself on stamps. The General Post Office had responsibility for the telegram service and then for telecommunications until this was divested into BT. Similarly, it introduced the Post Office Savings Bank to offer the average person the opportunity to save on a small basis. Later on, it was the Post Office that implemented Britain’s first Giro bank when none of the major banks were interested.
All in all therefore there are many areas for study, and new discoveries are being made all of the time as collectors turn over new or previously unrecognised material.
Although collecting can sometimes be financially rewarding, the greatest truism that can be applied to a collection is that its real value lies in the enjoyment the collector had forming it.