Philately

Philately (/fɪˈlætəli/; fih-LAT-ə-lee) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare or reside only in museums.

The word "philately" is the English transliteration of the French "philatélie", coined by Georges Herpin in 1864. Herpin stated that stamps had been collected and studied for the previous six or seven years and a better name was required for the new hobby than timbromanie (roughly "stamp mania"), which was disliked. The alternative terms "timbromania", "timbrophily", and "timbrology" gradually fell out of use as philately gained acceptance during the 1860s. Herpin took the Greek root word φιλ(ο)- phil(o)-, meaning "an attraction or affinity for something", and ἀτέλεια ateleia, meaning "exempt from duties and taxes", to form the neologism "philatélie".

As a collection field, philately appeared after the introduction of the postage stamps in 1840, but did not gain large attraction until the mid-1850s. In the U.S., early collectors of stamps were known as "stamp gatherers". The United States Post Office Department re-issued stamps in 1875 due to public demand for 'old stamps', including those from before the American Civil War. Some authors believe that the first philatelist appeared on the day of the release of the world's first postage stamp, dated to May 6th, 1840, when the Liverson, Denby and Lavie London law office sent a letter to Scotland franked with ten uncut Penny Blacks, stamped with the postmark "LS.6MY6. 1840." In 1992, at an auction in Zürich, this envelope was sold for 690,000 francs.

Already in 1846, cases of collecting stamps in large numbers were known in England. However, without reason for collection, stamps at this time were used for pasting wallpaper. The first philatelist is considered to be a postmaster going by the name Mansen, who lived in Paris, and in 1855 had sold his collection, which contained almost all the postage stamps issued by that time. The stamp merchant and second-hand book dealer Edard de Laplante bought it, recognizing the definitive collector's worth of the postage stamp. Due to the boom in popularity and news of this transaction, stamp merchants like Laplante began to emerge.

Towards the end of the 19th century, stamp collecting reached hundreds of thousands of people of all classes. Some countries had collections of postage stamps – for example, England, Germany, France, Bavaria, and Bulgaria. In countries which held national collections, museums dedicated to the nation's history with philately were founded, and the first such appeared in Germany, France, and Bulgaria. Allegedly, the first of these museums housed the collection of the British Museum, curated by MP Thomas Tapling and bequeathed to the Museum in 1891. The Museum für Kommunikation Berlin also had an extensive collection of stamps. The largest private collection of the time belonged to Philipp von Ferrary in Paris.

As the number of postage stamp issues increased every year, collection became progressively difficult. Therefore, from the early 1880s, "collector experts" appeared, specializing their collection to only one part of the world, a group of nations, or even only one.

Philately as one of the most popular types of collecting continued to develop in the 20th century. Along with the "Scott", "Stanley Gibbons", and "Yvert et Tellier" catalogs, the "Zumstein" (first published in Switzerland, 1909), and the "Michel" (first published in Germany, 1910) catalogs began publication.

In 1934, the idea to celebrate an annual Postage Stamp Day was suggested by Hans von Rudolphi, a German philatelist. The idea was adopted rapidly in Germany, and gained later adoption in other countries. Stamp Day is a memorial day established by the postal administration of a country and annually celebrated, which is designed to attract public attention to, popularize the use of, and expand the reach of postal correspondence, and contribute to the development of philately. In 1968, Cuba dedicated a postage stamp for Stamp Day with an image of G. Sciltian's "El filatelista".