philately, © AbleStock.com/Jupiterimagesthe study of postage stamps, stamped envelopes, postmarks, postcards, and other materials relating to postal delivery. The term philately also denotes the collecting of these items. The term was coined in 1864 by a Frenchman, Georges Herpin, who invented it from the Greek philos, “love,” and ateleia, “that which is tax-free”; the postage stamp permitted the letter to come free of charge to the recipient, rendering it untaxed.
The first postage stamps for the prepayment of letter postage were issued in England in 1840. They were the brainchild of Rowland Hill, who successfully proposed them in his pamphlet Post Office Reform (1837). Postal charges were then determined mainly by the distance traveled (and the weight of the letter), but Hill proved that the main cost of transport was in the handling and sorting of letters rather than in their carriage. Hill further observed that, because most letters went through post unpaid and postage had to be collected from the recipient on delivery, many of them were refused and had to be returned, thus necessitating a two-way trip for no revenue. Hill proposed a radical change: that all postage be prepaid, and that letters be carried any distance within Great Britain for a fixed rate (which he suggested be a penny for each half-ounce).
With the backing of the Exchequer, Hill had two devices made: prepaid envelopes, and, for those wishing to use their own stationery, adhesive postage stamps. The prepaid envelopes were laughed out of existence owing to their ridiculous designs, but the stamps were an immediate success: a one-penny design in black and a two-penny one in blue, both bearing a profile of Queen Victoria, went on sale to the public on May 1, 1840, and were good for use from May 6. The postage stamp was adopted for use by the semiofficial City Despatch Post of New York City in 1842, and the next year the Brazilian empire and the Swiss cantons of Zürich and Geneva also issued stamps. In 1847 the U.S. government issued stamps of 5- and 10-cent value, bearing pictures of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, respectively. Austria and various German states followed suit in 1850, after which the remaining countries of the world began to issue stamps.
The Granger Collection, New YorkThe Granger Collection, New YorkThese early stamps were printed on sheets of paper with no provisions for separating them from each other; this required the use of a knife or scissors to secure individual stamps. But in 1848–54 a machine was adapted by the British Post Office to provide stamps with separations in the course of their manufacture, and most stamps are now edged with tiny holes, called perforations, which enable them to be easily separated. Other innovations eventually followed; airmail stamps, used for letters carried especially by air, were first issued by Italy experimentally in 1917, with the first regular issue put out by the United States in 1918. Other types of stamps include special-delivery stamps, postage-due stamps, and semipostal stamps; the latter are sold at a premium over their face value, with the overage going to charity. Commemorative stamps are regular postage stamps issued to honour some event, activity, or person of national importance; unlike other regular postage stamps (known as definitives), they are printed only once and are allowed to go out of circulation as their supply is used up. The first commemorative stamp was issued by New South Wales in 1888, on the 100th anniversary of that Australian colony’s founding.
The issuance of postage stamps was followed soon after by the earliest reference to stamp collecting, an advertisement in The Times of London in 1841 placed by “a young lady, being desirous of covering her dressing-room with cancelled postage stamps.” Mere accumulation rapidly progressed to systematic collecting of the various issues of particular countries, and the first lists of stamps were published in 1861 by Oscar Berger-Levrault in Strasbourg and Alfred Potiquet in Paris. In England, Frederick Booty, J.E. Gray, and Mount Brown all issued catalogs in 1862; Brown’s third edition (1866) listed 2,400 varieties, inclusive of what is now termed postal stationery or envelopes, wrappers, and letter sheets, as well as many local issues. The standard modern stamp catalogs (e.g., Yvert and Tellier in France, Michel’s in Germany, E. Stanley Gibbons’ in Great Britain, and Scott or Minkus in the United States) exclude this latter material, and yet the total number of listings, including minor varieties, reached more than 200,000 by the late 20th century.
Books in which to keep stamps were first issued by Justin Lallier in Paris in 1862 and are known as stamp albums. The typical printed stamp album consists of pages bearing the names of countries and designated spaces for the latter’s stamps in order of their date of issue, with illustrations of representative issues. Comprehensive “worldwide” stamp albums can number 30 or more serial volumes and contain spaces for more than 100,000 stamps, though most collectors use smaller, less inclusive albums. Blank albums are loose-leaf folios whose blank pages allow philatelists to arrange stamps according to their own fancy. In arranging a collection, stamps are not pasted directly on the album page but are usually secured to it by hinges—i.e., small rectangles of translucent paper gummed on one side and folded—which are easily affixed and pulled off from stamps without causing damage. Transparent plastic sleeves with adhesive backing may also be used.
In the 1860s a modest collection of 3,000 stamps could contain almost every variety of stamp issued to that time, but a similar collection in the late 20th century would need more than 200,000 stamps. Because of the sheer bulk, not to mention the prohibitive expense, of a general collection embracing the stamps of all nations and all periods, most collectors turn to specialized fields. They may collect only the stamps of one country, for example, or of one continent, one period of time, or of one European colonial empire. Others specialize in collections of certain kinds of stamps; some collect only one issue and study it thoroughly, and others may collect only revenue stamps or postal stationery. Those interested purely in stamp designs and their subject matter may collect art or religion on stamps, or sports, flowers, animals, bridges, and so on; this sort of collecting is called topical, or thematic, and became very popular in the decades from 1945.
Stamps issued between 1840 and 1875 are now among the world’s most valuable ones because of their rarity and historical significance. The unique one-cent British Guiana magenta of 1856, for instance, was sold in 1970 at auction for $280,000. Other stamps acquire rarity (and hence added value) from printers’ errors; a good example is the printing of a 1918 U.S. 24-cent airmail stamp with an airplane pictured upside down.
Many famous stamp collections of the past have been dispersed and absorbed by others, while some have been sold at auction, bringing sums comparable to those of major works of art. One of the most famous was that of Philippe la Renotiere von Ferrari, a wealthy Austrian-Italian nobleman in Paris. When he died in 1917, during World War I, his collection, which he had built up for 40 years and had willed to a Berlin museum, was seized by the French government and sold at auction between 1921 and 1925 for $2 million. Another outstanding collection in Europe—especially rich in British and colonial issues—was formed principally by King George V, a famed philatelist, and passed on to succeeding British monarchs. The Thomas K. Tapling collection, bequeathed to the British Museum, may well be the finest in public hands. The Smithsonian Institution collection at Washington, D.C., stresses U.S. stamps. The postal museums of many European capitals have outstanding collections, such as those at Berlin, The Hague, and Stockholm.
The first stamp magazine, the short-lived British Monthly Intelligence (1862), was followed by the British Monthly Advertiser (1862–64). Among the journals founded in the 19th and early 20th centuries and still extant are the American Philatelist (founded 1887), published by the American Philatelic Society, and the London Philatelist (published by the Royal Philatelic Society) and The Stamp Lover (1908) in Britain.
Clubs or societies of collectors are to be found in most cities of the world, with national and international societies to bind them together. Many of the prominent national societies, such as the Royal Philatelic Society of London and the American Philatelic Society, were formed in the 19th century. The International Philatelic Federation was formed in 1926. Many specialist societies have also sprung up, notably since 1945.