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Stamp Numbering System
Philatelists' traditional method of identifying postage stamps uniquely has long been to number each country's stamps consecutively; Norway #1 is the 4-skilling blue stamp issued in 1855, and so forth. However, this seemingly straightforward numbering system runs into immediate difficulties, which have been solved in different ways by different stamp catalogs. Issues The difficulties are as follows: * What is a "country"? * What is a postage stamp? * What is a distinct type of postage stamp? * What if several stamps are issued on the same day? * What if the date of issue is unknown? * What if stamps of a single series appear one at a time, interspersed with commemorative stamps? * Should special-purpose stamps be grouped together? Although the definition of "country" may seem obvious, there are occupations of one country by another, stamp issued by areas in rebellion, reunifications, and regions that have issued their own stamps for one reason or another. A classic example is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philatelist
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or 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. Etymology The word "philately" is the English transliteration of the French "", 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 quest"), which was disliked.Williams, L.N. & M. ''Fundamentals of Philately''. State College: The American Philatelic Society, 1971, p.20. 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 Ï ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Definitive Series
A definitive stamp is a postage stamp that is part of the regular issue of a country's stamps, available for sale by the post office for an extended period of time and designed to serve the everyday postal needs of the country. The term is used in contrast to a "provisional stamp", one that is issued for a temporary period until regular stamps are available, or a "commemorative stamp", a stamp "issued to honor a person or mark a special event" available only for a limited time. Commonly, a definitive issue or series includes stamps in a range of denominations sufficient to cover current postal rates. An "issue" generally means a set that is put on sale all at the same time, while a "series" is spread out over several years, but the terms are not precise. Additional stamps in a series may be produced as needed by changes in postal rates; nevertheless some values may be permanently available, regardless of prevailing rates; examples include 1c or 1p and $1 or £1. Range The ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WADP Numbering System
The WADP Numbering System (WNS) is a project referencing postal stamps issued in the world since 1 January 2002. It is monitored by the World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) and the Universal Postal Union. Its inventory is made possible by the declarations of the postal administrations participating to the project. Its publication appeared on a website where visitors can look for an issue by country, date, topic or key words. The WNS goals are to give stamp buyers and collectors a stamp catalogue of all official issues and to fight illegal stamps printed without the postal administrations' consent. Since 2002, some developing countries succeeded to reduce their philatelic program and officially denounce illegal stamps via the UPU.Fact presented with quotations of Michel and Yvert et Tellier catalogues by Melot, Michel in "L'Afrique francophone, le nouvel eldorado des collectionneurs ?", article published in '' Timbres magazine'' #76, February 2007, pages 38-43. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Postal Union
The Universal Postal Union (UPU, french: link=no, Union postale universelle), established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB). It also oversees the Telematics and Express Mail Service (EMS) cooperatives. Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties. The UPU's headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland. History Bilateral treaties Before the establishment of the UPU, every pair of countries that exchanged mail had to negotiate a postal treaty with each other. In the absence of a treaty providing for direct delivery of letters, mail had to be forwarded through an intermediate country. Postal arrangements were complex and overlapping. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postage Stamps And Postal History Of The People's Republic Of China
The history of the postage stamps and postal history of China is complicated by the gradual decay of Imperial China and the years of civil war and Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 1940s. In modern times, postal delivery is handled by China Post. Early history Regular government postal service is known from the Zhou dynasty in the 1st millennium BC. During the Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan in the 12th century, China was integrated into the much larger Mongolian Örtöö system. Marco Polo reported that there were 10,000 post stages during that time. In addition, private letters were carried by the Min Hsin Chu, a system of letter guilds ('' hongs''). Later the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta with Russia provided for the first regular exchange of mail. Qing Dynasty Although postal service in China goes back some 2,500 years, modern postal services were not established until 1877 by the Qing government. A policy of isolation was forcibly ended in the 19th century by the Opium Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postage Stamp Paper
Postage stamp paper is the foundation or substrate of the postage stamp to which the ink for the stamp's design is applied to one side and the adhesive is applied to the other. The paper is not only the foundation of the stamp but it has also been incorporated into the stamp's design, has provided security against fraud and has aided in the automation of the postal delivery system. Stamp catalogs like Scott's Standard Postage Stamp Catalog (SC) often document the paper the stamp is printed on to describe a stamp's classification. The same stamp design can appear on several kinds of paper. Stamp collectors and philatelists understand that a stamp's paper not only defines a unique stamp but could also mean the difference between an inexpensive stamp from one that is rare and worth more than its common counterpart. Making an accurate determination of the stamp's paper may require special tools such as a micrometer to measure the thickness of a stamp, certain fluid chemicals to re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Catalog
The Michel catalog (''MICHEL-Briefmarken-Katalog'') is the largest and best-known stamp catalog in the German-speaking world. First published in 1910, it has become an important reference work for philately, with information not available in the English-language Scott catalog. Origins The catalog started out as a price list for the dealer Hugo Michel of Apolda. By 1920 it was split into two volumes, for "Europe" and "overseas", and eventually grew to a present-day size of about a dozen volumes covering the entire world, with additional specialized volumes bringing the total to some forty catalogs. Scope It extensively covers specialized Germany collecting including the complex World War II era stamps of Germany, occupied territories, and provisional stamps. Unlike Scott, Michel does not issue a complete set of catalogs every year, instead updating only several of the volumes. Michel is also more detailed, with quantities issued, sheet formats, and so forth. Also of significa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yvert Et Tellier
Yvert et Tellier is a postage stamp dealer and a philatelic publishing company founded in 1895 in the northern French city of Amiens, where the head office is still located. The logo is a circle divided into a snowflake and a smiling sun. It is a pun on the name of the company: ''hiver, été liés'' ("winter, summer together") sounds a lot like the French pronunciation of ''Yvert et Tellier''. The family company was founded by Eugène Yvert in 1831 as a printing works for a legitimist newspaper. The switch to philately was decided 1895 by Eugène's grandson Louis Yvert and his chief printer Théodule Tellier. Nowadays the company is still run by the Yvert family. Products Yvert et Tellier's major product is a stamp catalog which is a reference for stamps and countries that are most collected by French philatelists: France, Andorra, Monaco, and the former French colonies and their philatelic history as independent states. In France, it is one of the most important philatelic pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Gibbons Ltd
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philatelic publisher. The company's philatelic subsidiary, Stanley Gibbons Limited, has a royal warrant of appointment from Queen Elizabeth II. History The company has a long corporate history, having started as a sole trader business owned by Edward Stanley Gibbons in 1856 and now being a quoted company with a number of subsidiaries. Before 1900 The business started when, employed as an assistant in his father's pharmacy shop in Plymouth, Gibbons set up a counter selling stamps. In 1863 he was fortunate enough to purchase from two sailors a sackful of rare Cape of Good Hope triangular stamps. In 1874 Gibbons moved to a house near Clapham Common in South London and in 1876 he moved again to Gower Street in Bloomsbury near the British Museu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Catalogue
The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Company, now a subsidiary of Amos Media, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the world that its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in fourteen large volumes (as of 2021) that include twelve volumes containing all the countries of the world that have ever issued postage stamps, the ''United States Specialized Catalog'', and the ''1840–1940 Classic Specialized Catalogue'' (covering the world for the first 100 years that stamps were issued). It is also produced in non-printable CD and DVD editions. The numbering system used by Scott to identify stamps is dominant among stamp collectors in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Background The first Scott catalogue was a 21-page pamphlet with the title ''Descriptive Catalogue of American and Foreign Postage Stamps, Issued from 1840 to Date, Splendidly Illustrated with Colored Engravings and Containing the Current Value ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postage Due
Postage due is the term used for mail sent with insufficient postage. A postage due stamp is a stamp added to an underpaid piece of mail to indicate the extra postage due. Background While the problem of what to do about letters not paying the full correct fee had existed since the creation of regular postal systems, it was greatly heightened by the advent of postage stamps, since customers were now making their own decisions about the right amount to pay, without the assistance of a presumably knowledgeable postal clerk. While at various times some countries have simply adopted the expedient of returning the letter to the sender, many others have taken the approach of delivering the letter and collecting the fee from the recipient. Initially the process was handled by a clerk writing something like "Due 3 cents" on the cover, but this was subject to abuse by mail carriers, who might write it on themselves and pocket the difference. The problem of underpaid foreign mail was o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airmail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks. The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London. Since the official language of the Universal Postal Union is French, airmail items worldwide are often marked ''Par avion'', literally: "by airplane". For about the first half century of its existence, transportation of mail via aircraft was usually categorized and sold as a separate service (airmail) from surface mail. Today it is often the case that mail service is categorized and sold according to transit time alone, with mode of transport (land, sea, air) being decided on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
