Louis Francois Hanciau, (9 April 1835
Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists September 2011
', Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Trust, London, 2011
Archived here.
/ref> – 11 November 1924) was a Belgian 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 possi ...
who signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists
The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a Philately, philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921. The Roll consists of five pieces of parchment to which the signatories add their n ...
in 1921.
Early collecting
In "Old-time Memories" in ''Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal'' of 1906, Hanciau tells how he started to collect stamps in 1852, aged seventeen, after seeing the collection of Pierre Maus who had not more than fifty different stamps. Hanciau had a great deal of difficulty finding stamps to add to his collection. Many people thought him "cracked" and many letters bore no stamps. He often negotiated with postmen to buy stamps they had torn from letters and so many customers complained about the damage that the practice eventually became an offence punishable by dismissal. There were no stamp dealers at first, and the earliest dealers like Jean-Baptiste Moens
Jean-Baptiste Philippe Constant Moens (27 May 1833, Tournai – 28 April 1908) was a Belgium, Belgian philatelist recognized as the first stamp dealer, dealer in stamps for collectors. He was one of the original philatelic literature, philatelic j ...
traded in stamps only as a sideline. On the other hand, few people knew anything about stamps and Hanciau was often able to obtain great rarities at very little cost.["Old-time Memories" by L. Hanciau in ''Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal'', 31 July 1906, p. 18.]
Philatelic writing
Hanciau was the author of much of the literary output of Jean-Baptiste Moens, his brother-in-law. After Moens retired in 1900, Hanciau wrote for '' Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal'', initially under his reversed initials, H.L.F. (September 1901) or H.L.F. (November 1900), but from 1903 under his own name.[Birch, Brian. (2013) ]
Biographies of Philatelists and Dealers
''. 13th edition. Standish, Wigan: Brian Birch, p. 1151.
He was awarded the Lindenberg Medal in 1906.
References
1835 births
1924 deaths
Signatories to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists
Belgian philatelists
Philatelic authors
Recipients of the Lindenberg Medal
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