What’s the attraction of stamps?
Why do people collect stamps, postage stamps, especially worthless pieces of paper that come off dirty old letters?
It becomes a puzzling question, especially when people call you a philatelist.
Most of the collectors have a reason, but for the onlookers, it might be silly, because those that have actually seen a stamp on a letter have only seen the Queen, a landscape or an animal on a tiny corner of a letter. The interesting thing they failed to notice is some of the other mail that comes in the mail slot, especially the rabbit mail, or other advertisements on that marking.
There are intriguing things in collecting those little works of art that accompany letters around the world. That in itself can be fascinating, such as the Zeppelin series from the 1920s. There are themes on stamps, ranging from personalities to castles to modes of transport and so on to infinity. There are of course countries that issue stamps.
Dealing with these countries, all of them issue stamps for revenue, but some are not intended for actual mailing purposes. These I consider as labels.
Each stamp is actually a miniature work of art. One of Canada’s famous artists once said, “You can own a copy of my painting for just 50 cents.” I can say that there are many art works in my collection. Each stamp on its own is actually a meticulous piece of art, crafted a finely as any money issued by governments. Some of the older engraved stamps took thousands of hours to design and then more transferring them to multiples of 50 or 100 for a sheet.
Stamps are a fascinating commodity in our world. The fewer there are, the more money they are worth, but money doesn’t make up for beauty.
Walter Kerber is a longtime member of the Lethbridge Philatelic Society.