[ABHI_1512]

There used to be a time when I used to collect stamps as a hobby. Writing letters to an unknown friend who you only knew through letters and who might or might not be living in the same country, used to be an exciting hobby. Pen-friends- that was the term that was in vogue back in those days.

I used to wait for the letters from my pen-friends since they were the only source of stamp collection back in those days. Continued the hobby till a certain age and then then vagaries of life took away the joy of collecting stamps. There is a Philatelic Bureau at the GPO Calcutta but the charm of inked stamps are lost these days.

Scrambling through my old stuff, I found some old collection of stamps and it brought back many memories. I will now look for my whole collection of stamps amidst the rubble and see if I can find some rare stamps from abroad. Meanwhile, sharing some pictures of stamps of yesteryear’s just to refresh some old memories.







Request anyone interested in Philately to share their experiences as well.

Mods: I couldn’t find a thread about Philately, if there is then request to merge the post.

[TrackDay]

When I was a kid we had a big box filled with stamps from all over the World. We were in the Middle East and my dad's firm used to receive letters and greetings from so many countries and hence ended up with all the stamps. Mysteriously, we lost it somewhere when we shifted one time and to this day, is one of my greatest griefs. Not for the monetary value of the collection, but for the age and places those stamps had come through.

We never got to the stage of putting them in a stamp collectors book, but as a kid I would open the box up and look at those stamps and would be fascinated with images on them. I don't think anyone is going to write handwritten letters anymore, when one can text/call/video call/send images/voice from one part of the globe to another in an instant. But it would be a thing of joy to receive a hand written letter once in a while. It is one of the last vestiges of a bygone era.

[Sran]

Me too! Huge collection of stamps of India and world over. Every letter, cards received had their stamps removed carefully to be pasted again on a blank sheet. Had two pen pals. It was an interesting time.

[Eddy]

My mother worked in the admin / HR department of a global hotel chain. One of her KRAs (set by me) was the number of stamps she could get me from the mail received from international hotels.

I also inherited a fantastic collection from my cousin.

Careless of me to lose the entire lot some years back. :'(

[daredemon]

I used to have the hobby of collecting mumbai Bus tickets, bottle caps (old ones which open with opener) which sadly got lost somewhere once i started working. Had few collection of stamps as well but never managed to hold on to it. Those were the days where these hobbies were part of our lives, but todays generation is totally different.
Thanks ABHI_1512 for bringing out this topic, feeling nostalgic

[Dry Ice]

Oh the good old days!

Have a few of states that do not even exist today like Yugoslavia. Stopped collecting a long time back.

Thanks for rekindling old memories. Will need to dust off the collection once I get back home.

[Samurai]

My brother and I had a stamp collection we inherited from our aunt. I even had a matchbox label collection, and my brother was into coin collection.

However, once gas lighters became common in the 80s, matchbox collection got hurt badly and I ended it. Once phones and emails became common in the 90s, stamp collection also got hit. My brother still continues the coin collection though.

[bejoy]

Thanks for the thread!

I had a huge collection of stamps in my childhood, in the 80s. Luckly for me, my grandfather who was a radio amateur (Ham) used to get tons of QSL cards (collectable cards confirming radio communication between two stations) every month, from countries that I had never heard. I used to collect them and store in my stamp album. Also we used to exchange rare stamps with friends at school. There was some magic formula to give weight-age to each country!

I think I still have the album in my parent's house, will check out next time I travel.

[deathwalkr]

I started coins and stamps, but went ahead with coins and stamps got pushed back. Still have my old albums somewhere.

I still remember that i hoped to find a black penny one day and be rich

My father still collects First Day Covers like mad.

[rajesh1868]

In our 6th standard, there was a lesson on stamp collection and I and most of my friends started collection from that point.
Though not actively into it now, I still have the collection intact. Once in a while visits the philatelic bureau to check for new Indian releases that attract me.

[SoumenD]

I was a big time stamp collector back in school days(90s). Had a whole diary full of stamps from india and all over the world. I remember we even used to exchange stamps. It was like 2 Indian stamps for 1 international stamp(asian/african country) & 4 Indian stamps for European/American/Canadian ones. But since I have been on the move since 2002, lost track of the diary.

I even had a decent coin collection to which I kept adding new ones as I travelled a few countries till 2017. Will try to find the pouch & diary once I visit home

[venkats2001]

This thread has revived so many memories!

I inherited a huge stamp collection from my grandfather. Countries which were named differently then - Burma, Ceylon etc. - all part of the collection. Used to exchange stamps with one of my close friends in school. And also a lot of pre-independence India stamps.

Then life took over and forgot all about this. A few weeks back, was back at my parents house and came across the box with all the stamps. Plan to get into the hobby again, hope this does not turn out like one of life's other plans.

[mmxylorider]

I believe Philately (in the 80s) had become the de-facto hobby for most school going kids - similar to how getting membership to SPIC-MACAY fulfilled the social obligation. It helped in exchanging stamps with friends, pen-pals as a concept was catching up and education was revealing the global geography. It helped that migration of relatives to other countries helped and one could get interesting stamps pasted on the periodic letters.

My stamp book (lying dormant in India) has some interesting collection. A 3D (hologram) from UAE is quite unique. Even the 1p stamps of UK Queen in various shades was a target to achieve. It was relatively (sic) easy with quite a decent UK based Indian diaspora.

What was a revelation was the way Countries agencies were called locally. Hungary Post was Magyar Posta, Germany was Deutsche Post etc.

[arpirocks]

Great Post! Thanks for starting this.

This one is close to my heart. It's going to be a long post.

When I was a kid back in the 90s, I inherited a stamp collection from my Grandfather. His office used to get letters from all over the world and he used to collect the stamps in a box. I was very much fascinated by his collection.

The first thing I wanted to do was to arrange them and file them properly while I eagerly waited for the postman every day to bring in the new stamps for my collection. Started looking for Stamp albums but they were way too expensive at that time . I did not want to paste them in a notebook as it destroys the integrity and originality of the stamps. Also, these albums generally came with 10-20 pages which were not enough!

Being a kid had one big advantage - I had plenty of time back then , I bought the A4 size display books typically with 60 leaf. Something like this



And started building my stamp collection album. Pasted a blank A4 paper at the back of each leaf to remove transparency and created pockets. I created 3 of them!

Once I started college and moved out of my hometown, I was kind of detached from the stamp collection hobby and hardly couldn't spend on it.

Last year, due to Pandemic, one good thing that happened was that I got time to go to my hometown for a long-long duration (thanks WFH!) and I found my lost treasure.

This time, I had some more time and resources as well

• Replaced all the handwritten labels with the printed one
• Cataloged all of the Indian stamps per year Thankfully India Post has the complete stamp catalog online which you can find here - http://postagestamps.gov.in/Stamps.aspx.
• Even with this help, it was not a very straightforward process and took me hours looking through google search and catalog.

Here's the index of countries of whose stamps I have in my collection

-

Here are some of the noticeable and interesting stamps from my collection

Indian Stamps

Oldest stamps [1800-1900]



Republic of India Inauguration


Quit India


Gandhi Centenary (originally set of 4, still searching for remaining 2 for my collection)


Cricket Victories


Man on Moon


Vande Matram


Beethoven


Census 100 years


Se-Tenant Stamps

Se-tenant stamps or labels are printed from the same plate and sheet and adjoin one another, unsevered in a strip or block. The word "se-tenant" translates from French as meaning "joined together" or "holding together"

Michaelangelo (set of 4, I have 2 only)


This is the original (courtesy, India Post)


Mathura Museum



Some of the World Stamps (one's I like most, trying to limit the size of post)


Portuguese India



Bhutan


Yugoslavia
[/COLOR] -

Romania


UAE


US
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[Varunmohan]

I too used too collect stamps when I was in School (uptill 1996) but then left that hobby as I went to college.

I still have that huge collection with me. Showed it to my kids a few months back but they were not interested coz they have never seen a letter coming for any of us in the family since they were born So they never could truly understand the need and charm of these stamps.

Let me find some time and I can try to post some pics of the collection I have.

Cheers