What is your favorite hobby or pastime and why do you like it?

STAMP COLLECTING AS MY HOBBY

I have been collecting stamps for the past 30 years and have represented my country in international philatelic exhibitions held at Luxembourg, New zealand and USA. The art and science of stamp collecting can be called as Philately. Since the issuance of stamps in 1840, people have been collecting stamps. In earlier days number of countries were few and number of stamps issued each year were also few. In the beginning the stamps bore only the portraits of Kings, Queens, Emperors etc., Later on different pictures like trains, aeroplanes, birds, animals appeared on stamps. Early collectors used to collect stamps of the world. But it is impossible to collect the stamps of the world (general collection) because there are too many countries and too many stamp issues in a year. It is not only bulky, but also prohibitively exhorbitant. Therefore people started specializing in COUNTRY COLLECTION, THEMATIC COLLECTION, POSTAL HISTORY etc. In thematic collection, stamps are arranged according to development of a theme like for example STAMPS DEPICTING SPACE, starts with a stamp on Jules Verne, Tsiolovsky, Copernicus, then Russian Stamps depicting dog Laika, stamps depicting Yuri Gagarin etc. till flight to mars. The thematic collections are very popular among the young people, because it is educative and there is thrill in collecting the required commemorative stamp according to chronology or development of a subject. The country collections are easy, one has to arrange according to date of issue in chronological order.

Stamps can be collected either in Mint condition (as issued by post office and not used for postage) and used stamps (stamps defaced by Postal authorities while passing the mail.

I love this hobby because it is educative, it is entertaining and time passes without our knowledge. In fact today, philately is a billion dollar business in the world and there are collectors who have collections worth millions. Stanley Gibbons in UK and several other leading publishers print catalogues listing each and every stamp that has been issued all over the world, with a price tag. Philatelic shows are conducted in cooperation with postal departments to promote this hobby.

There is a separate department in every General Post Office of a State/Province which deals in these commemorative stamps which collectors love to add to their collections. One can even open an account by depositing money, so that they can automatically get the new stamps as and when they are issued.

I collect Indian stamps, first day covers, special cancellations, Stamps of the United Nations and in thematic collection, I have a good collection of stamps depicting railways.

It is better to teach children above 8 years about hobby of stamp collecting, so that instead of wasting time in undesirable activities, they can indulge in a hobby which gives them knowledge about a country, its currency etc.