Philately

What philately means

Philately (fih-LAT-uh-lee) covers more than keeping stamps in an album. It takes in how stamps were designed and printed, how mail moved, what postal markings mean and how to tell a genuine stamp from a forgery. The adjective is philatelic, as in a philatelic exhibition or philatelic literature.

A philatelist (fih-LAT-uh-list) is someone who collects or studies stamps. In everyday use "philatelist" and "stamp collector" mean the same thing. Strictly speaking the words differ: you can be a philatelist without owning a single stamp, for example by researching rarities that only exist in museums. And plenty of people who keep a box of stamps would never call themselves philatelists.

Where the word comes from

Georges Herpin, a French collector, proposed the word philatélie in an article in Le Collectionneur de Timbres-Poste dated 15 November 1864. He wanted a better name for a hobby that had been going for six or seven years and was then called timbromanie, roughly "stamp madness".

Herpin joined two Greek roots: phil(o)-, an attraction or affinity for something, and ateleia, exemption from duties and taxes. The logic is postal: before prepaid stamps, the person receiving a letter often paid the postage. A stamp made delivery free for the recipient. Other names were floated at the time, including timbrophily and timbrology, but philately won. The word crossed into English in 1865, about a year after Herpin's article.

What is a stamp collector called?

The formal name is philatelist. The person collects stamps; the activity is philately; anything to do with it is philatelic. If you are writing a crossword answer or a quiz question, "philatelist" is the word you want.

In practice most people simply say stamp collector. Within the hobby, collectors often describe themselves by what they collect: a postal historian studies covers and routes, a topical or thematic collector builds a collection around a subject such as birds or space, and a specialist might collect one issue in every shade, plate and perforation.

The main branches of philately

Collectors split the field into a few recognised areas:

• Traditional philately: the technical side of stamps, including design, paper, printing, gum, perforations, overprints and forgeries.
• Thematic (topical) philately: collecting by what the stamp depicts, such as ships, flowers or famous people.
• Postal history: how mail moved, including rates, routes and cancellations on covers.
• Aerophilately and astrophilately: airmail, and stamps and covers connected with space flight.
• Postal stationery and revenue philately: stamped envelopes and cards, and tax stamps rather than postage stamps.
• Erinnophilia: "cinderellas", the labels and seals that look like stamps but don't pay postage.

Getting started without the jargon

You do not need the vocabulary to begin. The American Philatelic Society, the national US collectors' society, has been around since collectors met in New York City in 1886 as the American Philatelic Association; it took its current name in 1908. Clubs, shows and the society's resources are good places to learn by looking at real material.

The terms you will meet first are Scott numbers, mint vs. used, hinges, perforations and watermarks. If you have inherited an album, our beginner's guide covers storage and first steps, and StampSnap can tell you the country, year, series and denomination of a stamp from a photo while you learn to recognise them yourself.