Why do people collect postage stamps? Detailed answer

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Why do people collect postage stamps? Detailed answer

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Why do people collect postage stamps?

Philately or collecting stamps has been a favorite hobby of millions of people for over a hundred years. It has become so popular that in many countries a significant number of stamps and other postage signs are issued already stamped, that is, unusable. They are meant specifically for collectors! Of course, others collect stamps in order to extract some benefit from them.

However, this requires a great deal of knowledge. Many such "collectors" quickly burn out, because they have no idea about the true value of this or that postal sign. They often think that it is determined only by the time of release of the brand. Or when they see a strange, unusual stamp, they believe that a rare, and therefore, especially valuable specimen has fallen into their hands.

However, most people collect stamps solely for their own pleasure. Some collectors go to extremes and, wanting to get this or that stamp, are ready to pay huge sums of money for it. Naturally, the rarest stamps are the most valuable, but their rarity depends not only on the date of issue. A very typical confirmation of this is the following story.

In 1861, the postal service of the English colonies in South Africa discovered that old stocks of postage stamps had run out and new arrivals were not expected in the near future. Then they entered into an agreement with a small company, which undertook to print stamps until the interruptions in their supply stopped. This situation, however, did not last long, and therefore few new stamps were printed. In addition, the company's employees made a mistake by confusing colors, brands of different values. They printed 1p stamps in blue and 4p stamps in red, when they should have done the opposite!

Later, this story became widely known, and these "wrong" stamps are now a rarity, and each of the surviving copies is now worth a fortune. There are examples of another kind, when certain brands became rare by no means by accident. A well-known businessman in 1870 deliberately bought up and destroyed a huge number of certain postage stamps. Today, the surviving ones are worth several times more than other stamps produced at the same time.

Author: Likum A.

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