Help and Advice on Stamp Collecting

Stamps don’t pluck themselves out of thin air. Before being issued and distributed for postage, they first have to be designed and proofed. This means that a printer has to create a trial run of prints as an example of what the final stamp will look like, so that they can be given the final go-ahead.

Philatelic terminology can be daunting for the beginner or less experienced stamp collector. However, as with most jargon, philatelic terms are pretty straightforward once you know what they actually mean. So to help you make sense of the occasionally obscure language stamp dealers’ use, here’s our glossary of the most common philatelic terms.

Stamp collecting is easier than it looks. Yes, to newcomers it may seem daunting, particularly when collectible stamps have a history going back almost two hundred years. But it’s surprisingly easy to begin collecting stamps, since all you need to know is where to buy them.

Have a stamp collection you're planning to sell, but you're not sure if it’s worth much?

Eggs are eggs, as the old saying goes. However, you can’t really say the same thing for stamps. Because while stamps all serve to pay for postage, they vary in many, many ways. And one of the subtler ways in which stamps differ is through the printing processes and techniques used to produce them.

Philatelists know that stamp collecting is the perfect self-isolation hobby which can, if done right, prove very fruitful.

The British Commonwealth has produced many valuable stamps over the years. Some, obviously, are more valuable than others, with rarity usually being the most important factor in deciding just how much a stamp is worth.

Compared to the letters and documents they're ordinarily affixed to, the postage stamp is a relatively new invention.

You have inherited a stamp collection, you don’t know its value but you want to sell it.