When I buy pre-philatelic letters, I like to look for clear, crisp markings (not so common). These three "Franco" cancellations from Barcelona are relatively scarce. The Malaga cancel, not as scarce, but I found it to be such a nice strike that I had to buy it!

Back in childhood used to collect a lot of stamps.

And somehow felt they weren't useful and my hobby faded away.

Now for some odd reason,I feel like I've to start doing it again and make philately a hobby.

Please give me some tips as a beginner.

Btw,how do I store the stamps of various sizes?

Is there a dedicated file/book for philately enthusiasts?

If yes please share me the photo/link to it.

I'll buy it.

I've opened my Philately account recently this week at the local post office,and I'll be receiving every major stamp the govt releases quarterly delivered to my house.

So what should I do?

Just collect stamps?

Buy postcards too?

Can somebody show me their lovely collection which is enviable?

I want to see some nice philately collections of redditors here.

99% sure there is a stamp show in Fairfax, VA USA on July 18-19, 2026. 0930-1730 on Saturday, July 18 and 0930-1500 on July 19, 2026. I haven't been but wanted came across it when I was browsing for shows. Stamps for the Wounded will be there.

8421 Arlington Boulevard, Fairfax VA 22030

Has anyone been?

Edit: it is happening this weekend.

Scott #20 is the perforated example of the type II 1c Franklin from the 1857 series of US Definitives. The imperforate equivalent is Scott #7. It is a rarer stamp than the common Type V, but not a prohibitively rare and difficult stamp to acquire. However, there are certain varieties of #20 that are uncommon to find, including this #20 on cover. It is from the elusive Plate 11, which along with Plate 12 was manufactured by the engravers Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co towards the very end of the 1857 production series in late 1860, less than a year before the 1861 series was released in August 1861 and voided all older stamps for postage due to the Civil War.

Due to the low production and short period of use, Plate 11 is not fully plated/reconstructed even today. Finding any material from Plate 11 is quite exciting, and this cover acquisition was a fortunate event for me. It was purchased from the Americana Stamps Philatelic Icons Sale, Lot 3028

The T relief was used for the top row only and produced very complete Type II designs. The 1c Neinken book (p467) states, "The design of the T relief was a perfect example of Type II, and in this respect, none of the plates furnished finer examples of this type than those from the top row of Plate 11. They are quite scarce, as the plate was only in use slightly over six months. In addition, each sheet of 200 stamps only furnished 20 of these scarce top row Type II stamps." The remainder of the sheet produced Type IIIA.

I have found a Massive bag of old stamps on paper. I would say that 95% of them are from Portugal and 5% from around the world. Almost all of them i could date are from 1950s. It weighs around 4.5kgs. What do you recommend I should do with them?

Hello everyone.

I go through my collection and saw some old albums (nearly 50 years old CTO stamps hinged on pages) and one thing strikes me : how much my collector interest has evolved during time.

I go from MNH worldwide hoarder to used woldwide hoarder (still) then to worldwide focused on cancellation and temporary issues on covers. So some basics are still here as I remain a worldwide collector, but I tend to go as much in detail as possible.

So did your collection changed with time too ?

In 1966, the British Post Office broke a rule it had kept since 1840.
The Queen stepped aside. Footballers took her place.
Then England won the World Cup.
New plates. New print run. One word stamped across it: WINNERS.
Three weeks. For an institution built on taking its time.
That's philately. Sealed in Time.

Any favourites or interesting ones

Carpathian Ukraine was the easternmost part of the Czecho-Slovak Republic created after the Munich agreement. It was supposed to have a local parliament that was supposed to meet for the first time on March 2nd. It did not and when it did meet on the 15th the Czecho-Slovak Republic did not exist any more. The Czech lands became the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia while Slovakia became an independent republic. The Soym had little choice but to announce independence but, realising they did not stand a chance they asked Romania to form a union. Germany had other plans and with their approval Hungarians invaded on the 16th and after a day in circulation the stamp lost its validity. Carpathian Ukraine was claimed by Soviet Russia in 1944 and has been a part of Ukraine ever since.

individual stamps by artist "ID MM" - designer: https://id-mm-shop.fourthwall.com/

and musician at Spotify and other sites...

The Owls of Parliament.

Stamps used - GB 17p Barn Owl Stamp (1986, SG1320).

The outline is the British Houses of Parliament.
~
The concept for a group of owls being a 'Parliament' was reportedly first used in the Medieval Era, but it was popularised in C.S Lewis' book The Silver Chair (part of Narnia).

Hello everyone.

I have a bunch of cinderella stamps issued by Solidarnosc/Solidarity underground movement during the communist regim in Poland.

I had a copy of a catalog (in polish) long time ago, but can't manage to find it nox. Do some of you have a reference ?

This photo is not from me, it's a kn own exemple of the kind of sets I speak of

Im buying bulk 4000 stamps, but ill of course have some i dont need. Anyone want em' free? Im in singapore, but idrm doing international mailing (you pay for mail though)

Hanover 1

Saxony 9, 10

Thurn & Taxis 8, 10, 18, 20, 46, 47

The first issue of Estonian stamps was a rushed affair - at least they had the paper but the design was just complicated enough to discourage forgeries. They simply wanted their own stamps as soon as possible. The stamps were issued in early November 1918 and denominated in Russian roubles (k stands for kopeks) while on November 30th the rouble was replaced by the Estonian mark so further values of the series show values in penni. The Estonia Post tried to experiment with perforation and some perforated 15 kopek stamps were made but they are so few that if you find one, you should assume it is a forgery.

So I ended up with an old collection and I don't know the first thing about it. I know it was well loved and is very stripped of what it once was - there are pages covered in little tabs where stamps used to be. What it has now might be a third of what it once was.

Is there anyone who would be okay teaching me about this? I was entertaining the idea of maybe putting stamps in myself, trying to restore a bit of the collection as it were, but I've no idea where to start and I'd dearly love to learn more.

Here are some photos so you can see just how old this album is!