HOBBY OF STAMP COLLECTING

As a beginning stamp collector, the first thing you must do is gather some STAMPS! There are lots of places where you can get stamps:
Stamp Dealers
Pen Pals
Local Stamp Clubs
Your Mailbox
Local Post Office
Friends, relatives, and local businesses

Your stamps can be mint or use
Used — Stamps that have served their intended purpose of carrying the mail.
Mint — New stamps that have never been used.

How do you want to collect? Two popular ways of collecting are topical or country
Country Collecting — You may choose to collect stamps from the country where you or your ancestors were born. You may have a special interest in a country because you, a parent, or a friend visited that country.
Topical Collecting — In this type of collecting you gather stamps, envelopes, postmarks, etc., related to one specific topic. Animals, birds, flowers, ships, space, scouts, Disney, and sports are just a few of the topics you can collect.

Stamp collecting is easier and more fun when you have the right tools to help you organize, identify, and handle your stamps
Magnifying Glass - A magnifying glass is a great tool to help see the details of your stamps. Some stamps appear to be alike, but with close inspection you will see small differences that can help to identify a rare stamp.
Perforation Gauge - A scale used to measure the perforations or ridges along the outside edges of stamps.
Storage - Stamps can be stored in something as simple as a shoe box, but placing stamps in an album allows you to display your collection. You can buy an album or make your own.
Tongs - Tongs look like tweezers, but have a smooth gripping surface designed to handle stamps. Using tongs keeps the oil and dirt from your fingers from damaging the stamps.

Elements of a Stamp
Denomination of the stamp: this number is the cost or “face value” of a stamp issue.
Name of country that issued the stamp: More than 260 nations from all around the world currently issue stamps. All countries include their name on a stamp issue, except for Great Britain which only uses a picture of the Queen’s head and no text.

Elements of a Stamp (cont.)
Perforations of the stamp: these small holes around the edge of the stamp make it easy to tear stamps apart from a booklet, coil, or sheet.
Topic or subject of a stamp: the design on a stamp may be a number, a famous person, or it may honor an important event, animal, plant, rock, or any theme worthy of attention.

Elements of a Stamp (cont.)
Perforations of the stamp: these small holes around the edge of the stamp make it easy to tear stamps apart from a booklet, coil, or sheet.
Topic or subject of a stamp: the design on a stamp may be a number, a famous person, or it may honor an important event, animal, plant, rock, or any theme worthy of attention.

Elements of a Stamp (cont.)
Color of stamp: this detail often is important for iden­tifying older stamps.
Cancellation of stamp: this mark is put on the stamp to show that it has been used and to prevent it from being used again. It may include wavy lines, straight lines, fancy shapes, mottos, or a simple pen mark.

Fun Facts about Stamps
Sometime before 1883 advertising for various products was printed on the back of U.S. three-cent stamps.
In 1693, letters were held in front of a candle to determine the postage rate. The less the light shone through, the more costly the rate. This was known as candling.
Bhutan, an Asian nation in the Himalayan Mountains, issued a group of postage stamps that were actually phonograph records. These stamps, issued in 1973, had native folk songs recorded on one side and could be played on a record player.

Fun Facts about Stamps
The world's largest and smallest post offices are located in the US! The world's largest post office is the head post office in Chicago, Illinois. The smallest post office in the world is located in Ochopee, Florida.
An undersea post office actually did exist! It was established in 1939 as part of a scientific facility on the sea bed off the Bahamas. They used a special oval postmark that was inscribed "SEA FLOOR/BAHAMAS".

Fun Facts about Stamps
The first post offices in America were bags hung in taverns. The mail was handled by captains of ships.
When stamps were first issued, they had no gum on the back. And if paste was not available, mailers sometimes pinned or even sewed stamps to envelopes.
Can you believe cats were used to deliver the mail? Well it's true. In 1879 Liege, Belgium employed 37 cats to carry bundles of letters to villages. This service didn't last long as cats proved to be thoroughly undisciplined.