Stamp Collecting: The Hobby of Kings

Stamp collecting is a hobby that has been enjoyed by many people, from presidents and kings to children all around the world. Also known as philately, stamp collecting is a popular pastime that provides many educational benefits.

Stamp collecting has been around for over 160 years. It’s a great way to learn about history and past events. Collectors naturally learn about other countries as they save stamps from old letters from all over the world.

To start collecting, you need a few basic tools and supplies:

Stamp Album

There are a wide range of albums available. Depending on your specialty, you can find albums that cover an entire country or a particular topic. There are also albums that contain the most popular stamps from all countries and complete albums that have pages for every issue. Most albums have pages with pictures of the stamp to make it easy to identify and group sets.

Of course, you don’t absolutely need to have an album. Many collectors use blank pages or stock pages so they can arrange their collection to suit their needs.

Do whatever you like best but just make sure that you keep your stamps safe.

Hinges or Mounts

To mount your stamps into your album you’ll need either hinges or mounts. Hinges are little scraps of paper with glue. You moisten the glue and stick the hinges to the back of the stamp. The hinge is folded over and the other side sticks to the album page.

The only bad thing about a hinge is that it disturbs the gum on the back of a stamp. They’re OK for used stamps or stamps without gum, but you may want to use mounts for mint stamps to preserve the gum.

Mounts come in different sizes and are designed to completely wrap around the stamp. Since the mount wraps around the stamp, the gum is not disturbed at all.

Tongs

The oil in fingers can damage the gum on stamps. You don’t want to be handling your stamps with bare hands. Instead, use a pair of stamp tongs. They look like tweezers, but usually have a flat head that make it easy to pick up stamps. There are many styles of tongs, but make sure you don’t use a pair of household tweezers, because they can damage the stamp.

Magnifying Glass