• Philatelia is defined as 'the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare or reside only in museums.'

    The first postage stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1840 and is referred to as the 'Penny Black' (it is a black one cent stamp featuring the queen).

    Stamp collecting began shortly after. It is referred to as The Hobby of Kings due to various kings being stamp collectors. Britain's King George V (June 3, 1865 – January 20, 1936) is one of the most famous. King Carol II of Romania (October 3, 1893 – April 4, 1953) was also an avid collector who is said to have lived in exile off the proceeds of his vast collection. But not to leave queens out, Queen Elizabeth is estimated to have a collection worth 100 million. I kid you not. There are some postage stamps where only one example exists. King Farouk I of Egypt (1920–1965) was an avid collector and is said to have specialized in error stamps. Errors are when a stamp is released to the public and unknown to the postal authorities an error later found. One of the most famous is the 1918 American 'Inverted Jenny', a stamp with a plane accidently inverted on the face of the stamp. Only one pane of 100 of the stamps was ever found. It is a legend in stamp collecting. A single Inverted Jenny was sold at auction in November 2007 for whopping $977,500.

    There are many different types of stamps collecting, some more popular than others. Among the types are:

  • 'Thematic philately, also known as topical philately, is the study of what is depicted on individual stamps. There are hundreds of popular subjects, such as birds, and ships, poets, presidents, monarchs, maps, aircraft, spacecraft, sports, and insects on stamps. Stamps depicted on stamps also constitute a topical area of collecting. Interesting aspects of topical philately include design mistakes and alterations; for instance, the recent editing out of cigarettes from the pictures used for United States stamps, and the stories of how particular images came to be used.

  • Postal history studies the postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems both before and after the introduction of the adhesive stamps. It includes the study of postmarks, post offices, postal authorities, postal rates and regulations and the process by which letters are moved from sender to recipient, including routes and choice of conveyance. A classic example is the Pony Express, which was the fastest way to send letters across the United States during the few months that it operated. Covers that can be proven to have been sent by the Pony Express are highly prized by collectors.

  • Aerophilately is the branch of postal history that specializes in the study of airmail. Philatelists have observed the development of mail transport by air from its beginning, and all aspects of airmail services have been extensively studied and documented by specialists.

  • Astrophilately is the branch of postal history that specializes in the study of stamps and postmarked envelopes that are connected to outer space.

  • Postal stationery includes stamped envelopes, postal cards, letter sheets, aérogrammes (airletter sheets) and wrappers, most of which have an embossed or imprinted stamp or indicia indicating the prepayment of postage.

  • Erinnophilia is the study of objects that look like stamps, but are not postal stamps. Examples include Easter Seals, Christmas Seals, propaganda labels, and so forth.

  • Philatelic literature documents the results of the philatelic study and includes thousands of books and periodicals.

  • Revenue philately is the study of stamps used to collect taxes or fees on such things as legal documents, court fees, receipts, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses and newspapers.

  • Maximaphily is the study of Maximum Cards. Maximum Cards can be defined as a picture postcard with a postage stamp on the same theme and cancellation, with a maximum concordance between all three.

  • Letterlocking includes “the process of folding and securing of letter substrates to become their own envelopes” or to create a form of “tamper-evident locking mechanism.'

    But like other many other traditional hobbies typically done by white people, stamp collecting is dying. Other hobbies like coin collecting, trains, antiques, etc., have been dying out for years. I have attended local stamp shows for years, and even when I first started around twenty years ago I was the youngest person there by decades. Nowadays most of the collectors and dealers are 75+ years old. People would often start their love of stamp collecting as children. Now, in the midst of our decaying world, children are too busy staring into their phones. Their intelligence is stunted by a world that prizes idiocy. Their favorite 'music' is rap garbage which exalts every form of degeneracy and stupidity that this age of spiritual suicide has to offer. But you already know all of this, so, on with the show!

    [Below: This beauty was used in Czechoslovakia in the pivitol year of 1939.]

    [Below: 1935 postcard 'Deutsch ist die Saar' = 'The Saar is German']

    [Below: A feldpost postcard sent on September 29, 1941]

    [Below: Postcard reverse]

    [Below: 'Victoria' (Victory) postcard featuring the slogan 'Deutschland Siegt An Allen Fronten Für Europa' (Germany Victorious on all Fronts for Europe). This slogan or just a 'V' for victory was used during the height of Germany's victories, but was only used for a handful of months due to their declining fortunes on the battlefield.]

    [Below: This is an older postcard from 1933 celebrating Adolf Hitler's win as Germany's Reichschancellor. National Socialist postcards before Hitler came to power are relatively uncommon.]

    [Below: Note that this postcard has a Weimar era postage stamp. 99% of the postcards you'll find of Adolf Hitler will have National Socialist produced postage stamps from after he came to power. He became Reichschancellor on January 30, 1933 and this dates April 18, 1933, so this was just under three months into his leadership.]

    [Below: Here's an interesting postcard from 1913 showing a swastika shield. It obviously celebrates Germans around the world, the shields say German American, German Swiss, German Austrian, German Russian and Germany itself... but oddly the swastika shield doesn't have anything on it. Hmmm...]

    [Below: 'Turnfest' means gymnastics.]

    [Below: Wow, this is a true beauty. A pretty rare postcard too. Can any German out there translate this to English for me?]

    [Below: 'Deutsches Turn -u Sportfest' (German gymnastics and sports festival). Check out that cool eagle on the bottom right...]

    [Below: The postage stamp and cancel are both commemorating the Breslau games in 1938 (July 24 - 31). This was the last big sports event in Germany before the war. It was held in a region known as Silesia, which was stolen from Germany after WWII and made into Poland. The stamp seen here was part of a set of four released on June 21, 1938.]

    [Below: 'Mit Unseren Fahnen Ist Der Sieg!'(With our Flags is Victory!). This postcard is from a series of postcards showing various German battle flags. The print on the middle/side 'KdF.-Sammlergruppen, Abgabepreis 20 Rpf' (KdF collector groups, selling price 20 Rpf) is from the Kraft durch Freude (KdF) organization and signifies that this postcard was specifically released for collectors.]

    [Below: Tag der Briefmarke (Day of the Stamp). In 1934, the idea to celebrate an annual Postage Stamp Day was suggested by Hans von Rudolphi, a German philatelist. The stamp seen here shows a collector with his album carefully looking at a stamp with tongs (what stamp collectors use to carefully pick up stamps as to not get acids or dirt from your hands on the stamp, it's basically tweezers but without the gription within and a wider tip. This stamp was released on January 11, 1942.]

    [Below: Here we see another example of a postcard celebrating the Breslau games.]

    [Below: These postage stamps bear the image of the People's Hall, a massive domed stadium made by architect Max Berg in 1911–1913.]

    [Below: Reichs Party Day 1935 (September 10-16). These Reichs Party Day postcards are very cool. Some of them are not very expensive at all, but then others are very rare and can even be over $1,000. This was the year that the famous French novelist Louis Bertrand (March 20, 1866 - December 6, 1941) attended the rally. He wrote glowingly of the rally and Adolf Hitler and wrote of his experience in the book 'Hitler - A View of the 1935 Reichs Party Day'.]

    [Below: This postcard was canceled on September 14, 1935, with two days left of the rally.]

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    [Below: Gosh you can almost read this guy's name... whoever this is he is a total hero, earning the Knight's Cross, Oak Leaves and Swords!]

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    [Below: This postcard was released to celebrate the 1934 Reichs Party Day.]

    [Below: Front. One of the rarer Adolf Hitler drawings.]

    [Below: Reverse. This cancel is in honor of Adolf Hitler's 53rd birthday.]

    [Below: Front. This is very cool and strange. It is a feldpost card, which is odd in itself to find something like this as a feldpost, but it is also a pop-up card. First let's look at what it says:
    'Das Pentagramm (Der Drudenfuß)
    dessen Schnittpunkte im Goldenen Schnitt liegen.
    Aus 10 Dreiechen als Fenster herzustellen.
    (The Pentagram (The Druid's Foot)
    whose intersections lie in the golden section.
    To be made of 10 triangles as a window.)

    It's very interesting that they would call this the 'Druid's Foot'! Way back in the day when we were looking for a symbol to represent Mourning the Ancient we found out that the pentagram represented truth in ancient cultures. That it didn't represent 'the devil' as popular culture depicted. But so many pagan symbols were perverted by early Christianity into something evil. But anyway, back to the Druid's Foot. Way back in the late nineties I remember one of the guys from ...the Soil Bleeds Black (a superb band of ambient music) told me after we were discussing the true meaning of the pentagram that in ancient times the druids would draw the pentgram on the soles of their feet, thus they would be 'walking with truth'. I never heard about that from anyone else, nor have I ever read about it, but I trusted the source, and always remembered it. Well, here it comes full circle, all these years later, on a soldier's postcard from the 3rd Reich.]

    [Below: Reverse.]

    [Below: These are children's play postage stamps modeled after authentic German postal stamps bearing Hindenburg's portrait. They are about half the size. These are pretty rare, hundreds of times rarer than the real stamp of its likeness. There are probably other types of these play stamps, but these are the only ones I've personally ever seen. The Germans also made extremely high quality play money (so high quality in fact it rivals real currency).]

    [Below: On a related subject, here are examples of German play money. The detail and care they put into these is impressive.]

    [Below: The back of these play notes are blank.]

    [Below: Now here is something incredibly strange to find from the Third Reich. This is a postcard with a testing stamp for a new machine cancel (as seen on the ink stamp). It says 'Frankiere nur mit freimarkenstempler' (Franking only with postage meter) and is from March 1, 1940. While this isn't too expensive on today's market, I've never seen one before in years of collecting. I wonder if there are others? With different stamps?]

    [Below: Close-up.]

    [Below: Close-up.]

    [Below: Back of postcard.]