The fascination of stamp collecting,

especially in thematic philately

by Jos Wolff, RDP

What is so fascinating in stamp collecting, and where lies its real value ? On one side the urge to collect is inherent to many people. On the other side, the smallness of the collectible, its artistic perfection, the fact that stamps are historical monuments, even if made of very ephemeral material, make them so attractive. That they often come from far away countries, sometimes travelling over the oceans and that they are easy to obtain and not too expensive, are more reasons for their attractiveness. The value of stamp collecting is not only a material one, but it is also of educational and ethical nature. Collecting and studying stamps stimulate our wish to research, sharpen our power of judgment and of discernment, and that gives us the possibility to recognize the value of a collection. Further advantages of aesthetical and ethical nature are linked to the collection and study of stamps as an increase of our sense of beauty, the refinement of our taste.

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84th Meeting of the FIP Board on October 25, 2009, in Rome

President Wolff welcomed the Board members to the meeting in Rome on occasion of ITALIA 2009 and asked them to stand up for a minute of silence in memory of Charles J. Peterson who passed away last June. Then he went on with the different points of the agenda.

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Title of the Exhibit

Tay Peng Hian RDP, Director FIP

In my course of work as a FIP Consultant for ST PETERSBURG 2007, ISRAEL 2008 and CHINA 2009 World Stamp Exhibitions, I have had the opportunity to go through more than one thousand competitive exhibit application forms submitted by exhibitors from all FIP Member Federations. I noticed that a small number of exhibitors have changed the titles of their exhibits quite drastically. This practice has to come to a stop and that is the purpose of writing this article.

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