Philately

I threw myself into stamp collecting in a big way around 1998, reviving a childhood hobby. I had to scale down the intensity about four years ago because inflation was running high and there was little money left to buy stamps with. But this break proved to be a blessing in disguise, because it gave me some perspective into what I was doing. While I could no longer buy mint stamps, there were plenty of cancelled ones to be had. So, the hobby and the interest goes on and on, though I have little time to realize my initial dream of being a philatelist.

During the initial stages of my rediscovery of stamp collecting, I got lucky and found this bag full of old covers and stamps for sale on the pavement. It was second hand book seller Bala who sold it to me for a thousand rupees. These were the leftovers of a big time businessman collector. After his death, the unwanted stuff ended up on the pavement. It was a treasure trove to me all the same. This old cover is one example. This man had a business somewhere on Keyzer Street, Pettah, Colombo, which was the business hub of the city till the 1970s. You can see ‘Ceylon Favourite Store’ with the address on the cover, post marked 1959 and mailed from the United States. The bag had many such covers and I feel that this man got his business associates to mail these covers to him regularly for the sake of collecting. Quite a collector, this man. If this bag had the leftovers, I wonder what the main collection was like.

The thing about collecting old stuff is, it takes you back to a very different world. I was just one year old when this letter was posted from the US. And naturally I have no memories of the year 1959 (which I’m sure sounds ancient to those born in the 1980s, 90s and thereafter). Well, the space age had just begun, we had steam trains and Morris Minors (if you have any idea what the world was like in 1959, email me and I’ll post your comment).

Also, you realise that philately is more than collecting stamps. An infinite variety of old covers, post cards, cancellation marks, air letters (or aerogrammes), old albums, post office memorabilia, photos of postal equipment and architecture -- you name it, and you'll find a lot of such things in this Philately section.