Michael Sefi

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Michael Sefi was a British philatelist, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection since the 1 January 2003.[1]

[edit] Biography

Born in London, Sefi worked as a chartered accountant until a partial retirement at the end of 1992. He became an associate of Deloitte & Touche in the 1980s.[2]

When a child, his grand-father initiated him to stamp collecting. He went back to it in his thirties[2] when his own children received stamps and albums as a gift[3] [4] and while he was looking for a hobby to ease the stress from the Deloitte and Touche fusion.[2] He specialized in the first postage stamps of George V's reign.[4]

Quickly he became an active member of the Great Britain Philatelic Society whom he was president between 2000 and 2002, then of the Royal Philatelic Society London where he participated to many decisionary councils since 1990.[2]

In September 1996,[2] he was hired as adjoint to the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, Charles Goodwyn. He helped him accelerate the mounting of the George VI collection.[5] He participated to international philatelic exhibitions of parts of the Royal Collection and to the reception of students and researchers. He lived the move of the collection from Buckingham to St. James's Palace at the beginning of the 2000s.[4]

When Goodwyn announced his retirement late 2002, Sefi was chosen to succeed him among three other candidates by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.[6] Sefi directed the preparations of The Queen's Own, a Royal Collection exhibit at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2004.[7]

To assist him, he kept architect and conservation specialist Surésh Dhargalkar, assistant since 1996 who became adjoint to the Keeper in 2003.[8] To help him for the mounting, he hired George VI specialist, Rod Vousden, as assistant.[9]

[edit] Sources and references

  1. ^ "Royal Collection gets new Keeper", Stamp Magazine website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e Interview on 15 October 2004, The Chronicle, journal of the Great Britain Collectors Club, January 2005.
  3. ^ Sefi, Michael. "A Collector's Tale", Royal Mail website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
  4. ^ a b c Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 310.
  5. ^ In October 2004, Sefi announced that Vousden, his adjoint, and him finished three quarters of this mounting.
  6. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 312.
  7. ^ The Queen's Own, National Postal Museum, official website.
  8. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 308-309.
  9. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 313.

[edit] External links

  • "In the Spotlight", interview of Sefi by Larry Rosenblum on 15 October 2004. Published in The Chronicle, journal of the Great Britain Collectors Club, January 2005. Reedited on the GBCC website, 28 May 2005, retrieved 20 December 2007.
  • Sefi, Michael. "A Collector's Tale", Royal Mail website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
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