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[edit] History

[edit] Early years

Philately has its origin shortly after the issue of the first stamp. This was the so-called One Penny Black, which was issued on May 6, 1840 in Great Britain. The introduction of stamps in other countries supported the distribution of stamp collecting. Initially the small postage stamps from the daily post were collected for the fun of it; they were used to paste lampshades or wallpapers, which almost always led to destruction of the collected objects.

Slowly some people started to have a closer look on the stamps. There was only a low number of stamps issued at that time. The collectors took it for granted to establish a so-called general collection. This means that the philatelist incorporated all the stamps of the world into his collection. Nowadays this would be unimaginable due to the mass of different stamp issues. In the early years there were no supporting or storage utilities, like stamp albums for the collector.

[edit] First tools for the philatelist

In 1860 the first stamp albums were published. These had been developed by the Paris philatelist, Lallier. Though it was a simple folder in landscape format, which was bound in leather. On each of the right sides there were empty fields for all issued stamps of the world, in which the stamp was stuck. On the opposite left sides there were the coat of arms, the flag and a short description of the geography and of the stamp issues of the country.

The major drawback of that stamp album was the fact, that the stamps were directly stuck into the album with bone glue or Gummi arabicum. This heavily damaged the stamp, especially during the attempt of detaching it. Several philatelists thought about a better way to store their "treasures", but a reasonable alternative was not found until 21 years later, in 1881.

Already one year later, in 1861, the first philatelic journals were published. The first journal was "The Monthly Advertiser", which was published in philately's country of birth on December 15, 1862. A short time afterwards the first philatelic journals for Germany and Austria-Hungary were published. In Germany the first journal was "Magazin für Briefmarkensammler", which was released on May 1, 1863, by the coin and antiques shop Zschiesche & Köder in Leipzig.

The stamp journals mainly supported the stamp trading between philatelists. Furthermore they reported on new issues of the whole world and informed the collectors about all worth knowing of philately.

In 1881 the first hinges for stamps were issued. These solved the storage problem for a long time. The hinges were issued by the Frankfurt stamp dealer Dauth. They were called "Marken-Charniere". Thousand pieces cost only 75 Pfennig.

Before the invention of the hinges there were some imaginative provisional solutions, in order to prevent direct attachment of the stamps into the album. For example, the unused edges of the sheets were folded in that way, that one part of the sticky area was attached to the stamp and the other part of the edge to the paper. The hinge used the principle of attaching stamps to the album pages by the use of sheet edges, but it is made especially for that purpose.

In the following decades the hinge was accepted as the attaching tool by the philatelists. Of course this fact was kept in mind during the production of stamp albums. Furthermore new styles emerged. Nowadays no more hinges are used, because they slightly damage the gum. Since World War II they were superseded by Klemmhüllen and other systems, which do not require to attach the stamps somewhere.

The stamp albums themselves were also improved. In 1884 Dauth distributed a "Mechanisches Briefmarkenalbum" (Mechanic Stamp Album). This was the first stamp album with Schraubenheftung, which enabled a simple exchange and addition of single sheets to the album.

[edit] Associations and events

Besides the new tools for the philatelist, more and more associations and events especially for the philatelist emerged. Meetings of philatelists in the United States are known already of 1856. In 1866 the official founding of the first stamp society took place. It was the Excelsior Stamp Association in the US. Two years later, in August of 1869, the first stamp societies in Germany were founded too. The first German stamp society, the Süddeutsche Philatelisten-Verein, was founded in Heidelberg. In the next three years Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg followed.

The increasing number of philatelic associations lead to several fusions. In Germany this is today's Bund Deutscher Philatelisten, in Austria the Verband Österreichischer Philatelistenvereine, and in Switzerland the Verband Schweizerischer Philatelistenvereine.

Since 1889 there is the Philatelistentag (Philatelist's Day) in Germany, which took place in Mainz for the first time, and where all stamp collectors meet one time per year. Over the years more large events around the stamp emerged.