Old postage stamps have an importance to me. The are important because when I was a child I used to spend hours and hours sitting with my Grandad as he mounted the stamps into his albums. I don’t really remember each of the experiences very well but I do know it happened and I do I know that I enjoyed it.
I must’ve enjoyed it because my Grandad wanted me to have his old postage stamps. When he died my nan told me that he wanted me to have them. I didn’t really understand the significance of that at the time and that is something that I regret. If I had taken an interest sooner then I could have expanded it much further.
But that is in the past now and since realising my mistake my Nan has let me keep the collection in my bedroom. It is under my bed. I know that is not the best place for it because it cant be seen all of the time but at least it is safe.
This website is an avenue I’m taking to display my Grandad’s old postage stamps. I will still refer to them as my Grandad’s stamps because to me that is what they are. I will add to them but even then as a collection it will be in 2 very distinct parts.
I have decide that I am going to create a tradition in my family , I will add at least one album to the collection and pass that album onto the next member. It the is the responsibility on the person I pass it onto to add a further album at least.
It doesn’t matter what form that they add it the only thing that matters is that they contribute.
I am really looking forward to that and feel a great sense of responsibility to carry on where my granddad left off. I know that I don’t have the same passion for old postage stamps as he did but but I will do my best to make him proud.
He collected a wide variety of stamps and but most came from the UK. He had multiple albums, some like (I hate to compare them to this) but like my old football sticker albums where there is a blank sheet in a ring binder where the stamps that you have collected had a specific place.
I guess this is traditional postage stamp collecting. There are also a number of presentation packs, miniature sheets but I think his true passion was first day covers as he has many albums full.
It is fascinating to me as he must’ve been so passionate about his hobby. I am also jealous in a way that I am not that passionate about my hobbies. This is something I want to rectify and maybe this as well as making me me feel closer to my Grandad will help me do that.
The first thing that I am going to do is do some cataloguing of the stamps that the had. That will take me a while because he has so many old postage stamps.
I am also not sure of the best way of doing it. I thought the easiest way was buying a stamp book from Amazon and ticking off the stamps that he has. I am hoping that this will be quite fun and it will allow me to see he full collection in detail.
I also want to do my bit by adding to the collection. I think I know how I will start. I will start be ordering first day covers. I will talk more abut these in a further post.
I want to not only use this as an opportunity to expand his collection but use it at the same time to tell a story of our family. I want to this to be about the whole family so I want to use the stamps to capture that most important events that affect our family. I just think that this will be an amazing thing to inherit in the future. I can imagine how I would feel to be given a stamp collection that had start 400 years ago in my family and the entries told a story of my family. How cool would that be? It would be amazing and I m excited to be a part of creating that.
I also want to stamp a bit of my own personality on the collection. It is obvious that my Grandad was a massive fan of old postage stamps relating to Christmas. I have spoke to my mom and nam about that and he loved Christmas.
I will be looking around to find other areas that I like that will be a great addition.
Although the idea of old postage stamps on their own doesn’t excite me, being part of the tradition does and I have to admit that the more I look at the old postage stamps the more I appreciate their beauty and can really understand how my Grandad became so passionate about this.