180th Anniversary of Penny black

On 6th May, 1840, The world's first adhesive postage stamp "Penny Black" was born officially. Even though The British Postal System introduced it on 1st of May, the official usage of Penny Black started only from May 6th.

Earlier the postage had to be borne by the recipients.  In 1937, to reform the British Postal system Rowland Hill suggested the use of pre-payment of postage and it was accepted and the Penny Black with the profile of Queen Victoria born after 3 years. There were around 68 million Penny Blacks printed on 2,86,700 sheets. The only known complete sheets of the Penny Black are owned by the British Postal Museum.

To prevent the reuse of the same stamps they introduced a red colour franking. It rubbed off easily and failed in its purpose. This led to the introduction of black colour franking and the colour of the stamp was changed to Red in 1841.

Below Souvenir sheet was issued on April 30, 2015 by Pos Malaysia (Malaysian Post) to commemorate 175th Anniversary of The Penny Black .  The Souvenir sheet depicts the portrait of Sir Rowland Hill, who is instrumental in bringing out the fist pre-paid postage stamp and the Penny Black and Two Pence Blue stamp.

380th Anniversary of completion of Fort St. George(stage I)

The following  special cover was issued five years ago, on the occasion of completion of 375 years of Fort St. George on 23rd April, 2015 at a function held at St. George Fort.   The special postal cover was conceived and designed by MR. D.H. Rao, one of the founding members of the  Madras Heritage Lovers' Forum.

The small picture on the front cover (above) is  the view of the Fort's Stage 1 building.

Below is the brief description of the Fort printed at the back side of the Special Cover.

22nd April 2020 - Earth Day 2020

At a time like this, when all of us are at our homes, refraining from going out for our safety and everyone else's safety, we have heard alot about how our Earth is healing and mother nature is blossoming. In order to honour and spread awareness to protect our dear Mother Earth, lot of measures have been taken till date. One amongst them all is the celebration of Earth Day. Tomorrow, the 22nd of April 2020, marks the 50th Earth Day.

 So, let us all stay safe at home and celebrate the 50th Earth Day!!!

                     The above USA stamp was issued in the year 1993!

Aryabhata satellite : A precursor to Mangalyaan

Aryabhata was the first Indian Space Satellite, designed by ISRO and launched from USSR through Cosmos 3 vehicle.  This satellite was named after the famous Indian Mathematician and Astronomer of the 5th Century, Aryabhata. Even though it was not very successful it paved the way for today's success of Mangalyaan. Like many other satellites, the Aryabhata satellite has a compact design. 

The below stamp was issued on 19th April 1975 by India post to commemorate the successful launching of the satellite.

Philately in a flow chart

Philately in a Flow Chart

I tried to not miss anything in the flowchart. It took a long time to make and the grid I used was also small so I tried my best not to make it look jam packed :)! Here, I present a flowchart on Philately that may be helpful for your use!

ABC of philately and my journey as a Stamp Collector so far - PART II

Here is Part II of our discussion!!

While going through all the themes I have sorted out from the heaps of used stamps that I had gotten over time, I had sooo many materials related to aviation that I decided to collect on the topic, the evolution of flight (a.k.a flights of fancy)! This topic has also grown vastly and helped me win in many exhibitions!!

While gathering materials on this topic to exhibit (I didn't want to exhibit odd and unusual stamps as I was scared they might get harmed or damaged during the exhibition process), I came across a lot of cinderellas. 

MINT STAMP: "Fresh" or unused stamps

USED STAMP: Postally used mint stamps

CINDERELLA STAMP: virtually anything resembling a postage stamp, but has not been issued for postal purposes (it can't be used for posting) by a government postal administration. (Source: Wikipedia).

So I had to sort them out, as cinderellas do not add value/points to your exhibit.

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-few-cinderellas.html

My  Evolution of Flight (Flights of fancy) collection

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2015/10/flights-of-fancy.html

TIP 5: Try to research and gather information of the materials you have in hand and their value!

By 2016, I was no more an amateur in philately, I was maybe a bit more than that xD!

I had swapping partners, guides and moral support from other philatelists around the world, thanks to the internet, exchange websites, forums,apps etc. Also participating in exhibitions myself, and getting jury advice and working upon it helped me a lot as well!

TIP 6: Participation in exhibitions help you develop your collection more and in an organized manner and will also give you some wonderful experience!

Some of the exhibitions I participated!

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2018/01/inpex-2017-large-silver-medal-winner.html

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2016/12/evolution-of-flight-first-prize-winner.html

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2017/01/winner-best-youth-exhibit-tanapex-2017.html

TIP 7: Know your theme, materials and collections and items that add value to it. I came across aerograms, meter cancellations etc, later in my journey and they were a plus point to my exhibit. The blog also helped me learn more about each material I have (99.99 % of materials in this blog are from my own collection) and keep track of it in an organized manner. Also, making a wantlist of items you are missing is a good way to keep track.

Well, these 7 tips are good enough to kick start your onward journey of being a Stamp Collector!!

Hope these were helpful and informative! Sorry, I couldn't post much in detail about other facts and figures of philately, though this, I feel, is enough for beginners!

I will try making more blog posts on the basics of philately!

Happy Collecting 😊😊!!!

ABC of philately and my journey as a Stamp Collector so far - PART I

My Journey as a Stamp Collector

Part I

Well, everyone likes story time, especially these days when we are stuck at home with boredom :)! So, I thought I will share a little bit about my journey as an avid 'Stamp collector' in multiple posts as reading sooo much at once sucks, trust me. I will also be sharing some tips and guides to becoming an amazing Stamp Collector.

My stamp-collecting journey started 8 years back when I was in 6th grade. I had recently then come across the small collection of used stamps that my mom and dad had collected as teenagers. I was mind blown when I saw a page full of butterfly and animal stamps. Being a layman as I was in this hobby, I just took it as a fun pastime job to sort, organize and store them. About a year later, my parents took me to a philatelic club to nurture my interest. Initially, it was just me attending meetings and listening to the experienced philatelists speak about their collections. I was also given a packet of used stamps, mostly colourful ones from Australia since I was a youngster and a beginner. 

TIP 1: During the early stages of your journey, I would highly recommend you'll to join philatelic clubs and discuss with experienced philatelists. They will guide you to the right path.

By the end of that year, I had gathered some new information and tips to start a proper collection. One of the biggest turns in my journey came right then when I attended an exhibition and won way toooooooooo many used stamps and also learnt what special cover and pictorial cancellation was!! I also posted about this stamp exhibition and this was the first post and beginning of this blog!

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/01/chenspex-2014-kicked-off-today.html

SPECIAL COVER : They are colourful covers released to commemorate an event or someone or something. They are usually matched with apt or related stamps and a pictorial cancellation representing/commemorating the event.

PICTORIAL CANCELLATION: Permanent, regular date cancellations that generally features tourist attractions of a place, or pictures depicting or related to an event etc.

TIP 2: Attending philatelic exhibitions and going through other's exhibits gives you an insight of how things are done!

After attending the exhibition, I also learnt that it was time I started to collect philatelic materials theme wise rather than generally collecting anything. Once back home, I sorted all the stamps based on themes I could think of. The rest that I couldn't label, I sorted them country wise. I decided to collect "People at Work" and also make a "Stamp a day" kind of exhibit (find special days of the year and apt stamps).

That idea lead to this

Stamp a day

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/02/

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/03/

People at Work

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/04/people-at-work-nurses.html

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/people-at-work-post-men-and-women.html

TIP 3: Don't collect anything that comes to your hand. Narrow down to the theme/topic that you like or have more materials of. Preferably the former I would say!

Then, on the side I started collecting PPCs (Permanent Pictorial cancellations).

This was my first PPC, the PPC of Sri Rangam Temple!

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/sri-rangam-temple.html

Then, after coming across a Sri Lankan odd shaped miniature sheet and silk stamps of Thailand, I decided to change my theme to odd and unusual stamps which has now grown into a vast collection!

MINIATURE SHEET: Sheet consisting of one or more postally valid stamps with which  the issue concerns.

Beginning of my Odd and Unusual journey

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2014/05/silk-stamps-thailand.html

I started off by buying some odd and unusual materials from WOPA and also buying stamps and other materials whenever I go abroad . 

A small glimpse into my odd and unusual collection now

http://philateli.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-odd-and-unusual-stampsms-collection.html

TIP 4: Buying is not the only option to grow a collection. Swapping/Exchanging materials with friends around the world helps too. Both have an equal role to play.

This is all for this post! Stay tuned for the next part!

16th April - National Orchid Day

Orchids are a widespread family of flowering plants that are very colourful and fragrant. Each year on April 16th, National Orchid Day recognizes this beautiful family of flowering plants. The creators  of this day,  Mike and Faith Young, were volunteers at an orchid reserve in Mexico. They chose this day as Orchid day to remember their late infant daughter, Orchid Faith, who they lost on the same day in 2014, with their favourite flower - the Orchids.

Though it is started in 2015 at Mexico, the orchid lovers from all around the world started adopting April 16th as Orchid day.

Below, is a beautiful and colourful miniature sheet on Orchids issued by India on 8th August 2016. India is home to 1256 species of Orchids.

Happy Easter 2020 - 12th April

Happy Easter to all those who are celebrating this auspicious occasion :)!

It is hard to be home, but stay home and stay safe for yours and everyone's safety during this COVID-19 pandemic!!

On this day, let us enjoy ,from home, this cute throwback of the puzzle shaped odd and unusual Easter Bunnies Miniature Sheet issued by Austria in the year 2015 :)

11th April - National Pet Day

[UPDATE: We have a new " Announcement " gadget in the left side bar to keep you updated with the new things that are coming up :)]

To cheer everyone up during the darkness cast by the pandemic, let us celebrate National Pet Day through this blog post while  sitting at home safely.

The internet was taken by storm during the pandemic with news of many people casting away their furry buddies and other pets scared they would pick up any infection and spread the germs. This day, luckily comes during such a distraught situation to spread the word that our pets are the best friends we could get to keep ourselves stress free and happy.

Originally began as an unofficial holiday in the USA in 2006 , it spread around the world quickly. 

This day is dedicated entirely to pets that are our trustful loyal pals no matter what and our stress buster. They bring so much joy, happiness and love but we are mostly unable to give them back the love they deserve due to our hectic work schedules etc. This holiday is being celebrated to give us a golden opportunity to thank them for their love and support back through love and clear our debts of affection with them. This day was also founded in order to highlight the saddening situation of those pets waiting patiently at shelter homes waiting to be pampered like the rest in loving  homes.

Now, then we are anyways spending more time at home due to lockdown, try to spare some time for your furry friends and enjoy every moment you get with them :)!

Below is a stamp issued by 

Seen above is one stamp, part of a se-tenant issue by Angola with lots of cats (year-unknown: If you know when it was issued, please let us know) and below is a postcard of a fluffy puppy :)!