By
J ‘FEMIFOLA DUROSOMO
General Manager
Nigeria Philatelic service

Philately can be defined in a number of ways:
To the General Public
Philately is the hobby of Postage stamp collecting.

TO THE PHILATELISTS
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Philately is the art and science of collecting, studying and keeping of postage stamps and other artifacts of postal heritage, for pleasure, knowledge and business.

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Philately is the business of producing and packaging of Philatelic products that meet the needs and satisfaction of customers with due compliance to best practices and international standard.

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Philately is the business of making
Philatelic products available to customers at a profit.
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What is your own definition of Philately?

FOUR MAJOR REASONS?
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Knowledge (Information)
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Business (To make money)
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Fun (Pleasure)
Friendship (Connection, through networking.
 why do you engage in philately?

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General Collector: Collect everything under the sun.
Thematic Collector : Collect with a theme or topic informs

AREAS OF STAMP COLLECTING 2
 are you a thematic collector?
What do you collect?
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Is it Astronomy? birds? bridges? chemistry? clocks, explorers, gemstone? medicine? military? nobel prize? railway? religion? ruby? space? tennis? football etc.
Country Collector: Focus on a particular country as area of collecting.

AREAS OF STAMP COLLECTING 3
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ARE YOU A COUNTRY COLLECTOR?
Which of the Countries?
Is it Nigeria? Great Britain? USA? The
Americas? Africa.
What do you collect?

WHERE TO COLLECT YOUR PHILATELIC
MATERIALS.
Primary Source
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Philatelic Bureau
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Post-Offices (Designated)
Philatelic Sales Points

WHERE TO COLLECT YOUR
PHILATELIC MATERIALS. 2
SECONDARY SOURCE
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Philatelic Agents
Stamp Dealers
Stamp Collectors
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR STAMPS AND PHILATELIC
PRODUCTS?

CATEGORIES OF PLAYERS IN
PHILATELY
Stamp Collectors
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Nominal (casual) Collectors
Serious Collectors

CATEGORIES OF PLAYERS IN PHILATELY
2
Philatelists
These are the real Hobbists. They collect study and keep.
Academic Collector: (study for information purposes.)
Philatelic traders :Agents, stamp dealers and consultants (trade in Philatelic Products)
Philatelic Speculators: (speculate in Philatelic market.)
Issuing Authority: (Postal Service) which category do you belong?

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Stamp Designer, Artists
Security Printers
Exhibition Planners
Philatelic Journalists, Writers, Producers of Philatelic Documentaries and catalogues.

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For the purpose of competitive exhibition, Philately is categorized into following classes.

Traditional Philately
This class is concerned with the native, Production,
Classification and usage of Postage Stamps.
Its basic components include, Postage stamps, initiative sheets and first day covers. It could also include autograph works, essays proofs and printers specimen.
Postal History
This is basically the study of Postal rates, Post markings and mail route.
The Postal historians are mostly concern about Postmarks, either ordinary and special postmarks, including first day of issue.

Postal Stationery
This covers all postal products imprinted with stamps on information that shows that Postage Stamp is prepaid. Examples are Postcards,
Envelopes, registration envelope and aerogramme.
Thematic Philately
This is stamp collecting with the theme (topic or subject) as the underlying interest.
Thematic collections accommodate all Philatelic materials resorted to the topic.
Aero philately
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This are collections that has to do with Aviation developments or stamps used on mail carried by air, and associate covers/Air mail).

Astrophilately
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This are postage stamps and covers associated with space exploration. These include stamps and covers which has rockets and space flight as its theme.
Maximaphily
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This aspect of Philately consist of Collection of maximum cards.
These are postcards bearing a cancelled stamp. A maximum card comprises of the card, the postage and the cancellation.
Philatelic Literature
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Philatelic Literature class comprises of collection of all materials used by collectors to study and understood the theme and materials related to philately. This also include CD-ROMS,
Bulleting, e.t.c.

Revenue Stamps
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This class of Philately focused on revenue stamps
Youth Philately
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This class of Philately focus on Youth up to 21years of age. It was designed to develop youth collecting skill in Philately. They may participate in any of the classes of Philately noted above.
MOPHILA
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Mophila is a class of stamp collecting that focus on modern postage
Stamps. It is confined on issues of the last fifteen years. Mophila class dispel the rumour that Philately is the study of old stamps.
Which class of philately do you belong?

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Philately organization is based on hierarchy. Ranging from Local Philatelic club to the international Federation of Philately.
Prominence Among The Hierarchy Are The Followings:
CLUBS
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Local clubs (geography)
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Specialist clubs (Concentrate on one area with membership world wide)
NATIONAL FEDERATION
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Administrative policy unit on Philately in a country.
CONTINENTAL FEDERATION
Administrative policy unit in a continent. Example:
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Federation of European Philatelic Association (TEPA) for Europe
Federation of Inter-America Federation (FIAF) For North and South America
Federation of inter-Asia Philately (FIAP) for Asia and Australia.

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Philately is a discipline. To be a good philatelist requires a lot of information studies, Training, and Networking.
These are necessary corollary to self development in Philately. You may soon become an expert.
Keep on collecting
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Keep on studying your collections.

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Keep your collections in a safe and conducive environment.
Your collections are valuable asset that may fetch you a fortune.
…………….Thank you for listening.