The Collecting “Gene”

Why do we “collect”? More importantly why do I “collect”?

One of the things that I notice about being 68 years old is that I spend a lot of time looking back. And as a historian of sorts, I spend a lot more time looking back than the average person of my age.

I collect…”stuff”. Not just stamps, coins, postcards. I collect …well “stuff”. I would not call myself a “hoarder” because hoarders seem to be a fire hazard. I emphasise that I am not a fire hazard.

I have been thinking a lot about why I am a collector of…”stuff”.

And just lately I have been thinking about a small corner shop in Balaclava Street in Belfast circa 1957. For some reason, I remember it was a dark, wet night. My father bought me some chewing gum which had a free picture of a football team. Oddly I don’t remember really collecting these cards but around 1958/59, I recall coming home from school and often putting a penny in a gumball machine and there was a free picture of a footballer. I recall my father sent off a postal order for the album.

The odd thing is that my mother did not approve of chewing gum “a filthy American habit” and I gave away or threw away the gumballs and the pink slabs of gum. They tasted horrible.

Yet my recollection of these two football card sets from the late 1950s is sketchy. But I remember a set of 80 Flags of the World in 1959. I almost had the full set.

A few years ago I bought a few of these chewing gum cards in London. Actually they are slightly smaller the cards I had. Seemingly a second smaller series was produced in 1963.

A & B C Flags of the World 1959

These cards are literally snapshots from around 1960. Ceylon became Sri Lanka in 1972. IndoChina would go thru Hell in the 1960s and be South Vietnam and after the defeat of South Vietnam and United States of America would be absorbed into North Vietnam as Vietnam. Tibet had already been annexed by China in the early 1950s so the inclusion of this flag is a little surprising.

As well as the picture of the Flag, there is some stereotypical images. The back of the card contains information about the country…capital, area, population, type of government, miles from London (!), currency unit, language and main product. For the record, the main product in Ireland is…potatoes!

There is also some phrases in the language of the country.

My father encouraged me to collect these cards. They were considered “educational” and “general knowledge” was looked on as a good thing. But I think my father saw that I was doing something that he himself had been doing some thirty years before…collecting cigarette cards.

Between the First and Second World Wars, the cigarette manufacturers produced cards on various themes. My father used to tell me stories how relatives and neighbours used to save the cards for him. Around 1990 (some years after my father died), I bought some loose cards at a Stamp Fair. John Player produced a set of 50 Flags of the League of Nations in 1928.

John Player Flags of League of Nations 1928

Like the 1959 chewing gum cards, these are a snapshot from 1928. The Irish Free State was the official term for Ireland. Abyssinia is now Ethiopia. The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes became Yugoslavia before breaking apart. Persia is now Iran. The imperial flags of Japan and China are shown. The Canada flag is now changed as is the old “Union” of South Africa and of course India is now independent.

In 2015, I bought a full set of these League of Nations cards and some loose cards (Famous Jockeys) , produced by Gallaher Ltd (a Belfast firm).

Gallaher Famous Jockeys 1936

Again this is literally a snap shot from 1936. But I do recall that E Smith (bottom row centre) was still riding in the 1960s.

My interest in cigarette cards and bubblegum cards is limited but I was delighted to pick this up in 2016.

A & B C Flags of the World Album 1959

So incredibly more than five decades after nearly having a full set of 80 cards, I now have all of them in an album. Now there are 193 members of the United Nations plus five (Taiwan, Vatican, Palestine, Northern Cyprus and Kosovo) which are de facto nations. So it is difficult to think that only five cards in this set are from the continent of Africa and that one of them (Algeria) was not independent.

But it brings me back to the question. “Why do I collect?”. Certainly there is a sense of History. A sense of Archive. A sense of Nostalgia for a dark, wet night in Balaclava Street, Belfast circa 1957. And a sense of Emotion for my father and other relatives who tolerated and encouraged me.

Or maybe it is in my genes.

It Was 50 Years Ago Today

Saturday 31st October 1970. I made a note in my first Senator Medium album. I was 18 years old. And I thought I was starting a hobby as a serious collector of Irish stamps.

If this story begins on 31st October 1970, then there is a prologue that probably started around 1962. My father bought me a paper-back pre-printed “Trusty” stamp album in Woolworths in Belfast and some stamp hinges and stamps. Most of my friends had similar albums. But few really stuck at it. They all moved on to other hobbies.

But I…more or less …stuck at it. Stamps (say) “25 Belgium” or “20 Sport” were bought at a counter in Woolworths. The “Trusty” album was soon too small and I upgraded to a hard back pre-printed album. And then to two “Selby” loose leaf albums…one of which I still have.

Certainly I was interested enough to read magazines and pick up tips and the schoolboy years of the 1960s, I had picked up three basic tips.

1…loose leaf albums give a lot of freedom

2…find a speciality (a country or a theme)

3…”write up” the collection.

So in the autumn of 1970, I had bought my first Senator Medium album. I had decided to specialise in Ireland. And was writing up the pages, one page for each issue.

The first Senator Medium album

I used this Netto catalogue as a guide to compiling a Wants List. Basically Ireland had a fairly conservative stamp-issuing policy. There are only 261 stamps (or 522 mint and used) issued between 1922 and 1969. To put this in context about 2,600 stamps (or 5,200 mint and used) have been issued between 1970 to 2019.

1970 Netto Catalogue

Really the period 1970 to 2020…is about five phases as much as decades.

The 1970s …the Belfast Years. The Troubles Years. The Single Years. And in Stamp Collecting terms, balancing specialising in Ireland and keeping up to date with stamps from newly de-colonised nations.

The 1980s…the Small Village Years. The Married Years (from 1982) and trying to balance family commitments with that Wants List. Like all newly married couples, we were cash-strapped. I almost sold my Irish collection (then three volumes) about 1987. Thankfully the offer was derisory. I kept my stamps.

The 1990s …Another Village. The Frustrating Years. The over-issue of stamps from the Irish Post Office making that balancing act between Family and Stamp Collecting more difficult.

The 2000s…The Years of Adult Children, The Grandchildren Years. The Retirement Years. The Peace Years. The Internet Years. The Wilderness Years. I had given up Stamp Collecting in 2001. It seemed appropriate. I could not really afford it. And somehow Stamp Collecting seemed very 20th Century. The Irish albums (now six volumes) were locked in a metal cabinet in the garage.

The 2010s…The Re-born Years. My older son found the albums and the dedication to my wife (1982) and to him (1983). And somehow on 10th March 2012, I was in Waterstones bookstore in Belfast and bought the just published Stanley Gibbons Ireland Catalogue.

The Gibbons Ireland Catalogue

So of course, this catalogue became the basis for a new Wants List of stamps (mint and used) issued between 2001 and 2012. I set myself a budget and a target so that I would complete this by 10th May 2017 (my 65th birthday). And that worked out well for me.

Completion? Well, there are still overprints that I need. So again it is a question of availability and shopping around. But in some bizarre way, a Stamp Collection is always a work in progress. There is always an elusive stamp. There is always a new issue.

I suppose I gave up stamp collecting in 2001 because I was becoming obsessive. There was no sense of Relaxation.

I feel better today. My interest in Irish stamps is obsessive and drives me insane. My “juvenile” interest in world-wide stamps is fun and it keeps me sane. Thus…I am a well-balanced person.

Fáilte! Welcome!

This Blog is about Collecting Stamps of Ireland. It will go “live” on 31st October 2020, which will mark the 50th Anniversary of me becoming (or thinking I had become) an adult/serious stamp collector.

Like all 18 year olds, I was very naive. Now aged 68, I don’t suppose I will ever become an adult/serious stamp collector. It is a process of constantly learning.

Frankly Stamp Collecting is a dying hobby. Back in the 1960s, it was a rite of passage for schoolboys. And I use the word “schoolboys” deliberately as the hobby was disproportionately male.

Why is it a dying hobby? Well…in large part it is about technology. Letters and postcards have been replaced by email thru the Internet. But it is something deeper..

Stamp Collecting has three “stakeholders” (I hate that word). It is a hobby comprised of postal administrations, dealers and collectors. As a hobby, it works best when all three stakeholders are working together. And it doesn’t work when the three stakeholders push the envelope (pun intended), take more than their share and are not respectful of the other stakeholders.

The postal administrations devalue the hobby by issuing too many stamps, too many souvenirs such as miniature sheets. Too often, the collector is ripped off.

Likewise…Dealers. Well of course, we all have good and bad experiences of individual dealers. But the dwindling number of good dealers are paying a high price for the cavalier attitude of bad dealers.

But I believe that Stamp Collectors ourselves are responsible for the demise of our hobby. We are nearly all old men. There is little young blood. There are few women. The attitude…the group think…is (politically and socially) conservative. Elderly men cherishing the 1950s and bemoaning the fact that we no longer have good manners and that the British, French and other empires are in the dustbin of History…it is not a good look.

It is a pity. Stamp Collecting is a good hobby. My twin interests are History and Stamp Collecting. And there is a cross-over between the two. What I learned in history classes fuelled the interest in stamps about Patrick Sarsfield, 1798, 1916. And thru stamps, I discovered Mother Mary Aikenhead, John Field and John Holland.

This cross-over between History and Stamps brings together the big names from important events with the small names from the footnotes …all bringing together the full story of Ireland.

I think an Irish Stamp Album is the “Greatest Hits” Album. The best of our History, Landscape, Politics, Sport, Music, Literature, Art, Fauna, Flora…it is all here.

In this Blog, there will be posts about Irish stamps and occasionally coins and postcards. Sometimes I will write about general issues in our hobby and stamps from other countries.

I hope it is enjoyable.