How Hard is it to Learn Stamps as an Adult

The world of stamps, at first glance, is completely overwhelming to the novice. There are millions of them and it is hard to know where to even begin to understand them, why they are valuable and collectible, and what even makes an interesting stamp. 

The beginning is always the best place to start and this is with the Penny Black, which then become the Penny Red. 

This stamp has millions of philatelic scholars deeply immersed in its study. I met a collector recently who had studied the Penny Red for 56 years and told me that they are still learning new things about it. 

So if your goal is to make some money with stamps, the field of the Penny Black and Penny Red is highly saturated and extremely competitive and you are competing with people with a life time of knowledge about one stamp. 

This is not to say that there are not opportunities within it, however starting here gives you the broad understanding about the process of stamps that can be applied to thousands of other varieties available to study. 

Learning about the evolution of this stamp, the printing process, the design, the difficulties, the differences, will provide the basis of which you can apply to any other stamp you choose to study from the early periods. 

The processes used in the production of these stamps were adopted across all other stamps that followed within the same time frame across the world. As this stamp adapted from non perforated to perforated, so did they all. As papers changed, so did they all. As printing processes changed, so did they all.

I spent about a year learning this stamp and then decided to apply that knowledge to my own country’s stamp issues. I had the advantage of understanding my own country’s history and was able to apply that historic knowledge, and continue to fill my own gaps of it, to the stamps which were issued. 

It surprised me to find how many of my fellow philatelists in my country were far more interested in foreign stamps than our own and I am still to fully understand this in terms of philately. For now I am just concentrating on expanding my own knowledge and I’m sure the significance will reveal itself over time and understanding. 

I have decided to specialise in the King George V Australian issues because after four years I still can’t take my eyes off this stamp. To me it is one of the most beautiful stamps produced with its intricate detail, its representation of Australia in that period of history, and the many faults available to study. To get to this point I started with the state stamps and then into the federation stamps. 

The kangaroo and map issues are highly sought after and valuable to trade in and they too have many faults and varieties that can be studied and money made. For me though, the KGV outshines it in terms of beauty and art and having understood the printing process of stamps, it is still a marvel to me every time I look at it, that we were able to achieve such detail at that time in history. 

So in order to begin your understanding I would recommend finding a stamp that you just can’t stop looking at. Australia has many of them but so do France and many other countries. You will, as I have, fall in love with one and you will know it because you just can’t stop looking at it, learning about it, seeking it out, and admiring it for the piece of art that it is. 

In philately, as with everything, knowledge is power. The more you know and understand a stamp, the more potential money you can make from it. If making money is not your goal, your collector’s eye will be even better when you understand the value of a mis-identified stamp on the market added to your collection. 

I have also found it difficult to find information easily online. There is tonnes of it in forums but mostly all of the information is in the catalogues which can be quite expensive to buy, even older versions of them. My goal is to leave breadcrumbs for those following me who want to learn about stamps as an adult with no experience and no idea where to start.