Stamp Collector gives you all the information, news, expert advice, market insight and inspiration you need to build your stamp collection and get the most from your hobby. Every issue features the latest prices, expert collecting advice, in-depth guides giving you the lowdown on classic stamp sets, new stamps, postal history, first-day covers and much more. Our stamp stories shed light on intriguing stamps and why they were produced, and our stamp sidelines pages provide an insight into postmarks, first-day covers, Cinderellas, Post & Go and Europa stamps.

This is How The Stamp Trade Works • Philatelic Expert Lets You into his Selling Secrets so you can benefit from a totally different (and New) Selling Experience

Stamp Collector

Welcome

ROLL ON 2021… POST OFFICES REVEAL STAMP PLANS FOR THE NEW YEAR

IN BRIEF

COLLECTORS’ CONFERENCE PROVES HUGELY POPULAR

VIRTUAL STAMPEX SET FOR MARCH

WIN! ROYAL MAIL YEARBOOK 2020

ROYAL RECEIVES £750,000 GIFT AND RENAMES MUSEUM

GPO WAR HERO RECORDS MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE

ROYAL MAIL UPDATE ‘POST EARLY FOR CHRISTMAS’ SLOGAN

‘BEST STAMP IN THE WORLD’ REVEALED

The three-sided Ox

Year of the Ox

Anti-drugs forever stamp

Stamps offering good fortune and joy

Faroese chess traditions

The year in stamps

AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS

Promise at St. John’s • Our philatelic private eye spies another stamp set that’s likely to go up in value

LATEST INTERNET SALES • Your quick reference guide to recent online sales, in association with delcampe.net

A stamp from the 1929 UPU set? • This incongruous group of five GV values – ½d, 1d, 1½d, 2½d and £1 – puzzled stamp collectors from its first day of issue. If you’re still a little unsure, our price guide to the set will provide useful guidance on buying one or more of the stamps in this unusual group

Wish you were here?

Overseas rate changes

Covers of note

Musee Carnavalet and the Liberation of Paris

Ireland’s Long Island

The movie star cover • You know a cover must be special when it appears in the auction catalogue named after a legendary collector like Maurice Burrus, writes Devlan Kruck as he describes another philatelic treasure. Cover, hammer… action!

COLLECTING FOR BEGINNERS • Send your tax return. Buy British Made Goods. Use the postcode. Who knew the post could be so bossy? Asks beginner Laura McInerney as she continues her exploration into the hobby

Readers’ EXPERT ADVICE • Last month Laura asked whether Christmas stamps are really worth collecting, and before you could say ‘Ho ho ho!’ reader Steve Ardron had shared a short note in defence of festive philately

The summit of philately • Switzerland’s early stamps are as respected and revered as the country’s beautiful landscapes, with the famous Basil Dove often grabbing the headlines when sold at auction. In the first of a two-part series, David Bailey discovers more about the country’s first stamps and how three Swiss Cantons created some of the world’s rarest and most desirable stamps

Basutoland’s crocodile • Thematic collectors with passions for wild animals on their stamps probably know more about Basutoland than most pre-decimal Empire collectors. That’s because the majority of this small African Crown Colony’s stamps display a huge crocodile beneath the monarch’s head. And yet crocodiles weren’t found in Basutoland never. Ed Fletcher unravels the mystery

Mail by rail • The birth of the railways quickly led to parcels being delivered by train, a move that momentarily left the post office behind before an agreement was made for mail to be delivered by rail. In the first of two stamp guides, Frank J Wilson describes the origins of the railway letter...