The National Philatelic Society is one of two national philatelic societies in Great Britain. The other is the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The National Philatelic Society is one of two national philatelic societies in Great Britain. The other is the Royal Philatelic Society London.
The National, as it is known, was formed in 1899 by Fred Melville and the first meeting is believed to have been at a shop in Clapham, South London. [1] Melville had applied for membership of the Philatelic Society, London, now The Royal Philatelic Society London, but was rejected as he was under 18 years of age. This led to him forming The Junior Philatelic Society (now The National Philatelic Society) that same year.
The society was a huge success, capitalising on pent-up demand for a philatelic society that anyone could join and the new society soon had to seek a larger meeting place. In 1906 Melville formed a Manchester branch of the society. Branches were also formed at Brighton and Liverpool. [2]
The success of the J.P.S. in its early years has been attributed to the partnership between Melville as propagandist and writer, and Herbert "Johnny" Johnson as businessman and organiser. [3]
The Constitution of the society (1997) states: [4]
"The Aims of the Society shall be:
(a) To promote, encourage and contribute to the advancement of the practice of philately in all its branches.
(b) To encourage and undertake the preparation and publication of books, catalogues, guides, journals and papers bearing on philately.
(c) To provide facilities for the practice of philately and to assist and encourage young philatelists.
(d) To encourage the detection and prevention of philatelic fakes, forgeries and spurious material and to give assistance in the prosecution of offenders.
(e) To establish and maintain a permanent centre for philately."
Today the society is still going strong, and continues to hold regular meetings and to publish its journal Stamp Lover, as it has since 1908. [5] The society also has an extensive philatelic library.
Philately is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting or the study of postage; it is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. For instance, the stamps being studied may be very rare or reside only in museums.
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a never-ending stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.
The American Topical Association (ATA) is a US-based philatelic society and the largest organization devoted to topical stamp collecting. It was established in 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Jerome (Jerry) Husak. It currently serves members in over 60 countries. ATA publishes Topical Time, its bimonthly journal. It also publishes numerous handbooks and maintains many checklists listing hundreds of stamps by topic. The organization runs the National Topical Stamp Show as well as supporting 50+ study units on various topics and 40+ local chapters.
Topical or thematic stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps relating to a particular subject or concept. Topics can be almost anything, from stamps on stamps, birds, trains and poets on stamps, to famous physicians and scientists, along with historical people and events on stamps, which is often a standard theme for many stamp issuing countries.
The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as The Philatelic Society, London. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its headquarters in the City of London.
L.N. and M. Williams were a philatelic writing partnership made up of brothers Leon Norman Williams and Maurice Williams (1905–1976).
Frederick John Melville was a British philatelist, prolific philatelic author and founder of The Junior Philatelic Society. He was also a founder in 1907 of the Philatelic Literature Society. Melville is a member of the American Philatelic Society's Hall of Fame and was a signatory to The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 1921.
The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921. The Roll consists of five pieces of parchment to which the signatories add their names.
David Richard Beech MBE was the curator of the British Library Philatelic Collections from 1983–2013. He is a fellow and past president of the Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL). In 2013, it was announced that Beech was to receive the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award for outstanding lifetime accomplishments in the field of philately.
The Gibraltar Study Circle is a global non-profit society based in the United Kingdom, founded by Walter (Wally) Jackson in 1975. Its aim is to expand the knowledge of the philately of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The study circle looks at the philately of Gibraltar in all its forms for the benefit of collectors (philatelists) from all walks of life. This includes studying the postal history, postage stamps, revenue stamps, postal stationery and associated overprints from Gibraltar and any of these used in Morocco. Any new information is shared with the membership via its quarterly journal, "The Rock", which has been published since 1975, showing articles of interest not only to philatelists but also historians, artists and sociologists.
The Fiscal Philatelic Society was an early twentieth-century British philatelic society that is seen as a predecessor to today's The Revenue Society. The principal object of the society was the study of fiscal stamps, or, as they are more usually called today, revenue stamps.
The International Philatelic Union, formed 1881, was an early international philatelic organisation formed for the study of stamps and the promotion of philately generally. Its office was located in London. The society survived to see its jubilee in 1931, and an exhibition was held to celebrate the fact, but its later history is unclear.
Herbert Frederick "Johnny" Johnson was British stamp dealer and philatelist who was a key figure in the early years of the Junior Philatelic Society and a close colleague of Fred Melville.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Saint Helena.
The Philatelic Literature Society (1907–1918) was a short-lived society to promote the cause of philatelic literature among philatelists at a time when information about philately could be hard to obtain and philatelic books expensive.
Charles William Viner A.M., Ph.D., was a British philatelist who was a founding member of the Philatelic Society, London, later to become the Royal Philatelic Society London, and who was present at the initial meeting of the society on 10 April 1869, and serving as its Secretary from 1871 to 1874. His obituary in The London Philatelist referred to him as the "Father of Philately" and elsewhere he was described as the vieille garde of philately having been actively collecting and writing about stamps since 1860. In 1921 he was entered on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists as one of the founding Fathers of philately.
The Davies Collection is a collection of Libyan revenue stamps from 1955 to 1969, formed from material from the Bradbury Wilkinson Archive, and presented to the British Library Philatelic Collections by John Neville Davies in 1992.
Adolf Passer FRPSL was an Austrian philatelist and authority on the stamps of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Ottoman Empire and Turkey.