Three months or so ago, I wrote about one of my childhood hobbies that is going away: shortwave radio listening.  Today, let me reminisce about another hobby that’s fading: stamp-collecting.

It must have been early 1970 when, right after Christmas, this ten-year old talked his mother into going to Fishkin’s and buying a stamp album.  It covered the world and had pictures of stamps from every country, places I knew about (the United States, which had pictures of almost every American stamp issued), lands I heard once existed (the stamp marvels of Tannu Tuva, which we now know were a Soviet hard currency front operation), and spots I never knew about that issued stamps (the Wallis and Futuna Islands).  I’d never get anywhere near filling that album and, over time, eventually focused more on themes (e.g., religion in stamps).  But for a Polish-American kid in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the mere turning of those pages was a lesson that rivaled Miss Simon’s sixth-grade geography class. 

Back then, any book that introduced you to philately (the technical term for stamp-collecting) recounted the obligatory story of how, from his youth, FDR was an avid stamp-collector.  There was usually a photo of the president peering at a stamp through a magnifying glass, his dog, Fala, beside him.  Since they told us every kid could grow up to be president, I figured having a presidential hobby might be a leg up.

Stamp-collecting was also popular.  The Perth Amboy Evening News ran a stamp column every week, announcing what was coming out.  It’s how I learned to collect First Day Covers (FDCs).  FDCs are a philately sub-specialty: stamps canceled in the city they were issued on the first day they came out.  At a certain point, my parents must have been convinced they had very selective rodents in the attic, because old boxes with old letters suddenly all seemed to have had their stamps eaten off.

Eventually, I combined philately and shortwave radio in two ways.  One was that most foreign radio stations, when they corresponded with you, put stamps on the envelope.  Another was that Radio Prague had a twice monthly stamp program, which always ended in a contest: answer correctly three questions from the show’s stamp discussion, and they’d send you that FDC.  As far as I could tell, nobody (at least in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) had a collection of Czechoslovak first day covers!

Over time my philatelic passions faded: the stamp album is stored in a box downstairs.  But I’d certainly say that, at least in my generation, lots of young people got their view of the world from stamp-collecting.  It wasn’t just geography.  It was history: who was Edgar Lee Masters, and why did the United States think he was so important to put him on a stamp?  It was politics and government: how many places in the world squeezed Elizabeth II onto a stamp?  It was economics: what was 4,000,000 lira worth?  And it was tourism and languages: from the Kremlin (with stamps that had CCCP on them) to the Great Wall of China (won’t even try to reproduce what was on them) to an iceberg in Greenland (and where did they get that o with a slash through it?  Did they change their mind about it and lack an eraser?).

What’s caused stamp-collecting to fade?  Part of it is the demise of the Post Office: I’ll send in this essay by email, not envelope.  How much personal mail do you get?  And, of that greatly reduced (but for junk) mail, how much of it has stamps (as opposed to postage meters or “Postage Paid” notices) on it?

Finally, national postal services — recognizing their losing competition with modern communications — have often redesigned their stamps to appeal to hobbyists.  Paradoxically, I’d suggest that’s a turnoff.

Now, there have always been stamp-issuers for whom sales to collectors were important revenue streams.  People mailed letters through the Vatican for two reasons: they had pretty stamps and delivered mail much faster than the Italian Post on the other side of St. Peter’s Square.  Collectors were an important supplement for Poste Vaticane revenues.  That money was even more important for places like the Falklands Post Office or the South Georgia Post Office: sheep and seals don’t send much mail.

But I say today’s catering to philatelists (and other customers) is sometimes a turnoff, for two reasons.  First, it tends to multiply series, making purchasing more expensive.  Take the 2021 “Garden Beauty” series: 10 stamps meant laying out $5 rather than 50 cents for stamps, deterring young people.  Second, stamps have become kitsch.  Instead of challenging miniature civics lessons (why was Amadeo Giannini on an American international airmail stamp?), they’ve become decorations to the card they pay to convey (e.g., the “Thinking of You” series) or celebrations of momentary pop culture (e.g., the “Star War Droids” series).  All that stuff is nice...but is it America?  (And if it is, what does that say?)

It’s a changing world, and our pastimes are changing, too.  One wonders whether what they’re changing to can provide the richness of what they displace.

Image via Pxhere.