Stamp collecting: A solitary hobby that teaches history and art

The Saudi Society for Philatelic & Numismatic (SSPN), one of the oldest societies in the Kingdom, is looking for a few good boys and girls.
The goal in the age of smart phones, laptops and iPads is to find young people who may be interested in the centuries-old hobby of stamp collecting.
Collecting postage stamps, much like coin-collecting, is a solitary pursuit that educates the collector on a country’s culture, tradition, art and government. Like any product produced by humans, postage stamps contain errors, misprints and other oddities that making stamps valuable, not to mention educational.
The society hopes to increase its membership by attracting new members who have an interest in history, art and the mechanics of producing printed matter.
“The society is 50 years old and has always paid great attention and built long relationships with the collectors of stamps, coins and also bank notes,” said Board Director Osama Al-Kurdy.
Although the SSPN’s achievements were not recognized in the past few years as much as collectors would have liked, Al-Kurdy noted it had organized and participated in many events in the Kingdom and abroad. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture and Media decided to reorganize the board of directors, with instructions to activate the society and pay more attention to collectors and increase the participation of women collectors.
“Collectors, who are also members, are now 150 strong,” said Al-Kurdy, adding that in all branches of the society there was a ladies committee. About 10 percent of them are women, and our new target is 1,500 members. We know that there are many collectors who are interested in this hobby.
The idea, he said, was that such committees would follow up with women collectors and ensure that they were participating in all local or international activities the society was involved.
Al-Kurdy indicated that the SSPN’s target of 1,500 members did not include the society’s current collectors, but was aimed at future collectors. Part of the program for generating and attracting more members was for the society to address students in elementary, intermediate and high schools, educate them about the hobby and bring them to visit the recently increasing number of branches.
“Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah branches already exist, but we have opened or are in the process of opening branches in Madinah, Jazan, Hassa and Hail,” said Al-Kurdy, pointing out that they were looking for collectors in Dammam, Khobar and Dahran areas to open branches there as well.
Encouraging collectors to communicate with the society, Al-Kurdy said that they were determined to reach out to everyone through e-mails until the website, which was under construction, kicks off.
The hobby of the kings was named so, because one of the most famous collections was owned by the last King of Egypt, King Farouq. King Farouq’s collection includes so-called errors, which were not printing errors on the stamps, but actually were produced especially for him.
“Although this characterizes the collection as unique, the real uniqueness is in the collections that contain authentic and actual errors. But because there were not many of them, they ended up high on the desirable list of collectors,” said Al Kurdy.
Queen Victoria of Britain also owned a large well-known collection, said Al-Kurdy, admitting that it was also an expensive hobby. “One must manage it correctly and turn it into an investment, or at least make it a non-costly hobby by acquiring more stamps than one needs to keep, then resell it,” said Al-Kurdy.
One of the most important programs of SSPN, in its pursuit of new members, is to approach beginners in schools. Although Al-Kurdy agrees that it was a challenging age in regards to competing with technology and the youths’ high interest in it, there was a uniquely small percentage of youths who were interested in collecting stamps.
Stamps have been around for centuries, and despite the existence of the franking machines — where the value of the postage is printed on the envelope instead of using a stamp — there was no threat to the existence of stamps and collecting them.
“Stamps, as opposed to the franking machines, actually convey a message. While the franking machine conveys that the postage has been paid, stamps conveys an important message which we in the society are taking as a major initiative, and that is history, culture, development and the progress of each country, especially in commemorative stamps,” said Al-Kurdy, adding that there were two types of stamps: the ordinary, which are common, and commemorative stamps, which are issued only occasionally and for special occasions.
Even ordinary stamps convey a message, Al-Kurdy said. University stamps with their emblem, carry a message of the existing universities in Saudi Arabia.
“The tourism series of ordinary stamps also showed pictures of the Holy Mosques, Madai’en Saleh, the equestrian sport, the date palms and other pictures that showed what Saudi Arabia is all about,” said Al-Kurdy.
The Society participates in many international exhibitions and events abroad. One of the society’s collectors created an exhibition for an international participation called “The Five Year Development Plan of Saudi Arabia,” Al-Kurdy said.
“There are three upcoming events: a big collector’s show at King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh which was held over National Day for four days; an exhibition in Sharjah-Asia with international federations, unions and regional clubs in November; and the Australian Exhibition in 2013,” said Al-Kurdy, stressing that in such an exhibition the society not only showcased stamps, but presented a study which addressed certain issues or themes.
“We have to meet and satisfy the judging committee through presenting more than just stamps. It is a matter of showing the history and culture of the country. Stamps are used for postage, in addition to commemorate, educate and document,” said Al-Kurdy.