Philately is the study and art of collecting postal and revenue stamps. The term "philately" is attributed to Gustave Herpin in the magazine Le Collectionneur de timbres-poste of 15 November 1864, until then the term used was "timbrology".
Personally, I have been a collector since 1982, with several thousand different stamps in my binders. I inherited my grandfather's collection when he died in 1989. My brother later gave me his after he stopped collecting.

Created in 1874, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) is the second oldest international organisation after the International Telecommunication Union.
Today, the UPU is a specialised agency of the United Nations organising cooperation between postal actors. The UPU is partly composed of restricted unions, such as the Association of European Public Postal Operators

The "EUROPA" issue is an annual joint issue of postage stamps by European postal administrations.
This issue was managed by the ECSC(wikipedia page) from 1956 to 1959 and then the CEPT(wikipedia page) from 1960 to 1992. It has been managed by the Association of European Public Postal Operators(wikipedia page) since 1993. Since its creation in 1956, the various editions of the "EUROPA" programme have had a common theme and/or illustration. From 1956 to 1959 the ECSC member states were Italy, France, Benelux and Germany.

Domain Theme Link
Collection My articles on philately click here ""
Web links General information on philately click here ""
Web links History of philately click here ""
Joint issue Europa Stamps - History of the joint issue click here ""
Joint issue Europa Stamps - Themes since the creation of the joint issue click here ""
Joint issue Sepac stamps - Themes since the creation of the joint issue click here ""
Collection Philatelic classifications click here ""
Collection Forms of philatelic collections click here ""