Keekli Reporter, 12th October, 2017, Shimla
To mark the National Postal Week from 9th to 15th October, today 12th October was celebrated as Philately Day. DD Sharma and RC Sharma, ASP Philately, informed the visiting school children about the term philately that it is a study of stamps, postal history, collection, appreciation and research activities on stamps and other philatelic products. They also informed the children about becoming a member of the philately club and take part in competitive exhibits organized by the Postal Department. Students from Kendriya Vidyalaya Jakhoo, Dayanand School, Auckland House for Girls and St Thomas School among others visited the GPO to learn about stamps and their history.
Prateek Gupta, Advocate and a Senior Member of the philately club said that he started collecting stamps when he was in Class V in DAV School. Now after 50 years, he is an avid collector as he shared his experiences with the students. He told the children, “Stamps are of two kinds, commemorative and definitive stamps. Commemorative ones are those which are printed on special occasions only and are limited editon, but definitive stamps are those which are in regular circulation and used on postal stamps and envelops”.
Saksham Puran, a Class VIII student of KV School, Jakhoo, said that he has been collecting stamps for the past three years. And the credit of teaching him about stamps goes to his granddad whose collection of old stamps and envelops enticed him to learn about stamps and start collecting. He now has a collection of over 1200 stamps and prides about it.
On the other hand D D Sharma enlightened the students about various types of stamps, sheets, leaflets, special brochures, envelops, commemorative stamps, special theme based stamps “my stamps”, which entitles a child to see his own face on a postal stamp. During this event children were given different types of stamp brochures containing valuable information and special key chains as souvenirs.
