Georgetown: The Guyana Philatelic Society Wednesday declared open a free two-day “Stamp Show” for the public in the foyer of the Georgetown Post Office Corporation in downtown Georgetown.
The theme of the display is “Celebrating Guyana’s 50th Anniversary of Independence and Postal History (1966 -2016).” The Stamp Show has on display British Guiana and Guyana stamps from 1966 and beyond and shares information with viewers on how to collect, trade and/or sell stamps.
The show also features the display of the vast majority of Guyana’s 70 post offices nationwide, colourfully and attractively presented on specially designed post cards, which are being sold for just $200.
Meanwhile, on Saturday there will be a special “Stamp Collecting Workshop” at the Sleep In Hotel Conference Room, Brickdam, beginning at 13:00 hrs. Admission is free and there will be free appraisals.
Facilitated by representatives of the Guyana Philatelic Society in California, the workshop will focus on: How to collect and organise stamps; How to identify stamps; How to find out the value of stamps and more. The representatives are President Anne Wood and Paul Ramsaroop , who are currently on a visit to Guyana.
The activities were specially organised to coincide with the release of 15 new postage stamps in observance of the nation’s Golden independence anniversary celebrations.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Ramsaroop said: “We are here to promote stamp-collection in Guyana , and even though the public is invited, we are targeting mainly primary school-aged youths , with the hope of having them make stamp collection a hobby.”
The first group to benefit from the exercise was a group of students from the Guyana School of Agriculture with whom Ms.Wood shared the interesting story of Guyana’s one-cent Black Magenta Stamp, which has developed a reputation of being the world’s most sought-after and expensive stamp.
The British Guiana Inc. magenta is regarded by many philatelists as the world’s most famous and most rare stamp. It was issued in limited numbers in British Guiana, (now Guyana) in 1856.
Noting that stamp-collection has a rich history and shares a wealth of exposure on countries’ geography and history, Ramsaroop bemoaned the fact that such an interesting and exciting hobby has, to a large extent, been displaced by technology such as ipads, IPhones, social media and the internet generally.
“Our youth miss out on a lot of the fun things, so we are here to get people excited about stamp-collection.”
Meanwhile, Wood shared with visitors her involvement with stamp-collection, recalling that she took up the hobby ever since she was five. At that time, her father Rev. Wood was a radio broadcast evangelist and would go down to the Radio Demerara studios to broadcast his programmes.
As he was on air, she would sit in a corner waiting for him, and kept herself occupied by peeling the stamps off broadcast-related mail that came in for him. In time she had built up quite a collection and throughout her life, stamp-collection continues to be her hobby.
The California-based Guyana Philatelic Society visits Guyana once yearly. Last year they held the stamp show in Berbice and hope to take it to Linden in 2017.
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