Stanley Gibbons

We've all heard of him. But who exactly was Stanley Gibbons?

In the July issue of Gibbons Stamp Monthly, the story of world’s most famous stamp dealer and organization is told.

Born in 1840 (the same year as the world's first adhesive postage stamps, Penny Black and Two Pence Blue, made their debut), Edward Stanley Gibbons became interested in stamp collecting at an early age.

According to the article, "His father, realising that it could be a worthwhile and lucrative pursuit, encouraged him..."

Starting off with a small space in his father's pharmacy, Gibbons built his business on the purchase of a sackful of rare triangular Cape Triangulars, "many thousands of them, in strips and blocks, including Woodblocks" from two sailors newly returned from South Africa in 1863.

Throughout the 1860s and 70s he expanded his business to stamp albums and publishing his now famous catalogue. In 1890, he started the Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal which is the forerunner of today’s Gibbons Stamp Monthly.

By the turn of the century, "many famous collections were purchased, rare stamps became known and identified and the Gibbons catalogue had become the collector’s main source of reference."

Gibbons died in 1913.

To read the entire article, click here.