Stamp Collecting as a Pastime

Originally published in 1902, Stamp Collecting as a Pastime by Edward James Nankivell is can be read free online and even downloaded thanks to new technology.

Published as one of Stanley Gibbons' Philatelic Handbooks, the book fell out of copyright and has re-emerged on the Internet as a glimpse into the hobby as it was more than a hundred years ago.

Nankivell, a member of the Philatelic Society of London, writes in the introduction, "Many people are at a loss to understand the fascination that surrounds the pursuit of stamp collecting. They are surpirsed at the clannishness of stamp collectors, and their lifelong devotion to their hobby. They are thunderstruck at the enormous prices paid for stamps, and at the fortunes that are spent and made in stamp collecting."

Not that much has changed.

To read or download Stamp Collecting as a Pastime, click here.