0:00:26 > 0:00:29When I was a boy there was much talk of hobbies.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32You were supposed to have a hobby,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35just as you would need a career in later life.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38And the default hobby, the one that almost every child,
0:00:38 > 0:00:42including me, dabbled in, was stamp collecting.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Well, this is great. A philatelic grotto.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49You don't see many places like this any more.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51A hobby was something to do on a rainy day,
0:00:51 > 0:00:55and stamp collecting was perfect for that because it brought colour and
0:00:55 > 0:01:00life into the drabness of an English living room on a damp Sunday.
0:01:00 > 0:01:05The stamp album itself was like a little portable picture gallery,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07or maybe a travel brochure.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09You could imagine yourself living in the places
0:01:09 > 0:01:11where the stamps came from,
0:01:11 > 0:01:14or at least pretend that you knew someone who lived there
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and liked you enough to send you a letter
0:01:17 > 0:01:20bearing a stamp from his exotic home.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25There was a patriotic element to it in that Britain had invented stamps,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28but there was also an un-patriotic element -
0:01:28 > 0:01:32it had to be admitted that so many of the foreign stamps
0:01:32 > 0:01:34were much more exciting than our own.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Why couldn't we have a pale yellow triangular stamp
0:01:38 > 0:01:40with a vulture on it, like Mauritania?
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Stamps ensnared us all in a social and commercial web,
0:01:50 > 0:01:53but there's always been more to them than that.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56They've been symbols of our national identity.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01It's an image of royalty, of monarchy,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04and, indeed, of the country.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09And each stamp is an aesthetic event, a work of minuscule art.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Are they going to be symbolic or pictorial?
0:02:14 > 0:02:20These are all complicated things to fit together into a tiny space.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Stamps provided not just a popular pastime,
0:02:23 > 0:02:27but a rite of passage for millions of children.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30You know, the world when you're eight or nine is a chaotic place,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34but if you can somehow bring it down to scale in an album...
0:02:35 > 0:02:40And stamps have always had a knack of transcending their face value.
0:02:41 > 0:02:48What fascinated me was such a little thing having such a huge value.
0:02:48 > 0:02:517,900,000.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56These little sticky price tags not only revolutionised communication,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59they became objects of desire in their own right.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03This bureaucratic expedient, the stamp,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07became imbued with the most profound romance.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Hidden away in a private London vault
0:03:22 > 0:03:25lie the remnants of a revolution.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Imagine the postal world of early Victorian Britain -
0:03:30 > 0:03:33no stamps, no envelopes,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35letters were bundles of sheets.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39The charge for sending was based on the number of sheets,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41and it was always expensive,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44because postage was a form of tax.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48The system was slow, corrupt, a mess.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53But in 1835 one man sought to reform the postal service.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55His name was Rowland Hill.
0:03:56 > 0:04:01The population's increased by almost one third in the last 30 years,
0:04:01 > 0:04:04and yet there are no more letters sent through the post
0:04:04 > 0:04:07than when I was a boy.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I tell you, sir, as a commercial undertaking,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11the Post Office is a failure...
0:04:15 > 0:04:17This is Hill's journal.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20It's packed with engagements and activity,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22it's exhausting even to look at it.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26Hill ticked all the boxes for a Victorian do-gooder -
0:04:26 > 0:04:28workaholic, strong Christian,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32dabbled in both railways and education reform.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35He was into connectivity.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38It's natural that such a man should turn a sceptical eye
0:04:38 > 0:04:42on a postal system that was completely inadequate for the times.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Firstly, it was expensive. It cost a shilling,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48that's about £5 in today's money,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51to send a letter from Scotland to London.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The second problem, it was inefficient.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59It was inefficient mainly because the recipient of the letter
0:04:59 > 0:05:02had to pay, and not the sender.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05It might be a case of the postman knocking on your door and saying,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08"Can I interest you in having this letter that someone's sent you?"
0:05:09 > 0:05:11A shilling for the letter, indeed!
0:05:13 > 0:05:15You can tell the post office to take it back to London
0:05:15 > 0:05:17and I hope it costs THEM a shilling!
0:05:19 > 0:05:24In 1837 Rowland Hill laid out his proposals in a pamphlet entitled
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Post Office Reform: Its Importance And Practicability.
0:05:28 > 0:05:34And his solution was a simple one - prepayment at a fixed cost.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37A cost that would be low and uniform,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40a cost that ought, as he put it,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44to neutralise all pecuniary objection.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47The sum he had in mind,
0:05:47 > 0:05:49one penny.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Now, my plan is to sell to the public some kind of a mark
0:05:53 > 0:05:55which they could put on the letters themselves
0:05:55 > 0:05:58to show that they've been paid for -
0:05:58 > 0:06:00a printed cover,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03a small sticky label,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05in fact, a kind of a stamp.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10But what image to use on this adhesive label or stamp?
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Hill wanted to be as refined and aesthetically pleasing as possible,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17because that would be hard to forge.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19On one of his correspondences he said,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23"It ought to be the image of a beautiful young woman."
0:06:23 > 0:06:25Where to find such a person?
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Diplomatically, Hill looked no further
0:06:31 > 0:06:33than the young Queen Victoria.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The portrait used was from this commemorative medal.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43It was copied onto this die, from which the printing plates
0:06:43 > 0:06:44were created that made...
0:06:46 > 0:06:47..these.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53The Penny Black, as the first-ever stamp was christened,
0:06:53 > 0:06:55proved an immediate success.
0:06:55 > 0:06:5868 million were printed.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01They were unperforated, so post office clerks
0:07:01 > 0:07:05had to shear off the sheets with long scissors, like so many tailors.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10These are the only remaining complete sheets of Penny Blacks
0:07:10 > 0:07:14in the world. And their value is beyond measure.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19This set the template for stamps around the world.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22The size became more or less standard.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24It's beautiful. Why?
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Because of its elegance, its simplicity,
0:07:27 > 0:07:32and there's a becoming sombre quality because of the blackness.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35It's basically the Queen, at night.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47Hill's postal reform swept the country.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Within a year of its issue the Penny Black had caused
0:07:50 > 0:07:53the number of letters being sent to double.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57This mass communication compressed Britain and then the world,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59in terms of space and time,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01and it boosted literacy too.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07But for some, stamps were not to be so casually dispatched.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12On the morning of May 1st, 1840,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15the day of the Penny Black's first issue,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18a zoologist called Dr John Edward Gray stepped out of
0:08:18 > 0:08:23his office here at the British Museum and walked around the corner
0:08:23 > 0:08:26to the main post office at Saint Martin's Le Grand.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29He bought a block of four Penny Blacks.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34But he didn't put them on an envelope, he put them in his pocket.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Dr Gray was the first stamp collector.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45And he didn't have to wait long to expand his collection.
0:08:45 > 0:08:48Just a week after the Penny Black came the Two Penny Blue,
0:08:48 > 0:08:50to cover heavier postage,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54and a year later the Penny Black gave way to the Penny Red,
0:08:54 > 0:08:58on which a black cancellation mark would show up more easily.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08From the early 1850s stamps took off around the world,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12and these laggard countries all wrote their names on their stamps -
0:09:12 > 0:09:14something the originator, Britain,
0:09:14 > 0:09:18didn't think, and still hasn't thought, necessary.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25As stamps proliferated, their collectors emerged from the shadows,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29or were sometimes discovered in the shadows.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46In February 1863 the opening pages of a new London monthly,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Stamp Collector's Magazine, gave a vivid account of illicit meetings
0:09:51 > 0:09:54that had begun to take place in the alleyways
0:09:54 > 0:09:58leading off Birchin Lane in the City of London.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03The article was called Postal Chit Chat.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06It recorded rowdy gatherings every evening
0:10:06 > 0:10:09of up to 50 people of all ranks of society,
0:10:09 > 0:10:13from office boys to one of Her Majesty's ministers.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17These people carried under their arms what the author calls
0:10:17 > 0:10:20small books studded with dark patches.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Stamp albums.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29These people were hell-bent on swapping, buying, or selling stamps.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34- Have you a yellow Saxon? - I want some Russian!
0:10:34 > 0:10:36Will you exchange a Russian for a Black English?
0:10:36 > 0:10:38I wouldn't give a Russian for 20 English.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41I'll give a Red Prussian for a blue/bronze wicker.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Prices fluctuated dramatically.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47A stamp with a street value of a penny one night
0:10:47 > 0:10:49might struggle to fetch a ha'penny the next.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51The police were soon involved,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55threatening prosecutions for unlicensed trading.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01And a popular rhyme was soon to be heard
0:11:01 > 0:11:03echoing through these backstreets.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08When sudden a gruff voice is heard,
0:11:08 > 0:11:12That all the thronging bevy stirred,
0:11:12 > 0:11:14I turned, and fix'd my eyes upon,
0:11:14 > 0:11:19A bobby, crying, "Stamps, move on!"
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Apparently similar things were going on in Paris
0:11:28 > 0:11:29in the Tuileries Gardens.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32The scene there was a bit more civilised -
0:11:32 > 0:11:36evidently people sat under the trees with the albums on their laps.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39But still there was a certain intensity.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42And a new word was coined to describe the mind-set -
0:11:42 > 0:11:45timbromanie - stamp mania.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52But one French collector, Georges Herpin,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55took exception to this term, timbromanie,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58and decided to coin a more elegant one.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Whether he succeeded is open to debate.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04The rather lumbering Greek hybrid he proposed
0:12:04 > 0:12:08means "a love of the exemption from tax" -
0:12:08 > 0:12:10philately.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17And philatelists soon found they no longer needed to gather
0:12:17 > 0:12:22in London's backstreets. Stamps were now a high street affair.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Perhaps the biggest concentration of stamp dealers in the world
0:12:28 > 0:12:31is grouped along both sides of a 50-yard stretch
0:12:31 > 0:12:33of the Strand in London.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Dealers here hold stocks worth hundreds of thousands of pounds,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and cater for collectors of every age and stage.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43I grew up in the North, but I often came to London as a boy.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47When I walked along the Strand and saw that the famous theatres and
0:12:47 > 0:12:51hotels shared the streets with so many shops selling
0:12:51 > 0:12:55cancelled postage, it changed my whole idea about London.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58It made me think it must be a less hard-headed,
0:12:58 > 0:13:00and more whimsical place than I'd thought.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Almost all of those stamp shops have now gone,
0:13:03 > 0:13:07but one remains, the most famous, Stanley Gibbons.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12Edward Stanley Gibbons was born in 1840,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15the same year as the Penny Black.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18As a boy he was obsessed with stamps,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22and he was shrewd enough to know it was a common affliction.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25He started out by running a stamp desk from the corner of
0:13:25 > 0:13:27his father's chemists in Plymouth,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30before moving to London to develop his business
0:13:30 > 0:13:33and eventually opening a premises here on the Strand.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Stanley Gibbons owed his success to two kinds of books.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43Firstly, there were his catalogues, which listed all
0:13:43 > 0:13:46the available stamps which people could buy from Gibbons,
0:13:46 > 0:13:48and then they were his albums,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51which had reserved spaces for particular stamps,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55which, again, people could buy from Gibbons.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59And so the stamp collector was lured in.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05At Gibbons I met the philatelist Hugh Jefferies,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08who's been working in the shop since 1975.
0:14:10 > 0:14:16This is a copy book from Stanley Gibbons in 1864.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18He was a very hard-working man,
0:14:18 > 0:14:23and he is said to have sent 160 letters to his clients and customers
0:14:23 > 0:14:27every day. He would dictate them to his secretary,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30and once she'd written them all out,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33she would then copy them into this book.
0:14:33 > 0:14:39So this is a few days' correspondence from Stanley Gibbons,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43offering stamps to customers all over the world.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Here is the Stanley Gibbons catalogue for May 1869.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52British, colonial and foreign postage stamps -
0:14:52 > 0:14:54that would seem to cover everything.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56Was this his very first catalogue?
0:14:56 > 0:15:00No, it wasn't. He produced his first catalogue, which he did monthly,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03in November 1865.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07It was very much of this style and pattern,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10and a lot of the prices are the same.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Stanley Gibbons produced a price list, and, of course,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18people loved it because they could then assess the value
0:15:18 > 0:15:20of their own collections by looking at how much
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Stanley Gibbons was going to charge them for their same thing.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Interestingly, he had a price for unused, and a price for used,
0:15:28 > 0:15:29and a price for a dozen.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33- Is it every stamp in the world here?- Yes, it was.
0:15:33 > 0:15:351869. It was possible to list every stamp in the world
0:15:35 > 0:15:37in a kind of pamphlet?
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Well, we do still list all the stamps in the world.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42And how many stamps are in there?
0:15:44 > 0:15:46- I don't know. Millions. - Many millions.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50- And how many stamps are in here? - A few thousand, I would guess.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57Stanley Gibbons sold his business in 1890.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01As the in-house magazine, Stanley Gibbons' Stamp Monthly, admitted,
0:16:01 > 0:16:06he then dedicated himself to having a rollicking good time!
0:16:06 > 0:16:09He went around the world three times.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13He liked to visit the places that had been depicted
0:16:13 > 0:16:14on the stamps in his albums.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18He was particularly keen on the tropics.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19He also got married.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21Five times.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24He died just over the road in the Savoy Hotel,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27in the arms, it is said,
0:16:27 > 0:16:29of his last mistress.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38During his lifetime Stanley Gibbons had catered
0:16:38 > 0:16:40for a booming collectors' market.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43His customers ranged from schoolboys,
0:16:43 > 0:16:45keen to fill a Gibbons album,
0:16:45 > 0:16:49to bigger players, with agendas of their own.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02One of the biggest spenders at Stanley Gibbons
0:17:02 > 0:17:06was a mysterious little man in a Breton cap, who resembled a tramp.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10Both his exact name and his nationality are open to question,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13but let's say he was a European multi-millionaire,
0:17:13 > 0:17:18generally referred to as Count Philipp von Ferrary.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Ferrary was the illegitimate son of a Genoese duchess.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26She raised him in her Parisian palace,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28and the two remained very close.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Probably realising that her introverted son needed a refuge
0:17:33 > 0:17:38from the world, the Duchess commended stamp collecting to him.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40But the hobby became a mania
0:17:40 > 0:17:45and Ferrary restlessly roved the world in search of rarities,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48for which he paid on the spot with gold coins.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Ferrary stored recent purchases in
0:17:53 > 0:17:57the multi-pockets of a specially adapted long, black coat,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00so he was like a kind of walking stamp album.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02And he was a completist.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06Ferrary aspired to own a copy of every stamp ever made,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08and he had the money to do it.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14Stamps have been described as emblems of social order,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17but there is an iconoclastic element to stamp collecting.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Ferrary and others were attracted to the postal pratfalls,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24the misprinted or miscoloured stamps -
0:18:24 > 0:18:28the errors - some of which have gone down in history.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34In 1847 the British colony of Mauritius
0:18:34 > 0:18:38issued One Penny Red and Two Penny Blue stamps.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41The engraver was short-sighted,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45and he wrote "post office" instead of "post paid".
0:18:46 > 0:18:51Only a dozen or so of the particularly famous Blue Mauritius
0:18:51 > 0:18:53are thought to have survived.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56Few enough for each to be worth a fortune,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00but not so rare to preclude one turning up unexpectedly,
0:19:00 > 0:19:01especially in fiction.
0:19:03 > 0:19:04What do you want with us?
0:19:04 > 0:19:06I think you know, so if you just hand them over I'll turn you loose,
0:19:06 > 0:19:08and you've nothing further to worry about.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11If you mean the stamps, we haven't got them.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Seven of them passed through Count Ferrary's hands,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18but they have achieved a mythic life beyond philately.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Look here, my boy. Someone's offered us a Mauritius Penny.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25What are you doing?
0:19:27 > 0:19:29No. You're mad.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Good shot!
0:19:33 > 0:19:35PHONE RINGS
0:19:41 > 0:19:47Perhaps the most famous error is the 1855 Swedish Treskilling,
0:19:47 > 0:19:50or three shilling yellow, which should have been green.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Only one is known to exist, and it was discovered
0:19:55 > 0:19:59by a Swedish boy in his grandmother's attic in 1886.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01Ferrary acquired it eight years later.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10There was the equally singular One Cent Magenta,
0:20:10 > 0:20:15printed in British Guyana as part of an emergency issue in 1856,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20and again, unearthed by a schoolboy, and later purchased by Ferrary.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23It features a ghostly drawing of a ship,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26contributed spontaneously by the printer
0:20:26 > 0:20:29and not authorised by the postmaster.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34I will start the bidding at 4,500,000.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36At 6,500,000.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43In 2014 the One Cent Magenta sold at auction for a record figure.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48On the telephone then at 7,900,000.
0:20:49 > 0:20:517,900,000.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53APPLAUSE
0:20:53 > 0:20:55Thank all you very much.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59With the premium, the stamp has just sold
0:20:59 > 0:21:02for approximately 9.5 million.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06The buyer has requested to be anonymous.
0:21:07 > 0:21:09Count Ferrary paid what were
0:21:09 > 0:21:12outrageous sums at the time for these rarities.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15And even though he was a shambling maverick in person,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20his money helped elevate the social status of stamp collecting.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26At the start of the 20th century
0:21:26 > 0:21:31there were 34 philatelic societies in Britain, all very pukka.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35But the oldest and most distinguished
0:21:35 > 0:21:38was the Royal Philatelic Society.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Its most famous member, and its royal patron, was George V,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45whose official biographer remarked, unofficially,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49that for much of his early life George did little more than
0:21:49 > 0:21:52"shoot game and stick stamps in albums."
0:21:57 > 0:22:03The King's collection filled 328 red leather albums.
0:22:03 > 0:22:09In 1904 he paid £1,400 for one of the fabled Blue Mauritius stamps.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14A few days later one of his secretaries asked, had he heard?
0:22:14 > 0:22:19Some damned fool had paid £1,400 for a single stamp.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23"Yes," the King replied,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25"I was that damned fool!"
0:22:29 > 0:22:33The King devoted three afternoons a week to his hobby, which was,
0:22:33 > 0:22:36perhaps, his way of keeping a beady eye on his Empire.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43But in 1924 the King was invited to approve a new kind of stamp,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47a special stamp that would be sold for a limited time only -
0:22:47 > 0:22:49a commemorative stamp.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58The King was wary of the whole notion of commemorative stamps.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00He thought they were vulgar,
0:23:00 > 0:23:02the kind of thing that foreigners went in for.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06Indeed, the first commemorative stamp had been produced in Peru,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10in 1871, celebrating 20 years since the building
0:23:10 > 0:23:13of the first Peruvian railway.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21The new and unprecedented British commemorative stamp
0:23:21 > 0:23:25had been mooted by the General Post Office to mark the opening of
0:23:25 > 0:23:30the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in April 1924.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Given the soaring national debt,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37and signs of agitation amongst the peoples of the Empire,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41it was vital that the exhibition was a success,
0:23:41 > 0:23:46so the King was persuaded to accept the idea of a philatelic promotion,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50but he insisted it had to be done properly.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Artists were invited to submit designs,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54and the GPO picked a modernist one
0:23:54 > 0:23:58by the influential sculptor and typographer Eric Gill.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01But, again, the King took fright.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04The King was no aesthete -
0:24:04 > 0:24:08he'd once burst out laughing at an exhibition of French Impressionism -
0:24:08 > 0:24:11and he was probably wary of Gill.
0:24:11 > 0:24:14Some time before, Gill had produced a design for
0:24:14 > 0:24:18the Great Seal Of The Realm. It showed the king astride a horse,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21but the design was rejected when somebody pointed out
0:24:21 > 0:24:24that the horse appeared to be urinating.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Gill was given the royal brush-off for a second time,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and the King chose a more traditional image by Harold Nelson,
0:24:33 > 0:24:35featuring a roaring lion.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37A British lion, of course.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01It was a bit like buying the T-shirt.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04By acquiring the stamp you proved you'd been to the Exhibition,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08because the stamp was only available on the Exhibition site,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11either from vending machines or from Wembley Post Office
0:25:11 > 0:25:15where, on June 30th, in a formal ceremony,
0:25:15 > 0:25:20the Prince of Wales bought the five millionth one.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Over six months more than 17 million people visited the Exhibition,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28where, like the King, they could tour a Mughal Palace,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31an African fort, and a Buddhist temple,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34or take a ride on a miniature train.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38All highly exotic and diverse, yet basically British.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41And if you hadn't caught sight of the real Prince of Wales,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44you could pop along to the Canadian Pavilion
0:25:44 > 0:25:46and see his effigy carved in butter.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Looking around here now there's hardly anything left
0:25:53 > 0:25:57of the whole jamboree. The last remnants of the old Empire Stadium,
0:25:57 > 0:26:01the Twin Towers, went in 2003.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04And that was the Palace Of Industry.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13But I've heard that one item was salvaged from the debris,
0:26:13 > 0:26:14by way of a memorial.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21And it's this, a lion's head corbel.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24It's all that remains of the British Empire Exhibition,
0:26:24 > 0:26:26except for the stamp, of course,
0:26:26 > 0:26:31and one in pristine condition will set you back about a tenner today.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38The Empire Exhibition has long faded into history,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41but its commemorative stamp left an enduring legacy.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46It had sold very well, with 13 million snapped up.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49And the success of the Exhibition suggested that stamps
0:26:49 > 0:26:53could function very well as miniature billboards.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55So why not issue another?
0:27:05 > 0:27:10In 1935 the General Post Office called on the services
0:27:10 > 0:27:14of Barnett Freedman, an eminent artist and lithographer of the day,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18to produce a stamp for George V's Silver Jubilee.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Now, are there any particular conditions
0:27:21 > 0:27:22in the designing of the stamp?
0:27:22 > 0:27:25Yes, you must keep to the head of the King
0:27:25 > 0:27:27which appears on present stamps.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30- Otherwise I have a free hand? - Absolutely.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35A documentary, scored by Benjamin Britten,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38followed Freedman as he worked up his design,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41using a method called photogravure,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44which gave an almost three-dimensional texture.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49This one goes to the printers.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56This machine is producing over half a million Jubilee stamps an hour.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Freedman's Jubilee stamp was stylish and modern, but subtly so,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03which is, perhaps, why it got past the King.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14In the post-war years there seemed to be a great deal to commemorate,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17but the young stamp collector might not have been looking forward
0:28:17 > 0:28:20to the Olympic Games, the Festival of Britain,
0:28:20 > 0:28:22or even the coronation of a new Queen
0:28:22 > 0:28:24so much as the accompanying stamps.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28Commemorative issues now provided regular treats -
0:28:28 > 0:28:32bigger and more colourful stamps to enliven monotonous albums.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36By the early 1960s commemoratives had become a fixture.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40More than 20 had been issued since the Wembley Exhibition,
0:28:40 > 0:28:44but the chosen subjects had become increasingly uninspiring.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50With all due respect to the European Postal And Telecommunications
0:28:50 > 0:28:54Conference at Torquay, I doubt it set pulses racing,
0:28:54 > 0:28:55even among the attendees.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59And as for another commemorated event,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02the ninth World Scout Jubilee Jamboree,
0:29:02 > 0:29:06held over 12 days at Sutton Park, Birmingham,
0:29:06 > 0:29:07that was...
0:29:07 > 0:29:09well, a wash-out.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Even the stamp designers themselves were sceptical
0:29:15 > 0:29:17about some of the commissions.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21I first got into it by...
0:29:21 > 0:29:23through an invitation
0:29:23 > 0:29:26for a rather depressing subject,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29it was called National Productivity Year,
0:29:29 > 0:29:31which I felt was a bit Stalinist.
0:29:31 > 0:29:34I think that was one of the things that were wrong with stamps
0:29:34 > 0:29:38at the time, that they had to be about a passing event,
0:29:38 > 0:29:40they couldn't be simply about something
0:29:40 > 0:29:42because it was interesting.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45You designed a very stylish stamp for it, even so.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49I'd done a few stamps already and found out that it's extremely
0:29:49 > 0:29:53difficult, on the tiny amount of space you've got on a stamp,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57to fit in several elements that fight each other,
0:29:57 > 0:30:02and so the Queen's head, particularly in those days
0:30:02 > 0:30:05when it was a three-quarter view photograph,
0:30:05 > 0:30:11it was extremely difficult to make it sit well alongside another image.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17In January 1965 David Gentleman wrote to the new Postmaster General,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Tony Benn, proposing, if not treason,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22then philatelic regicide.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27"I'm convinced that the main single drawback to the realisation
0:30:27 > 0:30:31"of unified modern designs is the monarch's head.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35"Not merely the unsatisfactory angle of the present photograph,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38"but the traditional inclusion of the head at all."
0:30:38 > 0:30:40I thought I'd said too much,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43and then I had a phone call from him saying,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45"Come and meet me at Post Office headquarters."
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Wednesday, March 10th, 1965.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55This is the day I'm seeing the Queen about the new stamps.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01David Gentleman came to breakfast again this morning at my request.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04He brought along the most beautiful designs
0:31:04 > 0:31:07for Battle of Britain stamps made out of silhouettes
0:31:07 > 0:31:09of RAF and Luftwaffe planes in combat.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13They were very simple,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16flat silhouettes of Spitfires, Hurricanes,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19some German planes flying about in the sky.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22They really looked lovely.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Armed with Gentleman's designs and a carefully-prepared speech,
0:31:28 > 0:31:30Tony Benn took off for the Palace.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34The Queen beckoned me to sit down, and I started.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37On commemoratives, I said, we had broadened the criteria
0:31:37 > 0:31:41to many subjects that had previously been excluded.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45This raised the whole question of the use of the head on the stamps.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48The Queen frowned, and smiled.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51She indicated that she had never had an opportunity to look at
0:31:51 > 0:31:55any of these new stamps and would be interested if she could.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00And he said, "I've got some here in my bag."
0:32:00 > 0:32:02It's like Blue Peter, here are some I made earlier!
0:32:02 > 0:32:07And so I spread out on the floor 12 huge design models
0:32:07 > 0:32:10of the stamps, provided by David Gentleman,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13bearing the words "Great Britain", and no royal head on them.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Benn thought that the Queen liked them.
0:32:16 > 0:32:18That wasn't quite correct, was it?
0:32:18 > 0:32:21He told me that she'd been interested,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25but that by the time he got back to his own office
0:32:25 > 0:32:29the message had come, via the Prime Minister, that the head was to stay.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32- So the battle was lost. - The battle was lost.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34The Queen's had had to stay on stamps,
0:32:34 > 0:32:38and here it is on The Battle Of Britains, as small as it could go.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40But, with a further commission the following year,
0:32:40 > 0:32:43David Gentleman challenged another of the conventions
0:32:43 > 0:32:47governing commemorative stamps, namely the one decreeing
0:32:47 > 0:32:51that no living person apart from a member of the Royal family
0:32:51 > 0:32:52could be featured on one.
0:32:55 > 0:32:56The issue of fourpenny stamps
0:32:56 > 0:32:58to mark England's victory in the World Cup
0:32:58 > 0:33:02brought early morning queues at post offices all over the country.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05The first day's supply of about 1.5 million were going like hot cakes
0:33:05 > 0:33:07very soon after opening time.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10The reason is that nearly everybody believes the stamps will be
0:33:10 > 0:33:13worth a lot when the collectors really get busy.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17Here are some commemoratives you did for the 1966 World Cup.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20I don't see Bobby Moore or Geoff Hurst.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23I don't recognise these people, and that's because
0:33:23 > 0:33:27you weren't allowed to depict a living person on a stamp, I think?
0:33:27 > 0:33:30In those days, it might have been Stanley Matthews,
0:33:30 > 0:33:33I'm sure that they wouldn't have tolerated the idea
0:33:33 > 0:33:35of a known footballer.
0:33:35 > 0:33:41I got a photographer to photograph two football friends
0:33:41 > 0:33:45to, in my mind, epitomise the nature of the game.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48- And that stamp is based on those photographs.- It is.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53So this really is the first example of a living person
0:33:53 > 0:33:56specifically depicted on a stamp?
0:33:56 > 0:33:59- That broke the rule, didn't it? - It did.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03But they're not personalities.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06They are there as anonymous footballers.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10Which is rather commendable, because a stamp is basically
0:34:10 > 0:34:12a democratic medium.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15I wonder if they know that they're on a stamp?
0:34:15 > 0:34:18I think they found out at the time.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21Well, I hope they've got a few stuck in their albums!
0:34:21 > 0:34:22That would be great, wouldn't it,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24- to point to a stamp and say, "That's me"?- That's me.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29The Queen's head remained an issue.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33In three-quarter profile it seemed to obtrude from the stamps.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37A consensus emerged amongst designers that a new image
0:34:37 > 0:34:40of the Queen was needed to be used on all stamps,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43primarily on the standard ones, known as definitives,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46but also on commemoratives.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50So Tony Benn announced a competition to design a new,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53more muted royal profile.
0:34:53 > 0:34:54Let's have a look at it.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58And at the British Postal Museum in London I've been granted
0:34:58 > 0:35:00a private audience with Her Majesty.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03Well, this is the work of Arnold Machin,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06and Machin was a sculptor, so the work that he did
0:35:06 > 0:35:10was in the form of a plaster cast, or bas relief.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Apparently Machin spent a whole year doing nothing but working on this.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18Why a whole year? What was he doing all that time?
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Well, it may look a simple image, but it is, in fact, quite complex.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26When he began with his sketches, most of them were rather elaborate,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29so he spent the year simplifying things,
0:35:29 > 0:35:34and then the Stamp Advisory Committee suggested that he change
0:35:34 > 0:35:37the tiara to a diadem, as you see here.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And this diadem looks familiar to me.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43That, in fact, is the diadem that is worn by Queen Victoria
0:35:43 > 0:35:45as seen on the Penny Black.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48There was an attempt to go back to the Penny Black,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50especially with the Queen herself.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55The Queen was quite hands on about how exactly the image should end up?
0:35:55 > 0:35:59She was obviously interested in her own image, as it appeared on stamps,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01and with the photographs that were taken,
0:36:01 > 0:36:04she annotated all 60 or 70 of them.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Some of them she marked as being "good", some just "yes".
0:36:08 > 0:36:12So quite restrained annotations. She didn't write "terrible"?
0:36:12 > 0:36:15She didn't write "terrible", but she did write "no" in capital letters.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20And then chose a particular colour, a dark olive sepia brown,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23deliberately to imitate the Penny Black
0:36:23 > 0:36:25on the first class letter rate.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29And here is that colour, of the first Machin.
0:36:29 > 0:36:331967 to the present day. Why has it endured so well?
0:36:33 > 0:36:37Well, the image is timeless, it's a classic.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40The Queen doesn't consider that a portrait of herself,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43it's an image of royalty, of monarchy,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45and, indeed, of the country.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50The fact that we're still using Machin's definitive
0:36:50 > 0:36:52shows just how successful this rebranding was.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58It, and many classy issues designed by the likes of David Gentleman,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01propelled stamp collecting to a peak of popularity.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07I had merely dabbled in stamps back then.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10A more committed collector of the late '60s and early '70s
0:37:10 > 0:37:13was the author Simon Garfield.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17He suggested we meet at his old, well, stamping ground,
0:37:17 > 0:37:19Stanley Gibbons.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21I used to come here a lot when I was,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24you know, short trousers in the '60s.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26And it was a kind of...
0:37:26 > 0:37:29joyful voyage on a Saturday afternoon.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31I began at Trafalgar Square Post Office,
0:37:31 > 0:37:35for the new issues, which you just got over the counter at face value,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and then working your way along the Strand.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42But, you know, Gibbons, I suppose, was sort of
0:37:42 > 0:37:46the ultimate, and the Mecca. It was bustling at that point.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Really, sort of, a kind of heaving place.
0:37:49 > 0:37:53Lots of kids like me. I remember they used to call me Sir,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56which, you know, I used to call my teacher Sir,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59but to be called Sir when you walked into a shop, age of eight...
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Well, they obviously sort of looked me up and down,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05in my short trousers, and said, "Well, actually, what he's after is
0:38:05 > 0:38:07"one of these," which is one of these, sort of, selection packs.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10You would fill a lot of album space with this.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13You would never find anything of any great worth.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16What's the number one psychological explanation for stamp collecting?
0:38:16 > 0:38:18I think, for me, when I was a kid,
0:38:18 > 0:38:21it was trying to put some order on the world.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24You know, the world when you're eight or nine is a chaotic place,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28but if you can somehow bring it down to scale in an album...
0:38:28 > 0:38:31And also the idea of, sort of, completing something,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34collecting. The idea of a quest is kind of very good.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37But also things that other people don't have, you know.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40The idea of having the same collection as everybody else
0:38:40 > 0:38:43in the world is just not a very interesting thing.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47You want to specialise, and the things I specialised in were errors,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Great British errors.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51The one I think I remember I saw first
0:38:51 > 0:38:53was the Post Office Tower stamp.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56Well, two new stamps have been issued, which we've put,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58of course, here into our stamp album.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02And they're to commemorate the opening of the Post Office Tower
0:39:02 > 0:39:06in London. The threepenny is a most unusual shape
0:39:06 > 0:39:08because it's vertical,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and shows the tower springing up above some old Georgian houses.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16They had made, you know, 50 million of the stamps,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20but 30 of them, I remember, had missing olive green,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23and the olive-green was the Post Office Tower itself.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Clearly, as it was going through the printing machine,
0:39:25 > 0:39:27the olive-green had run out.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Here is further evidence of the stamp collecting craze
0:39:31 > 0:39:32of your boyhood, the early '70s.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36Collect, "a great new stamp collecting game,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39"all the excitement of the stamp collecting world."
0:39:39 > 0:39:42I wouldn't hesitate to say a great new stamp collecting game...
0:39:42 > 0:39:45Perhaps the only stamp collecting game, is probably
0:39:45 > 0:39:47- the other way of looking at it. - You played this?
0:39:47 > 0:39:50I did, and I like to think that this was me -
0:39:50 > 0:39:53very happy with wonderful stamps. This part of it is clearly a lie.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55There were three girls playing
0:39:55 > 0:39:58and that never happened in the history of the world.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00Do you think the fact that somebody bothered
0:40:00 > 0:40:03to make a board game about stamp collecting in 1972
0:40:03 > 0:40:06means that that was the very peak of the hobby?
0:40:06 > 0:40:10I got the feeling, though, that sort of mid '70s
0:40:10 > 0:40:13it was sort of trailing away, but that was perhaps just me.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17That was when I discovered, you know, punk.
0:40:19 > 0:40:25In 1977 the most memorable image of the Queen wasn't on a stamp.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28It was what you might call a punk definitive.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32# God save the Queen
0:40:32 > 0:40:35# The fascist regime
0:40:35 > 0:40:37# We love our Queen... #
0:40:37 > 0:40:39As emblems of order,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43stamps may have been losing their appeal to the anarchic young,
0:40:43 > 0:40:47but they were being marketed heavily towards older collectors.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51Portfolios of rare and valuable stamps were now offered
0:40:51 > 0:40:55as a hedge against the rising inflation of the late '70s.
0:40:55 > 0:40:57A sort of stamp bubble ensued.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01This is the last call.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Sold to Mr Irwin Weinberg at 280,000.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07We consider it an exceptional buy.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10- Why?- Well, it is of course the rarest stamp in the world.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12It's the first time in 40 years it has come up.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15Stamps have, in fact, over the years, performed consistently well.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17People are looking for a secure home for their money
0:41:17 > 0:41:21and they have many markets to choose from. Stamps, gold, diamonds...
0:41:21 > 0:41:23350, dreihundertfunfzig.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26375?
0:41:26 > 0:41:28Any more for 375?
0:41:28 > 0:41:30SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:41:30 > 0:41:32But in just one minute, it was over.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34Going at 70,000.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Well, it's the smallest and lightest form of portable security
0:41:38 > 0:41:40there is in the world.
0:41:40 > 0:41:411,400.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45SHE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:41:45 > 0:41:481,400. 1,500 I'm bid....
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Life Magazine stated that it's undoubtedly the most valuable
0:41:52 > 0:41:57object in the world by weight and size.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00I can open this stamp, Lot 374,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04for 325,000.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07It's absolutely wonderful. Didn't think I would ever see it.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11I have a bid on the right at 850,000.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Last call.
0:42:13 > 0:42:14Sold.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18That particular bubble burst, as they all do.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25But the economic uncertainty and low interest rates
0:42:25 > 0:42:28of recent years have benefited the high-end stamp market.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31Phenomenal prices have been achieved.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44I've come to Geneva
0:42:44 > 0:42:47to visit one of the leading philatelic auction houses.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51I'll be meeting a man who has masterminded many record-breaking sales.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Five, six, seven...
0:42:57 > 0:43:01David Feldman is, you might say, a born dealer.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04At the age of eight he set up an exchange scheme
0:43:04 > 0:43:07with classmates in his hometown of Dublin, and at 11
0:43:07 > 0:43:12he started a mail order business called The Shamrock Stamp Club.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:43:16 > 0:43:1812,000. At 12,000.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20Any more at 12,000?
0:43:22 > 0:43:25Lot number six at 4,800.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28HE REPEATS IN GERMAN
0:43:28 > 0:43:32At 4,800, going, going and...
0:43:32 > 0:43:34BANGS GAVEL
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Almost all of my friends were collecting stamps.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43I saw that there was a need perhaps for someone to exchange stamps
0:43:43 > 0:43:45between them, or bring new stamps.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47With the club we had little books which you called
0:43:47 > 0:43:51stamps-on-approval books, which I had handmade myself.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54We would send you a book and you could buy those stamps
0:43:54 > 0:43:56and you would have a discount, so you could...
0:43:56 > 0:44:00you yourself could even offer them to friends and make,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02if you want, a commission.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06So it was like pushing other people, your customers even, maybe to take,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08they would take at a discount or sell to friends.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10So you're like a kind of drug dealer,
0:44:10 > 0:44:12making them addicted to stamps.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15Well, I wouldn't want to make that comparison, but in a sense,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18being able to have more money to buy better ones,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20let's say more rare ones,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23more expensive ones, and then show them to my friends.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26That grew and then I became enveloped in that business.
0:44:26 > 0:44:27I became immersed.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Lot 32 at 10,000 now.
0:44:30 > 0:44:3210, 11 and 12 for me.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34And 13, 14...
0:44:35 > 0:44:3815. 16.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43It's been explained to me that these gentlemen are postal historians.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46They are interested in the use of the stamp,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49the accumulating postal value of one or more stamps -
0:44:49 > 0:44:52that's the franking - or perhaps in the route that a letter took.
0:44:52 > 0:44:55A letter might have been diverted because of a war
0:44:55 > 0:44:58and that will be denoted by the postmark.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Or they're interested in the way that the stamp is cancelled.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04An eccentric cancellation might go for a lot of money.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08So it's more than just the stamp, per se.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10Against the net now, at 24.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12In the room at 24.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14HE REPEATS IN GERMAN
0:45:14 > 0:45:17And...
0:45:17 > 0:45:18Gone.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Where does the balance now lie for you between the appeal of the stamps
0:45:22 > 0:45:24and the appeal of the money?
0:45:24 > 0:45:26Well, I think if you're in the business, you have to be...
0:45:26 > 0:45:29Basically, presumably you have to be a businessman.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32What fascinated me was the item, the value, the adventure,
0:45:32 > 0:45:35the excitement and the continually changing by buying and selling.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Since Count Ferrary acquired the Treskilling Yellow
0:45:41 > 0:45:44for £400 in 1894, the legendary stamp changed hands
0:45:44 > 0:45:48ten times before David Feldman put it up for auction
0:45:48 > 0:45:50just over a century later.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54The most valuable stamp in the world has been sold at auction
0:45:54 > 0:45:58in Switzerland for £1,364,000.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01The Swedish dealer who bought the Treskilling Yellow
0:46:01 > 0:46:04for an unnamed private client said it was a bargain.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07The stamp, issued in Sweden 140 years ago,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10is a unique misprint which should've been green
0:46:10 > 0:46:12but was coloured yellow by mistake.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15Now, I've always said if you want to really make a good investment
0:46:15 > 0:46:18in stamps, if you're thinking of it in that way,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22the only sensible way is you should invest in what others collect
0:46:22 > 0:46:25because then there is the real collecting market and interest.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28So the only real way to know that is that you either
0:46:28 > 0:46:31have the knowledge yourself of the collector,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35or you go and get the advice of a professional
0:46:35 > 0:46:38who has a collecting clientele and can tell you that this is
0:46:38 > 0:46:41very interesting for collectors, and presumably will continue
0:46:41 > 0:46:44to grow with collectors, and that should be a good investment,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47but not a bubble investment that suddenly rises and falls.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51So now you need a more subtle understanding of what the collectors want.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54I think you always did if you want to understand the collecting world
0:46:54 > 0:46:57and you wanted to be successful let's say long-term.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Short-term, you might be able to get in and get out to make a quick
0:47:00 > 0:47:03profit, as you say, but that was not related to the collecting world.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14David Feldman's auction house near Lake Geneva
0:47:14 > 0:47:19is just a short boat trip from where Count Philipp von Ferrary
0:47:19 > 0:47:21died of a heart attack in 1917.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26He'd just been buying some more stamps.
0:47:26 > 0:47:27What drove his obsession?
0:47:29 > 0:47:32I'd like to think it was something to do with the beauty of stamps,
0:47:32 > 0:47:37a quality that consistently struck me while watching the Feldman auctions.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42But Ferrary also took stamp collecting into the big money league
0:47:42 > 0:47:45and David Feldman advises anyone who wants to invest in stamps
0:47:45 > 0:47:48to study the collectors.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00In order to observe them in their natural habitat,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03I'm going to have to exchange Geneva for Croydon.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08Specifically the East Croydon United Reformed Church
0:48:08 > 0:48:10and a meeting of the local Philatelic Society.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to tonight's meeting.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19This evening we'll be entertained by our own members,
0:48:19 > 0:48:22so we can look forward to a wide variety
0:48:22 > 0:48:24and plenty of material to enjoy.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28Now, I've selected just 15 sheets
0:48:28 > 0:48:33and I've tried to select some rather sexy sheets, if you like.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36I mean, philatelically sexy, of course.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39I didn't have any firm notion of how a modern stamp club operated
0:48:39 > 0:48:42and I admit that I was slightly thrown.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46I'd expected to see more actual stamp albums on display.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49And if you can't see the overprint through the back of the stamp,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51it's a forgery.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03- I'll have a custard cream. - Yes, likewise.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07Apparently, if we'd come to this stamp club 30 years ago,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10there would've been plenty of people with stamp albums
0:49:10 > 0:49:12and the business of the club would have been one person
0:49:12 > 0:49:15showing another person their stamps in their album.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19But now the stamps have broken free of the albums because it's easier
0:49:19 > 0:49:23to display them and easier to talk about them if they're mounted,
0:49:23 > 0:49:25like this, on what are called frames.
0:49:25 > 0:49:30And the idea is that the members of the club give a show and tell,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34like a kind of school assembly, explaining about their collection,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36why it's of interest
0:49:36 > 0:49:39and perhaps hinting at how much it's worth as well.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44There's one thing you might not know, Andrew.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46It's a funny little quote.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49"A postage stamp is a dirty piece of paper
0:49:49 > 0:49:52"that somebody else has spat on."
0:49:52 > 0:49:55- And it's so true.- Yes.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57Or it was, but now a lot of them are self adhesive,
0:49:57 > 0:50:00so that blows that one out of the water!
0:50:01 > 0:50:04I think you've put me off starting a collection.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08Now, Pauline, you collect stamps showing cats...
0:50:08 > 0:50:09- I do.- ..from all around the world.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11You are a rare breed yourself,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13because you are a female philatelist.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16- Here, we have got about 20-odd men and three women.- Yes, yes.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20What do you think, is the appeal of a stamp, to a man in particular?
0:50:20 > 0:50:23It's the hunter-gatherer, got to collect.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27So if there is one of something and there's another one out there,
0:50:27 > 0:50:29you want it.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32But you have a glaring example of just that here.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35- I do, yes. - From this issue of cat stamps,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38issued by the island of Stroma, off Scotland.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41- Yes, yes.- A rare example of a local issue of a stamp.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43- Yes.- One's missing. Why is it missing?
0:50:43 > 0:50:47The chances of me finding it are virtually nil.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50- But that stamp does exist? - It must do.- It's out there.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53It must do. It will be out there.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55Well, are you not tormented by the thought of filling in
0:50:55 > 0:50:57- that black hole there?- Erm... No.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00I am, and it's not my collection!
0:51:03 > 0:51:06A lot of stamp collectors are very secretive.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09- Male ones?- Yes, yes.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14When I worked at Stanley Gibbons, I quite often had a client,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16who would be male, say,
0:51:16 > 0:51:20"Please don't tell the wife what I've spent,"
0:51:20 > 0:51:24or, "If I'm not in, please don't leave a message."
0:51:28 > 0:51:29If this club is typical
0:51:29 > 0:51:34then the standard philatelist is a person of a certain age,
0:51:34 > 0:51:36but inducements to the young,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39or at least new collector, continue to be offered.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42They take the form of first-day covers,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45specially-designed envelopes bearing new stamps
0:51:45 > 0:51:48postmarked on their first day of issue.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51In my boyhood, these were considered the most exciting things
0:51:51 > 0:51:53to come out of a post office,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56with the possible exception of a postal order.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02But do people still buy first-day covers?
0:52:02 > 0:52:04I've come to the main post office at Trafalgar Square
0:52:04 > 0:52:06on the morning of a new issue.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10The issue is called Masters Of Music,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13which, in practice, means Pink Floyd. A range of stamps
0:52:13 > 0:52:17commemorating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the group,
0:52:17 > 0:52:20I think. I have no interest whatsoever in Pink Floyd,
0:52:20 > 0:52:22but I should imagine that's true
0:52:22 > 0:52:24of anyone who comes here to buy the stamps.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27If anyone does come, because, so far,
0:52:27 > 0:52:28I'm the only one in the queue.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38- Excuse me?- Hi.- Are you here for the Pink Floyd stamps?
0:52:38 > 0:52:41- Yeah.- Are you a stamp collector?
0:52:41 > 0:52:44- No, I'm a Pink Floyd fan from Japan. - Oh.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47Excuse me? Are you here for the Pink Floyd stamps?
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Are you here for the Pink Floyd stamps, sir?
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Can I ask if you are here to buy some Pink Floyd special issue stamps?
0:52:55 > 0:52:57No? Pink Floyd special issue?
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Pink Floyd stamps?
0:53:03 > 0:53:05No, they're just regular punters.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07# Money
0:53:07 > 0:53:09# It's a gas
0:53:12 > 0:53:17# Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash... #
0:53:18 > 0:53:23So the old first-day cover trick seems to have lost some of its allure.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26And even the sending of ordinary letters
0:53:26 > 0:53:30with ordinary stamps is in decline because of e-mail.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Britain's average daily mailbag peaked in 2005,
0:53:34 > 0:53:36at 80 million letters.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39It has been contracting sharply ever since.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42So, what is the future of stamp collecting?
0:53:44 > 0:53:46For the past 20 years,
0:53:46 > 0:53:49this woman has been trying to ensure it has one.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53Erene Grieve visits schools to promote philately,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56and she has helped to establish numerous stamp clubs,
0:53:56 > 0:53:58some of which have waiting lists.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02When I was your age, you saw an advert and it said,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05"Send for a sack of stamps for ten shillings."
0:54:05 > 0:54:06We opened up the sack,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09emptied them out on the table and, believe it or not,
0:54:09 > 0:54:12there were hundreds of stamps in there, from all over the world.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16Places I'd never heard of. There was the world on our table.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Zanzibar, Mozambique, Madagascar,
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Turks and Caicos Islands, Trinidad and Tobago.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Places I'd never heard of and things on there I'd never seen,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30cos, of course, we didn't have what you've got today
0:54:30 > 0:54:32that shows you a window on the world.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34Put your hand up if you've got a television.
0:54:34 > 0:54:39Oh, we didn't have television when I was your age.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42Put your hand up if you've ever been abroad to another country.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45'I think adults have stopped introducing children to stamps,'
0:54:45 > 0:54:47getting them interested.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49I think, when a child starts looking at a stamp,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51looking at what's on a stamp,
0:54:51 > 0:54:53and understanding that that foreign word
0:54:53 > 0:54:56or those squiggly signs actually refer to a country
0:54:56 > 0:55:00and a currency, and the pictures on it refer to something
0:55:00 > 0:55:03that's happening round the world, there is a magic to it,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05and it's rather hard to put one's finger on it.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08That is a very famous stamp.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10You see, somebody, one or two people, knew it.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13- Why do you think it's famous? - Cos it was the first stamp.
0:55:13 > 0:55:16Absolutely right. It was the very first stamp.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Things seemed to change a lot in the '70s.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24Mums started going out to work more.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27I think perhaps parents don't have as much time now
0:55:27 > 0:55:31to follow that sort of hobby with their child.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34Is there any evidence that it is being taken up
0:55:34 > 0:55:35by the latest generation?
0:55:35 > 0:55:38It tends to be where you've got somebody in the family,
0:55:38 > 0:55:42usually a grandparent, who is encouraging their grandchild.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Or where a school has set up a stamp club,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48that really seems to make a big difference.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51I just love the reaction from the children.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54A little girl in one of the schools announced that it had been
0:55:54 > 0:55:57the best day of her life. I mean, how can you better that?
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Yeah, let's hope she goes on and acquires a Blue Mauritius in 30 years' time.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03Will it ever go back to being like it was in the '50s,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06- with almost every child doing it? - The best prospect, for me,
0:56:06 > 0:56:10would be that more stamp collectors would come forward
0:56:10 > 0:56:12to help run stamp clubs in schools,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16cos I think that is where we have the right atmosphere
0:56:16 > 0:56:21for stamp collecting, really. I think that's the best place.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24This one is... You've got '06 on it.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26It's from France.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30And that would be 1906.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33So, that is 110 years old.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37I've been in top public schools, I've been into inner-city schools,
0:56:37 > 0:56:39I've been to sink schools, village schools, tiny schools,
0:56:39 > 0:56:44enormous schools, but the reaction is always the same.
0:56:44 > 0:56:45Now, explain that.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50- Well, it's down to the mystique of the postage stamp.- Yes.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54I've learned something of that mystique, I think,
0:56:54 > 0:56:57having communed with the Penny Black in the dark,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00seen the way that early stamp collectors disturbed the peace
0:57:00 > 0:57:02in the back streets of London,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05and learned of Count Ferrary's obsession,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09a word that might also be applied to the philately of King George V.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13The battles fought over commemorative stamps
0:57:13 > 0:57:15and the profile of the Queen tell us something about
0:57:15 > 0:57:18the importance of stamps to our national identity.
0:57:18 > 0:57:22I've seen stamps go under the hammer for a lot of money,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25and heard the proud speeches of amateur collectors,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27of which there are plenty left.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32Even if it's no longer the rainy day fallback of almost every child,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35stamp collecting remains a popular hobby,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38but its focus will become increasingly retrospective.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42As postage gives way to electronic communication,
0:57:42 > 0:57:44so the romance of philately
0:57:44 > 0:57:48will be compounded by the romance of nostalgia.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50And when we do get a letter,
0:57:50 > 0:57:54there's very often an impostor in the top right-hand corner.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Rather than this pallid frank,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01who wouldn't prefer to get a letter with a stamp on it?
0:58:01 > 0:58:04I know I would.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17# I've got one from Spain and two from Japan
0:58:17 > 0:58:21# I've got a couple from Israel and Azerbaijan
0:58:21 > 0:58:24# I've got a plenty from Poland but none from Sudan
0:58:24 > 0:58:29# Or from Fiji or Uzbekistan
0:58:29 > 0:58:34# Did you know I can't believe I'm telling everyone that I know
0:58:36 > 0:58:40# That every stamp in my collection is a place we could go. #