It may not be as cool as racing motor scooters,but stamp collecting remains a favorite pastime for many Taiwan teens, not to mention adults.What's the big attraction?
In the nineteenth century, a Frenchman named Georges Herpin coined the term "philately," which literally means "the love of that on which there is no further tax." In this imperfect world there are few loves that do not levy some kind of tariff, whether it be financial or emotional, so what could Herpin have had in mind? Well, he wanted a term to embrace stamp collecting, and a moment's thought shows that philately does the job nicely. If a person collects stamps, he need only receive letters. The sender pays the postage, and for the addressee the stamps don't cost a cent.
Nowhere is stamp collecting more popular than in Asia. According to Chen Chiung-ling(陳瓊玲), director general of the ROC Directorate General of Posts (DGP), there are over 2.7 million active stamp collectors in Taiwan, nearly 13 percent of the entire population. Not content to wait for letters to arrive, they spend millions of dollars every year buying stamps from dealers and post offices and at auctions. The DGP, for its part, actively promotes the hobby through exhibitions, seminars, and other activities. And every new issue, from eighteen to twenty each year, is greeted by a phalanx of collectors lined up at the post office to get first-day covers--postcards bearing the new stamp and a postmark showing the date of the first day of issue. Although first-day covers have no real commercial value, they do appeal to the collector's instinct for historical reference, and about a million sets of each new issue are sold on the first day.
"There's no question that Asia is presently the heart of the world philatelic market," says one US-based dealer visiting Taipei for the 10th Asian International Philatelic Exhibition held in October. "Hong Kong and Taiwan are really the top two markets. The United States used to be a great market for us, but the competition with baseball cards and other collectibles has really hurt our business."
Put simply, people enjoy hobbies, and the most popular hobby is collecting, whether it's coins (numismatists), books (bibliophiles), or cars (motorheads). Stamp collecting is often seen as a pursuit for geeks and social outcasts, but it is also one of the most popular hobbies in the world. So either the world is brimming with geeks and social outcasts, or there is more to this hobby than meets the eye.
"Stamps are like a window on history," explains Mr. Lai, a local collector. "The subjects of stamps show us the important people, things, and events of their day. Overstamps that increase the value of stamps tell us about periods of economic depression and inflation. There's a great deal that stamps can tell us, if we know what to look for."
Visitors to the Chinese Postal Museum in Taipei will appreciate Mr. Lai's point, for the philatelic annals of the Republic of China do indeed document the nation's history and culture. Each new issue has anywhere from one to six new stamps. The range of subjects is comprehensive, extending from issues commemorating the achievements of Chiang Kai-shek, through Chinese folk tales, famous emperors and literati, and masterpieces of Chinese art, to the more mundane stuff of development projects, national defense, and health and environmental protection. Just collecting ROC stamps could keep a philatelist busy for years.
But not many people outside Taiwan are interested in ROC stamps. "There are two disadvantages to collecting Taiwan stamps," says Liang Ching-ming(梁景銘), a Taiwan-based dealer and collector. "The first is the large quantity issued--over four million stamps are printed each time for each kind, and from a dealer's point of view, stamps issued in such large quantities are not likely to be profitable. And for experienced collectors, it makes them too common to be of real interest. The second thing is that the prices for some of the older and rarer issues are too high. This scares away a lot of collectors." Just how expensive can they get? Three complete sheets, at one hundred stamps per sheet, of the 1955 ROC Armed Forces Day issue were sold at a recent Hong Kong auction for over US$14,000.
Some of the stories surrounding particular stamps breathe life into what might otherwise be seen as banal. Take the first Taiwan post office, established in 1888 by the Ching dynasty official Liu Ming-ch'uan(劉銘傳), the first governor of Taiwan. Through the British consulate in Tamsui, he ordered two sets of stamps, one red, the other green, and each with the same denomination and design, from Bradbury Wilkinson Co., a security printing firm in London. The stamps are commonly known as "Dragon and Horse" stamps, after their design. Before they could be issued, however, the new rail lines between Taipei and Keelung, and Taipei and Shuichuanchiao were completed, and the railway administration found itself without tickets to sell. The Taiwan governor therefore approved the use of the new "Dragon and Horse" stamps as railway tickets, instead of as stamps. These issues were overstamped with the name of the line for which they were used.
Another example: In 1894, a brief war was fought between Imperial Chinese and Japanese forces in northeast China. The Chinese lost, and under the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17, 1895, the Ching government was forced to cede Taiwan to the Japanese. But the people of Taiwan resisted and on May 25 established the Formosa Republic. At this time, the Chinese General Liu Yung-fu(劉永福) and his Black Flag troops were stationed in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, and they vowed to resist the Japanese occupation.
But Liu needed money to support his small army and the local militia. Toward this end, the Postal Administration of the Formosa Republic was established on July 31, and began issuing stamps and offering postal services to the public. The stamps issued featured what was called a "Flowing River and Roaring Tiger" design, and are referred to by collectors as "Single Tiger" stamps.
The Taiwanese resistance was easily overcome by the Japanese, and on October 19, General Liu was forced to quit Taiwan for the mainland. The Japanese took full control of the island, and the Postal Administration of the Formosa Republic was closed after only 81 days of operation. A block of four "Single Tiger" stamps recently sold at public auction for US$565.
Many collectors and dealers insist that anecdotes such as these help spark the interest of young people in history and other subjects, depending on the theme of the stamps collected, while steering them away from the reprobate behavior so commonly associated with teenagers. "The good thing about stamp collecting is that it's accessible," says Ray Martin, an American stamp dealer. "You don't have to be an expert unless you're after real rarities. It's especially good for kids because it's affordable, and it keeps their hands busy. When I was growing up with my five brothers and sisters, we never got in trouble with drugs, alcohol, or the law, and we didn't waste our time at the video arcade, because there was plenty for us to do that was more interesting and productive, like stamp collecting."
Martin's comment highlights the fact that stamp collecting is by no means an exclusively male preserve. "In Asia, there are a lot more women who collect stamps than in the West, but it's still more men than women," says Neill Granger, a stamp expert with the international auction house Christie's. "A lot of children love collecting, but they get distracted as they get older, although one day they may come back to it. At this point, most collectors are middle- aged men, at least that's certainly the case at auctions."
But stamps are sold in more places than auction rooms, as Danny Bosca, a manager in the philatelic department of the Australian Post Office explains. "There's a very broad collector base in Taiwan, from children to adults, and from people looking for commonplace, attractive but cheap issues, to those at the high end looking for expensive rarities," he says. "And they have the money to buy them."
The costs and potential profits of stamp collecting depend largely on what is collected, as well as market trends. At the 9th Asian Philatelic Exhibition held in Indonesia in 1995, a set of seven limited-edition stamps were sold exclusively at the exhibition. The set cost about US$8 at the time, but now, only one year later, sells for over US$150. That is hardly enough to retire on, but consider the "Treskilling Yellow," a single rare Swedish postage stamp dating from 1855, which recently fetched US$2.3 million at auction. As with so much collecting, there is a whiff of the lottery about all this. What does the average-but-intelligent philatelist look for?
"For collectors anywhere in the world, their main interest is almost always the philatelic history of their home country," says Christie's Neill Granger. "Outside of that, almost everything is a fashion, and fashions come and go, don't they? Issues from a small country somewhere, for example the Pitcairn Islands, might catch a collector's eye. He might think: 'Oh, these are interesting, it might be fun to collect these.' Then he starts pursuing them when and where he can, more people start to take notice, and prices start to rise. But the stamps might be hard to find, may have limited historical value, or there may not be that many to collect. For whatever reason, interest eventually dwindles as soon as something else catches the collector's imagination."
So just what is the latest fashion? "For the last few years, Hong Kong stamps have been the hot item, and that's because of the territory's impending return to Chinese sovereignty," says one US dealer. "But now the handover is so close that the market for Hong Kong stamps has become rather volatile, so a lot of people are holding back and trying not get burned by speculation." Anything else? "Macau has really taken off this year, for the same reason that Hong Kong did a few years back," he adds. "The handover is only about two years away. So Portuguese Macau stamps are becoming pretty popular." Will these stamps hold their value after the handover? "For Hong Kong, I think this speculation and rapid maturing of new issues will continue to expand apace, for at least one year after the handover, perhaps two," says Christie's Granger. "Then I think it will just collapse."
It is tempting to conclude that in philately, everyone is at the mercy of fashion. Is there such a thing as a perennial stamp, one that holds its value come what may? Collecting habits in Taiwan suggest that there may be. "We sell a lot of Republic of China and PRC issues," says one local dealer. "People like the contrast they give to a collection, especially when they can match up issues from the same period on either side of the Strait." Is that all? "Well, it depends on the collector. The most popular things in Taiwan are the inexpensive but attractive issues featuring Chinese artworks like traditional ink paintings. In absolute numbers, that's where the market is strongest, especially among young collectors."
But older, more serious collectors have their favorites too. "Around the world, stamps from China are enormously popular," says Simon Andrews of the London-based Cecil Court Stamp Shop. "That includes the nineteenth century large and small dragon issues [China's first postage stamps, issued in 1878], and Communist China issues from the 1960s."
One way of defining what is popular, of course, is by how much "further tax" (to borrow from Georges Herpin's term) collectors are willing to pay in order to obtain a particular stamp. At recent auctions conducted in Hong Kong by international auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's, both well attended by Hong Kong and Taiwan buyers, the strength of the local philatelic market was tested--and demonstrated. At each auction, nearly every lot sold. Combined sales exceeded US$6 million. The most expensive individual item was sold at Sotheby's, where a strip of three 1897 Chinese red revenue surcharge stamps went for more than US$280,000 to a Taiwanese collector.
How should the aspiring philatelist go about compiling a collection? The only needful things are a pair of stamp tongs (they make it easier to handle the stamps, especially if they're gummed), a magnifying glass, and a stamp album. Then a decision must be made about what to collect. Thematic stamp collecting is the most popular strategy, focusing on a particular country and its issues dealing with specific topics such as historic personages, sports, birds, or whatever. It's all pretty inexpensive unless rarities are involved.
Often what makes a stamp rare is that of all those ever issued, few have survived to the present day. This is often true of items dating back to the nineteenth century, when postage stamps were first invented. Then again, very few stamps in a particular issue may have ever been printed or sold. But perhaps the most valuable items are stamps that have significant errors, such as Sun Yat-sen inverts. In the 1930's, the Republic of China issued stamps commemorating Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), the father of modern China. The stamps featured his likeness, but a very small number were mistakenly printed with an upside down image of Sun Yat-sen. An unused block of ten such stamps sold at a 1994 Hong Kong auction for nearly US$150,000.
Rarities are almost always valuable, irrespective of their condition. But when it comes to mere collectibles, not just any stamp will do. "One thing new collectors often overlook is the quality, or appearance of stamps," says Taiwan collector Liao Ying-ming, who sums up how most philatelists feel about their hobby. "It takes time for collectors to find their individual preferences," he goes on. "I've been collecting for twenty years, and I love all my stamps. I have enough to open my own store, but I didn't get into stamp collecting in order to start a business, nor do I collect for investment. I just love this hobby, and I really like getting other people involved in stamp collecting. New collectors should remember that it's important to focus on a topic, to try to collect stamps in good condition only, and most of all to take good care of your collection." Excellent advice. One day it might pay for your retirement, or your children's.