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Philatelic meet held to revive hobby

Over 200 collectors and dealers attended conference in city on Sunday
Chennai: With an aim at reviving the stamp collecting hobby, South India Philatelists' Association (SIPA) organised the first philatelic exchange meet in Chennai on Sunday with over 200 philatelists and dealers attending.
Mahesh B.Parekh, governing committee member of SIPA, said the association had felt for a long time the need for a platform for collectors and dealers to come together under one roof, which led to the first philatelic exchange meet.
“Looking at the number of people who attended the meet today we have decided to conduct this event once in every two months. This meeting will also help us attract more people,
especially children to philately, as they will see lots of different varieties of stamps when they come with their parents. We are also trying to revive the hobby through this initiative,” he said.
S. Aravamuthan, a professional philatelist and numismatist (coin collector) recalled that in the past, several philatelists collected penny black stamps and themes like
elephants, but today they prefer subjects like space, astronomy, besides
different shapes of stamp.
“Youngsters lack awareness about stamp collection, so we have now started increasing the awareness level among them,” he said. Pointing out that selling stamps on e-commerce portals like e-bay had never been a threat to their business, A.V.G. Rajulu, stamps and coins dealer for over three decades said that he saw an increase in number of philatelists, especially youngsters, in the recent past.
“With the events like these we are able to attract more youngsters as they accompany elders and also get to know more about the hobby,” he said. Raising concern about the lack of used stamps for collectors, Rajulu said that several corporates and those who post letters in bulk today use franking machines, which print the postage amount on the covers eliminating the use of stamps.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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