How to Identify Belgian Postage Stamps
As is true for any collection, identifying postage stamps from Belgium teaches more than is apparent at first glance. Postage stamps provide small windows into a country's history and culture, especially in a country with a long history and complex heritage. Belgian stamps offer glimpses of a long-maintained dual culture (both French and Walloon), participation in two World Wars (including phases of enemy occupation), time as a colonial power and long-standing concern with citizen welfare before the establishment of modern social programs.
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Things You'll Need
- Stamps
- Magnifying glass (optional)
- Online or print postage stamp identification manuals
- Books about Belgian history and culture (optional)
Instructions
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Look first at the stamp's wording. Most Belgian postage stamps display the country's name, written in both the Walloon and Belgian French languages ("Belge, Belgique"). There are two exceptions to this labeling. Stamps issued during the occupation of Belgium during World War I are actually German Imperial stamps, overprinted with the word "Belgien." Also, in the late 1960s, Belgium, like a number of other countries, attempted to defray the costs of reprinting stamps with rising postage by creating a "forever" stamp (with no printed value). Like the American Liberty Bell "forever" stamp, it lacks both a monetary amount and the country's name.
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Compare your possible Belgian stamps with those in recognized catalogs. Scott's, one of the most well-known and comprehensive, can be found at your public library or may be purchased. Online sites (two are listed in the references) display numerous stamps for comparison with those you possess or completion of your collection. The sites listed display stamps; others may list only verbal descriptions. Online sites display stamps they have for sale.
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Explore distinctive features of your stamps at more general philately information sites. The glossaries offered at "Ask Phil" and the International Society of Worldwide Stamp Collectors offer a wide variety of information about stamps from all over the world.
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Take advantage of question-and-answer collection sites to obtain further information about your stamps. No question is minor to an absorbed collector, and flimsy paper postage stamps are a remarkable record of the past. As with many kinds of collections, some sites focus only on the possible monetary worth of your stamps; avoid them unless you want to sell stamps rather than learn about them.
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Use your stamps as a springboard into history. Belgian stamps reflect a longstanding concern with tuberculosis and the Red Cross. Long membership in the Kingdom of the Netherlands shows in architecture portrayed on stamps. As is the case in many colonial situations, Belgian stamps showed the beauty of the African countries under their rule; historical accounts, however, told ugly and violent stories, repeated in fiction from "Heart of Darkness" to "Apocalypse Now."
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Tips & Warnings
Purchase a printed or blank album to store your stamps properly. Especially if you are a beginning collector, keep track of your stamps. As you find out more about them, their personal and possibly their monetary value will increase.
Do not mail your stamps to anyone for valuation or identification; send photos instead. While most collectors are scrupulously honest, exercise prudence in letting go of your stamps.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit stamps image by The Blowfish Inc from Fotolia.com
