Originally posted by 35mmfilmfan What possible alternative recreation can there be for a retired English 'gentleman' than Philately. I collect GB pre-decimal (1840 to 1970), and over the years have managed to obtain good examples of almost every GB stamp issued within that period (except for the ones that go for silly amounts - what is the fun of spending £20,000 on a stamp which you have to keep in the dark in case the sunlight fades the colours?)
Many of these, however, have (for me) added interest due to variations in aspects of them - watermark variations, plate damage, plate identification markings, perforations, unissued 'Specimens' etc, for which a USB microscope is incredibly useful, rather than a 'Sherlock Holmes' hand-held magnifying glass, enabling me not only to locate the errors etc, but also to keep a permanent record, to print and add to the albums (currently 29 and rising !).
A wonderful hobby. I used to collect stamps when I was very young...6- 12 years old. I recall getting stamps from Osterreich (our neighbours were from Austria), Germany, the UK, USA, etc. The hobby drove me to become interested in countries of the world, whe I was a youngster. To this day, I have a consuming interest in geography and history, wheih I believe stemmed from my early interest in stamp collecting.
Your 1840-1970 collection would be fascinating to see.