How to use The Philatelist

New to The Philatelist? This page is a short tour of what you can do here: find stamps in the catalogue, keep track of the ones you own, learn more about collecting, set up your profile and find other collectors.

Find stamps in the catalogue

Stamps of India lists the stamps issued by independent India, from 1947 to today. To find what you are looking for:

Filter by kind of stamp, by theme, or by year or decade, using the filters on the left (the Filters button on a phone).
Search by name, catalogue number or year, from the search box on the catalogue or the one in the header.
Today in philatelic history shows the stamps issued on today’s date in earlier years.
Print this list gives you a clean, printable checklist of whatever you have filtered.

Open any stamp to see its picture (and first day cover, where we have one), its date of issue and denomination, and its Technical data: perforation, watermark, printer, printing process, colours and quantity printed where they are known, with its numbers in the Michel, Yvert et Tellier, Stanley Gibbons and Colnect catalogues.

The Stamps of India catalogue, with filters on the left, the search box, and stamp cards

Keep track of your collection

Once you are signed in, every stamp card has a tick box in its corner. Tick it to mark the stamp as one you own; tick it again to remove it. On a stamp’s own page, use Add to collection.

Everything you mark appears in My account → My collection, so you always have a list of what you own. Filtering the catalogue to a year or a theme and comparing it with your ticks is a quick way to see what you are still missing.

Browse by theme

Themes groups the stamps by subject — birds, railways, freedom fighters, festivals and hundreds more. Search for a subject at the top, or browse the A–Z list, and open a theme to see every stamp on it in date order. Themes are the easiest way to start a thematic collection.

Learn about collecting

The Learn section has something for every stage:

Start here — eight short lessons for beginners, in order: what to collect, handling and storage, reading a catalogue entry, judging condition, buying safely and more.
Guides — longer, practical pieces on the decisions that cost money: buying, selling, spotting fakes, looking after a collection, exhibiting.
Short stories — the people and accidents behind the post.
Blog — articles and notes from the archive.
Glossary — every collecting term, explained in plain words. Terms in the articles link to it.

Your account

Use Create account in the header to join, with your email address or your Google account. A short setup follows, in three steps: who you are and where you collect from, what you collect, and how you would like to be involved — open to swaps, happy to help beginners, or both. It takes about a minute, and you can change any of it later.

The account setup page, confirming the profile is complete

After that, the menu under your photo in the header takes you to My account, which has these tabs:

Overview — a summary of your account, and a reminder if your profile isn’t finished.
My collection — the stamps you have marked as owned.
Orders — your shop orders and where they are.
Addresses — your billing and shipping addresses, filled in for you at checkout.
My profile — what other collectors see about you (more below).
Settings — change your password, choose which emails you get, or close your account.

Your collector profile

Your profile is how other collectors get to know you. On My profile you can add a photo, your city (pick it on the map), the year you started collecting, a line about yourself, what you collect, the societies you belong to, exhibitions and awards, the languages you speak and your time zone.

Each collector’s card in the directory shows how complete their profile is. Five things count, 20% each: your city, a line about yourself, what you collect, a profile photo, and whether you are open to swaps or happy to help. The bottom of My profile shows which ones you have done. Use See my public profile to check how it looks to others, and share its link with anyone you like.

Find other collectors

Community shows collectors across India on a map, and lists everyone in a directory below it. Search the directory by name or city, and open a card to see that collector’s profile: where they are, what they collect, their local time and how they like to be involved.

The Philatelist doesn’t hold money, check stamps or settle disputes. If you arrange a swap with another collector, agree the details in writing first, send by tracked post both ways, and photograph what you send. If something on a profile looks wrong, use Report this profile.

The shop

The shop sells collecting supplies and philatelic items. Add things to your cart from the shop or a product page, then check out; your addresses are filled in from your account. You can follow every order under My account → Orders.

The Philatelist is kept by collectors. If you know something other collectors should — a story, a guide, a correction to the catalogue — use Share your knowledge to send it to the editors. Spotted a wrong date or a missing detail on a stamp? Report a mistake in the footer opens the same form, ready for a correction.

Questions this page doesn’t answer? Contact us and we will get back to you.