Philately/Preface

Stamp collecting came first and eventually evolved into the study of the Movements of Mails, including technical, infrastructural and historical aspect of the mail management. The holistic approach to this is called philately. Though, micro segments of the hobby have their different nomenclature too, like collecting stamps is called Stamp Collecting, collecting postmarks is called Markophily and study & collection of items related to management and movements of mails of mails is called Postal History and so on.

The word " Philately" " phila " comes from the Greek, meaning "love"; while " atelia " means " without costs". {citation needed} Philately, actually was started from collecting the used stamps affixed on the letters received by the people. These stamps did not cost anything as these were available free on received mails. Hence, collecting these stamps was "Love Without Costs".