It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with estimates of the number of collectors ranging up to 20 million in the United States alone.

Stamp collecting and philately(the study of stamps) are different things.
Many study stamps without actually collecting them.
Those that collect stamps if they are serious about it they will require some philatelic knowledge.

The 1st postage stamp "The Penny Black" picturing Queen Victoria was issued in Britain in 1840.
It was unique in that it didn't have perorations so it had to be cut from the sheet with scissors.
Unused Penny Blacks are rare and worth allot of money.


Other stamps worth something are souvenir sheets from popular countries, hard to find plate number coils and errors in printing.
Some stamps such as the triangular issues of the Cape of Good Hope became legendary.
If you want to learn more about these go to: History

Other famous stamps are: the Treskilling Yellow, British Guiana 1c magenta, the Inverted Jenny and Mauritius "post Office" stamps.
Another stamp of interest is the 1-cent Z grill stamp: there are only 2 in existence.
1 of them is in a collection of the New York public library, the other belongs to a private collector.


How to start:

Ask your family and friends to save stamps from their mail. You may feel these are mundane and uninteresting but there are a variety of colors, watermarks, paper differences, perforations and printing errors to look out for.
Many stamp dealers sell their merchandise over the Internet, so you can buy some packages of interesting stamps.
Others have neighbourhood stamp shops, one of the best resources for beginning and intermediate collectors.

Take a look at: Speciality Stamps UK and Speciality Stamps USA for great priced stamps to get you started.