Philately specialist Bernard Laurent was in Chartres on Saturday April 27 to value stamps and other postal items kept by amateur collectors free of charge.
Whether they are lying around at the bottom of the attic or whether they come from an inheritance, stamps and philatelic documents all passed under the expert eye of Bernard Laurent, specialist in philately based in Paris, Saturday April 27, at the Serpente café, in Chartres. Free assessments by appointment, which attracted several dozen curious people.
Have your stamp collection assessed by an expert on Saturday in Chartres
Just like twenty-five other people, two people from Chartres are trying it. Under his arm, several briefcases filled with philatelic relics. And hope. Stamps, but also and above all first day envelopes. “These are philatelic envelopes which “cause an event” and created a souvenir at the time. They bear the cancellation of the city where they were issued, in connection with the illustration of the stamp”, explains Bernard Laurent , also a member of the French Trade Union Chamber of Philatelic Dealers and Experts.
“Unfortunately, these are documents that were trendy in the 70s and 80s, but today, in France, collectors are looking for much rarer and more sophisticated things.”
Bernard Laurent (empty)
“Discuss and provide information”
For the loot brought by the two Chartraines, Bernard Laurent sets his price. “€100, but it’s more to be of service to you than anything else.” After a phone call to her husband, the collector retracts her statement. “I’ll think about it again, but it’s good, it at least gives me an idea of what it might be worth.”
The Philatelic Society of Perche is organizing its 37th collections fair this Sunday, April 28
And that’s the whole point of such a day, according to Bernard Laurent: “In people’s minds, the stamp is always associated with a question of money and they have the impression that by keeping a stamp on his mail, it is necessarily worth something”, explains the philatelist.
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The stamp has no longer had a liberating value since the 80s and it is a message that can sometimes be difficult to convey to people, so it is always interesting to discuss with them, to inform them and to support them so that ‘they know what they have at home.
Especially since beyond the possible monetary value of the object, the stamp is above all a tangible witness to an entire life. “In a collection, we can find the story of an entire life, it is a very transparent object: we can know where the person lived, if they had served in the army…”, lists Sarah Pelletier, sales administrator for the Rossini auction house, in Paris, and organizer of the day.
“The grandpa who sticks in a binder”
To several of the curious visitors of the day, Bernard Laurent advises to keep their treasures in order to “give a young person around you the desire to collect them”. This for a simple reason, according to the expert and dealer in stamps and philatelic documents. “Today, people collect differently. There are around 80,000 “professional” collectors in France, if we base ourselves on the number of subscriptions to La Poste broadcasts,” he says.
The stamps still travel to Chartres with the Philatelic Circle
“Most of them are more oriented towards postal history and all the historical value that the stamp can induce, but you should know that today, at all levels and at all levels, it is possible to do interesting things. Philately has much less of the dusty image of grandpa sticking in his binder…”
Practical. Given the success of this day, a second session could be organized, still at the Serpente café, in Chartres, on May 11.
Laura Alliche
