In January, at Nasik, he won a gold and bronze medal at the Jaipur Philately at Mahapex 2016. This was a great milestone in Dr Bernard F Rodrigues’ journey as a philatelist, a stamp collector. Dr Bernard has been a teacher for the past 25 years, and this 53-year-old nurtures a 32-year-old hobby of collecting stamps, boasting that he has cupboards full of rare postal stamps in his personal collection.
Happy with his low profile status, Dr Bernard who is the professor and head of the Department of Botany at Goa University, speaks with passion about hobby of collecting stamps. “Philately gives me immense satisfaction. It’s really very relaxing. I often lose track of time and forget the day-to-day troubles of life when I am with my stamps. They take me to a whole new world,” admits Dr Bernard who also won a gold medal in senior category in Goapex-2014, which was organised by the postmaster general.
Though Dr Bernard has been collecting stamps for three decades (since 1984) it was only in 2014 that he participated in an exhibition and won an award. “It made me confident that I could participate at the state level. Then in January I participated in Mahapex 2016 where I bagged two medals. This success gives me the opportunity to participate at the National level,” he says.
“My fatherhad around 300 stamps stored in a closely guarded tin box and he never ever allowed anyone to even touch it. Out of curiosity one day, I opened it. I washed the crumped stamps, dried and arranged them neatly in a notebook. When dad saw this, he was amused and amazed. He then offered to help him in collecting stamps. Later at a point, he lost interest and so I decided to take his hobby to the next level,” recollects Dr Bernard.
Dr Bernard’s largest collection is from India. He has most Indian stamps, except the Gandhi Service stamps released in 1948-49. He has some fake stamps too and some which are printed with errors (and withdrawn later) which are rare and very expensive. As the years pass on, the value of the stamps increases. What would be the face value of his collection? “This is one thing which I have never done,” he replies with a smile, adding, “Before dealing with such expensive stamps one has to authenticate it from the agencies “ philately societies.” Dr Bernard has stamps from British India, Portuguese India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Finland, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Japan etc. His hobby and profession took him to countries like Iran, Belgium, Morocco, Israel, Spain and Germany.
Collecting information from the catalogues, exchanging it with like-minded friends and attending meets of Goa Stamps and Numismatic Society on every second Sunday of the month is routine for this studious professor who admits having a tough time balancing his profession and his hobby.
Teaching at the PG level and guiding students for doctorate degree, Dr Bernard’s main area of interest is Arbuscular Mycorrhizal research where he is working on the diversity, culturing and inoculums production involving in vitro cultivation of these fungi with an objective to develop commercial scale AM biofertilizers. “My other areas of research include plant tissue culture and documentation of medicinal plants and I can devote only Sundays and holidays to my hobby. I am not too well organised in arranging my stamps, however I intend to do so after my retirement,” he states.
It is true that the rare and unique stamps especially the mint stamps require proper handling. “I use plastic covers and boxes to keep them so that do are not damaged. Again, I do not open them in the monsoon season. True, it takes lot of your time but philately is simply fun. So enjoy collecting stamps and make new friends,” he advises budding philatelists including his own daughter Rhea.
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Box 2
About Philately
Philately is the study of stamps and postal history. It involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. Traditional philately is the study of the technical aspects of stamp production and stamp identification, including: the stamp design process, the paper used (wove, laid, etc., and including watermarks), the method of printing (engraving, typography, etc.), the gum, the method of separation (perforation, rouletting), any overprints on the stamp, any security markings, underprints or perforated initials (‘perfins’) and the study of philatelic fakes and forgeries. Thematic philately (also known as topical philately) is the study of what is depicted on the stamps (such as birds, insects, poets, presidents, kings, monarchs, maps sports etc)
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Box 3 (if space permits)
Stamps: How precious and expensive are they?
There have been many stamps which are precious. Some of them include the Cape of Good Hope which was issued in 1853, which today is worth US$40,000, the Red Revenue Small One Dollar Surcharge was the first surcharged stamp during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1911) is worth US$333,382, Canada's 12 Pence Black issued in 1851 and features a portrait of the youthful Queen Victoria is worth US$488,900, Olive-coloured Queen Victoria's Head, printed in 1864, is the most expensive historical postage stamp of Hong Kong that is worth US$824,648. Post Office Mauritius is an error postal stamp issued in Mauritius is worth US$1.67 million. The inverted 24-cent Jenny stamp issued by USA in 1918 is worth US$3 million. Britain’s 1840 issued Penny Black is worth US$5 million. The Treskilling Yellow, a Swedish postage stamp is worth US$3.14 million and the list goes on
