Postage Stamps and Digital Philately of North America

Abstract

‘Postage stamps’, basically as a token for payment of postal taxes, are now being recognized as an information source and historical document in recording national achievements that visually convey four core elements: denomination, country name, graphical design, and the textual element. They are a valuable means of communication easily available anywhere to anybody. Realizing them as source of extra revenue, commemorative stamps are made available over time. The information technology (IT) wave changed the hobby of stamps collection to Digital Philately, while information and communication technology (ICT) developments accelerated the hobby further to Virtual Philately. This study focuses on the aspects of digital and virtual philately. This study aims to evaluate The World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) Numbering System (WNS) database, which provides free access to authentic postage stamps issued by (North America Continent) member countries and territories. A total of 5491 stamps with 45 themes were found registered by 13 countries the highest number of countries, United States of America 1708(31.11), was observed to be the most popular theme at Fauna590 (10.74%), For North America stamps. This study also presents a detailed analysis of the 5491 North America Continent stamps.