MOST of us just lick them and pop them on a letter - but one man’s collection of stamps is going under the auctioneers gavel next month.

The Charterhouse sale of stamps, coins, militaria and collector’s items takes place on December 2 and 3.

“Our specialist stamps sales remain hugely popular with demand high among collectors,” said Richard Bromell, of Charterhouse.

“Having had an interest in stamps for nearly 50 years there are many collectors such as myself who pursue this interest.

"However, the majority of us are over 50 and not under who get out our tweezers to look at the stamps!”

Somerset County Gazette: QE II Stamps

The stamp owner has sadly taken the decision to auction his collection due to ill health.

The collection focusses on the stamps produced by The Royal Mail from the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and has taken decades to amass.

While many think of collectors buying old stamps, this collector focused on the modern commemoratives printed from Christmas to cartoon stamps.

There are thousands of stamps beautifully mounted in 70 stock books and albums all with hand written notes.

These annotations include the Stanley Gibbons stamp numbers, issue dates, stamp values and colour variations which took hours to produce.

All the stamps, which includes miniature sheets, blocks, gutter pairs, Smilers, prestige books, presentation packs, panes, booklets and single stamps, are in mint condition and the collection estimated to sell for thousands of pounds in the Charterhouse auction.

Charterhouse is accepting further entries for this auctions of stamps, coins, medals, and collectors’ items in December, followed by pictures and books in January, a special auction of automobilia also in January and their next specialist auctions of classic and vintage cars and motorcycles in March at the prestigious Haynes International Motor Museum.

Contact Charterhouse at The Long Street Salerooms, Sherborne, on 01935 812277, by email to info@charterhouse-auction.com or via www.charterhouse-auction.com.

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