Interphil

The Federation International de Philatelie sponsors an international stamp show once a year where all of the winners of scores of national stamp competitions compete for the international grand prize. Every ten years the exhibition is held in the United States and in 1976, the first year that I was working full time in the stamp business, the exhibition was held in Philadelphia. It was held in the old Philadelphia Convention center in West Philadelphia near where I had just graduated college, so it was literally within walking distance of my apartment. Hundreds of the world’s best collections were in competition and there were hundreds of dealers with booths and tens of thousands of visitors. The exhibits and the noncompetitive court of honor contained all of the greatest rarities from the British Guiana (whose owner theatrically arrived with the stamp handcuffed to his wrist) to many Airmail inverts. And the collections in the competition were the world’s best and most valuable. I’ve always had a problem with competitive stamp show judging. How do you compare a collection of say Afghanistan (which won the Grand Prix that year) with a collection of US locals. The goal is for the winner to be the best collection of its type, which is a far easier thing to imagine in the abstract than to effect in reality. Years ago I was asked to judge a second grade stamp show at my daughters’ school where the kids had made exhibits that were used to teach reading and geography. Some kids had plate blocks or first day covers but there was one little girl who I think got it right -her collection was entitled “Stamps I Like”. May we all be so lucky in our hobby.