Wai Wor Phoon, M.D.,
     1292 Farm Lane,
     Berwyn, PA 19312.
     December 17, 2001.

Cheung Yuk Leung asked me to write something on my stamp collecting for the class news.

I did not become serious in the hobby until 1976. Prior to that, I had a small collection of British Commonwealth handed down by my father who bought a stamp filled British Commonnwealth album fran a junk store on Hollywood Road for five dollars Japanese Yen during the WWII.

After I arrived in Philadelphia in 1969, a neighbor of mine introduced me to Dr. Howard Baker who was an active member of the Philadelphia China Stamp Society.  He brought me to the monthly meeting & eventually I became a regular member.  Two of the members, Bernard Stolov & Julius Tolson were nationally known in their respective fields in Chinese philately. I gradually learned from them much about the hobby. At first, I would purchase odd stamps or sets from them. Later on when both of them decided to retire from their work & hobby, I bought albums after albums of stuff, stamps & covers from them.

Despite these stamps & covers have been in their possession & scrutiny for so many years, I began to discover new findings, like variations in the original printing, overprints, sizes & colors etc. As that aroused my interest, I became even more serious in the hobby.  I started taking part in auctions, either in person or by mail.

My major interest now is covers mailed from train post offices. Back when China started to build railroads around the turn of the 20th century, all the projects were financed by foreign countries. The revenue generated from the railroads was collected by the lenders. Post offices were set up in special cars. When a piece of mail was sent out from the train, a special canceling chop was stamped, stating on which train the letter was mailed. Sometimes one can see two different chops indicating two railways the letter was traveling on.

If you wish to venture into stamp collecting, I would like to recommend the following:
1. Get some books fran the library or stamp shops on stamp collecting.
2. Subscribe to a philately journal.
3. Join a collectors club.
4. Do not rush to buy stamps right away, until you have learned the basics about collecting, best from the members of a collectors club.
5. Sit in auctions.
 
 


     Wai Wor Phoon, M.D.