I found my first fossil when I was 12-13 years old, in the mid-1980s. It was a tooth of a prehistoric fish in a piece of stone. I took it to the Natural History Museum where an employee explained to me what I had found. It was astonishing, because in Lviv, the Ukrainian city, where I grew up, there was no sea or even a river. Prehistoric creatures began to occupy my imagination. I began to study them, collecting fossils and stamps on the theme. After some time, I had quite a few fossils of ammonites, belemnites, petrified wood and teeth of prehistoric fishes and I dreamt of being a paleontologist.
Shortly after I finished school, my family moved from Ukraine to Israel. My life changed. Adaptating to a new country, studying new language (Hebrew is totally different from Russian), and completing a study in Electronic and Computer since (not paleontology). Marriage and the start of career left no time for a hobby, but I kept my interest in paleontology since and try to follow it.
At the end of 2001, I accepted an offer from a German company and moved to Munich, where I live till now. In 2010, sorting out some old books and photos, I found my stamp album. I leafed through the pages, and it lured me in again. By looking at the Internet I found a lot of dinosaur stamps and other kinds of prehistoric animals, fossils, and paleontologists on stamps. I was really surprised by the number of stamps issued since 1990 (where I stopped collecting stamps). Almost every country in the world issued a few, some countries even many, stamp sets in this theme.
Mr. Kogan's interview for "STAMP" magazine in April 2014 |
Mr. Kogan (on the right side) receives a prise for "Topical Times" magazine on behalf of American Topical Association (ATA), in Sindelfingen, Germany in 2016. |
I restarted my collection again. I collect any kind of philatelic item which is
related to paleontology.
I collect not only mint (clean) stamps and FDC (First Day Covers), but also nice
postally used covers with stamps or postmarks related to the theme.
Just to fill out albums with stamps and covers is boring to me.
I always try to study the stories behind them and find out as much information
as possible about every new purchase.
I treat my collection as a "Museum in an Album" and only add items
with interesting background stories.
I don't try to purchase every stamp related to the theme, but instead only the stamps that interest me.
I avoid collecting stamps that are issued by some countries without any background,
with the only purpose to separate collectors from money.
Once I restarted my collection, I tried to find some catalogue or a website that list all Paleontology related stamps and postmarks. The only printed catalogue I found, was a Domphil from 2002. A good catalogue, but many new stamps have been printed since its last issue. The handful of thematic websites I found on the internet, provided very basic informati on such as: title, date of issue and catalogue number. Some had only small images of the samples or others none at all. The lack of images or the small size made it difficult to identify specific stamps in my collection. Moreover, none of the websites provided more detail on the prehistoric animal portrayed or on the background of the issue itself.
To fill out the gap and to be able to share the information with other collectors, Paleophilatelie website was created in October 2011.
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Collectors who share the same interest are very welcome to join my Facebook-Group
"Paleophilately",
follow me on
Twitter or contact me by
email.
You can find me under the nickname "PaleoPhilatelist" on the following philatelic sites:
Colnet,
and many
international forums.
I also have a small store on
Delcampe,
where I sale some duplicates and outlets of my collection.
Michael Kogan, also known as Paleophilatelist, December 02, 2023, Munich Germany