At the British Library you can study stamps and postage material. We have millions of philatelic items covering every country and period. Our collection includes airmail envelopes, original artwork and printing plates.

Collection guides

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The Philatelic Reading Room in the British Library

Philatelic Reading Room

To explore our philatelic materials, please contact our Philatelic Reading Room and make an appointment.

If you can, try to contact us at least 10 days before you intend to visit. We'll ensure our experts are available to help you.

You'll need a Reader Pass. 

Email: philatelic@bl.uk

Tel: +44 (0)20 7412 7635

Blog posts

The World According to Monty Wedd: Philatelic Comics, Cartoons and Caricatures

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Philatelic comics, cartoons and caricatures comprise an important research resource in assessing public response to postage stamp design. Published globally from the nineteenth century to the present era, examples of this genre are in the thousands. Significant cartoonists, writers and...

Gre-nay-dah, not Gra-naah-da. That’s in Spain.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Suelin Low Chew Tung is an artist and writer and is based in Grenada; she was a 2020 British Library Eccles Visiting Fellow. My days as an Eccles Fellow at the British Library, from July to August 2022, were happily...

Black Women’s Activism in the Americas

Monday, August 8, 2022

The Eccles Centre recently hosted a one-day symposium on Black Women’s Activism in the Americas, in collaboration with the Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW). The day included a Show and Tell for the delegates, inspired...

Sailing Away To A Distant Land - Mahendra Mahey, Manager of BL Labs - final post

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Posted by Mahendra Mahey, former Manager of British Library Labs or "BL Labs" for short [estimated reading time of around 15 minutes] This is is my last day working as manager of BL Labs, and also my final posting on...

More blog posts

Related events

The Philatelic Exhibition permanent exhibition
Exhibition FREE

The Philatelic Exhibition

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Discover some of the rarest and most significant stamps from one of the world's greatest collections

View all events

Collection highlights

Cape of Good Hope: 1855-63 1 shilling bright yellow-green unused

Cape of Good Hope: 1855-63 one shilling bright yellow-green

1885-63

Penny Black stamp featuring a profile of Queen Victoria

The world's first postage stamp

1840

USA: Revenue 1765 Newspaper and Pamphlet One Penny. A proof sheet of 26, showing the registration certificate.

America: 1765 Tax stamps

1765

China: 1897 3 cents red revenue with 2 cents surcharge double, both inverted, unused. From the Murray Collection.

China: 1897 Red Revenue 3 cents with 2 cents surcharge double inverted

1897

Jamaica: 1956-58 £1 chocolate and violet, unissued

Jamaica: 1956-58 unissued £1

1956-58

Mauritius 1847 Post Office 1d. orange-red, used, on cover

Mauritius: 1847 Post Office 1d orange-red

1847

New South Wales: 1850 1d and 3d essays of the Sydney View issue

New South Wales: 1850 Sydney View essays

1850

St Helena: 1961 Tristan Relief Fund 5c.+6d., 7½c.+9d., and 10c.+1/-, used on a postcard

St Helena: 1961 Tristan Relief Fund

1961

Switzerland Basel 1847 2½ rappen ‘Basel Dove’ carmine, black and blue, an unused pair

Switzerland: 1847 Basel Dove 2½ rappen

1847

Library experts

Paul Skinner

Paul Skinner

Lead Curator, Philatelic Collections

Richard Morel

Richard Morel

Curator, Philatelic Collections

External links

The British Library is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

British Library Philatelic Collections

A Wikipedia category list of all our collections

Royal Philatelic Society, London

The oldest philatelic society in the world