The Philatelic Exhibition
The National Philatelic Collection, held at the British Library, contains more than 8 million items, and includes postage stamps, railway letter stamps, telegraph stamps, airmails, metal dies and plates and philatelic literature.
Discover some of the rarest and most significant stamps from one of the world’s greatest collections.
The Philatelic Exhibition of 80,000 items on the upper ground floor offers a unique opportunity to see many great rarities.
Currently on display are:
- Banknotes from the Crown Agents Philatelic & Security Printing Archive
- The Tapling Collection World to 1890; exhibited are countries A-M (Mauritius) on 2,000 pages (countries M (Mexico) -Z are available to researchers by appointment)
- The Mosely Collection of British Africa to 1935
- The Bojanowicz Collection of Poland 1939 – 1946 stamps and postal history
- The Model Collection of Germany 1945 – 1946 local provisional stamps
- The Harrison Collection of die proofs 1911 -1937, engraved by J.A.C. Harrison
- The Davies Collection of Libyan revenue stamps 1955 – 1969
- The Fitz Gerald Collection of World Airmails to the 1930s (selected pages)
- The Bailey Collection of Spanish Civil War stamps and postal history 1936 – 1939 (selected pages)
- The Turner Collection of Great Britain and Ireland Railway Letter Stamps 1891 – 1940 (selected pages)
- The Langmead Collection of Great Britain and Ireland Telegraph stamps, 1851 – 1881