"A young lady, being desirous of covering her dressing room with cancelled postage stamps, has been so far encouraged in her wish by private friends as to have succeeded in collecting 16,000. These, however, being insufficient, she will be greatly obliged if any good-natured person who may have these (otherwise useless) little articles at their disposal would assist her in her whimsical project." So read an advertisement in the London Times in 1841, just one year after the first postage stamp was issued. And that was the beginning of stamp collecting. The craze spread rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. Small boys and millionaires, old ladies and speculators, forgers and swindlers--all were attracted to stamp collecting, some for fun and some for profit. Huge sums of money changed hands as the value of rarities became known, and a lucky find could make a fortune for even the most modest collector. Fortunes could be lost too, however, for there were many skillful forgeries, and few collectors managed to avoid purchasing one or two fakes. The lure of stamp collecting still attracts millions of enthusiasts, for whom the excitement of the hunt for rarities and the fascination of the stamps themselves provide an irresistible challenge. All this, plus the stories of famous auctions and notable collectors like F.D.R. and King George V of England, make this book an engrossing panorama of a fascinating occupation.--From publisher description.