Postage Stamps and Digital Philately of Europe Countries

Abstract

‘Postage stamps’, basically as a token for payment of postal taxes, are now being recognized as an  information source and historical document in recording national achievements that visually convey  four core elements: denomination, country name, graphical design, and the textual element. They are a  valuable means of communication easily available anywhere to anybody. Realizing them as source of  extra revenue, commemorative stamps are made available over time. The information technology (IT)  wave changed the hobby of stamp collection to Digital Philately, while information and communication  technology (ICT) developments accelerated the hobby further to Virtual Philately. This paper focuses  on the aspects of digital and virtual philately. This study aims to evaluate The World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) Numbering System (WNS) database, which provides free  access to authentic postage stamps issued by (Europe Countries) member countries and territories. A  total of 30460 stamps with Top ten themes were found registered by Top ten countries the highest  number of countries, Belgium2631 (8.638%), was observed to be the most popular theme at Architecture (Classical)960 (3.152%), For Europe Digital stamps, The paper also presents a detailed  analysis of the 30460Europe Continent stamps commemorating.