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Passion is the key to pursuing numismatics and philately as hobbies and enthusiasts from Qatar are showing the way
What is it that draws so many people into pursuing the hobby of collecting currency or stamps (or more formally numismatics and philately, respectively)? After all, this is serious pastime for many across the world. Qatar too has a major official body dedicated to these pastimes, the former Qatar Philatelic and Numismatic Club, which has recently been restructured as the Stamps and Coins Department of the Youth Hobbies Center.
Qatar Tribune spoke to Hussain Rajab al Ismail, a member of the Youth Hobbies Center's executive committee and the head of the center's Stamps and Coins Department, to understand the pull that attracts so many people to this hobby.
Ismail says he has been collecting coins and stamps for decades, eventually developing into a serious collector. He was one of the founders of the Qatar Philatelic and Numismatic Club, which was headed by HE Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali al Thani, with Ismail as vice president.
"I'm what you might call a veteran collector. I started humbly enough, collecting stamps, with a special interest in large format items such as those issued by the former Kingdom of Yemen, which existed until 1962. In those days, there were only two places where one could buy stamps in all of Qatar. My hobby became more serious once I went abroad to study in the US, where I was exposed to a new world of serious collectors and their impressive (and expensive!) collections," he narrates.
Ismail spells out passion as the key factor behind his hobby of stamp and currency collection. This is amply demonstrated by the fact that there are more than 240 active members of the center, both Qataris and residents. In addition, the center and its members actively participate with Qatar Post in designing new stamps.
"The Stamps and Coins Department of the Youth Hobbies Center has achieved a prominence on the regional level, and we were the first to propose gatherings of hobbyists on the level of the Gulf, of which to date there have been 22. We also participate in international gatherings in the US, Thailand and Taiwan, to name a few. In addition, we organise regular gatherings for local hobbyists, the most recent of which was this year's edition of our annual coins and stamps auction which we held in mid-June," he informs.
"We maintain a library stocked with important reference texts for stamp and coin collectors, and a permanent exhibition of some of the most notable items in our collection. To cite just a few examples, the Qatari and Dubai Riyal, which was in circulation from 1966-73, is nowadays one of the most valuable currencies for collectors anywhere in the world. Before Qatar had a postal system, letters were sent through Bahrain, but most of these were not successfully processed. In fact, we now know that only four letters were received, and we have one in our collection which is worth around US$200,000 to collectors."
The center exerts extensive efforts and is now renowned regionally and globally, bet there remain some challenges. Elaborating on some of these challenges, Ismail says,"We have a shortage in Qatar of literature on stamps, which is quite unfortunate. We hope that officials can support us in obtaining these texts, which are a must-have for serious collectors,"
"Two years ago, the formerly independent Qatar Philatelic and Numismatic Club was restructured as the Stamps and Coins Department of the Youth Hobbies Center, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, which is the new administrative structure for the club, along with the former Qatar Photographic Society, the Qatar Association for Homing Pigeons and the Qatar Amateur Radio Society. Needless to say, this resulted in some logistical headaches which we are still today working to resolve", he explains.
