The 18th GCC Postal Stamps Exhibition opened at the Red Sea Mall here on April 1. The event was inaugurated by the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Mohamed Jamil Bin Ahmed Mulla, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Postal Corporation, and Ahmed Al-Kurdi from the Saudi Arabian Philatelic Society. The exhibition, which ends on Thursday, has been held to provide information to visitors about stamp collecting and to raise awareness about the hobby. Collectors from the Kingdom, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, the UK, Yemen, Egypt and Pakistan are participating in the event. The exhibition serves as a central point for collectors to display their stamps, envelopes, postcards, currencies and rare documents. Abdullah Al-Wihaimir, director of the Postal Stamps Department at the Saudi Postal Corporation, said stamps have been issued within the Kingdom for a very long time and that they document important events within the country. A Qatari collector explained how he collects banknotes that are characterized with unique serial numbers. He added that he buys any type of currency that has a unique serial number and will pay whatever the price to include them in his collection. Muhammed Sabri, an Egyptian currency collector and dealer, said his collection includes banknotes dating back to 1917 and 1918 from King Farouk's era, and the first edition of banknotes from countries across the Arab world. “A philatelist will never sell something that he has collected until he has a similar one, or finds something more valuable to replace it,” he added. Aref Al-Hadidi, a Yemeni collector and dealer, has stamps dating as far back as 1937. He added that he has a rare stamp from 1993 and that the majority of his stamps are very rare, something that makes his collection priceless. The exhibition includes envelopes with caricatures done by professional artists and air-envelopes with unique images from various countries, including India. The Saudi Arabian Philatelic Society has organized the event for the first time after a decision made by the minister of culture and information to reform the management of the society. The exhibition is organized annually in a GCC member state on the sidelines of meetings of heads of postal corporations from Gulf countries and Yemen. __
