Alfred Forbin

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Title page of the Forbin stamp catalog from 1931

Alfred J. Forbin (born February 13, 1872 in Paris ; † August 14, 1956 ) was a French stamp dealer who specialized in fiscal stamps and wrote a catalog of tax and stamp stamps issued worldwide, the third edition of which from 1915 is still not today is considered obsolete.

Life

Forbin was the eighth of twelve children and despite good performance had to leave school early for financial reasons. He became an employee of an export company that mainly had trade relations with Latin America. The exotic stamps on business correspondence justified his interest in philately. He began trading postage stamps in 1890 and opened a shop on Rue Drouot in Paris in 1900. Over the following years, he moved to 24 Rue de Milan , 80 Rue Saint-Lazare and 35 Rue de Berne .

In 1902, Théodore Champion became his employee. He was also closely associated with him privately; Champion was the best man at Forbin's wedding to Ann L'Hoste in 1897. After Champion bought his postage stamp business in 1904, Forbin specialized in fiscal stamps . In 1905 Forbin acquired the extensive collection of tax and stamp stamps from Dr. Jacques Legrand, one of the founders of philately in France. Forbin realized that Legrand's collection contained many previously unknown brands and made a plan to publish a catalog for fiscal brands from around the world.

The Catalog de Timbres-Fiscaux , first published in 1905, was the most comprehensive catalog of all fiscal stamps issued worldwide that had appeared up to then. The third and final edition from 1915 is still cited by fiscal philatelists today; since then no catalog has appeared that summarizes all the world's fiscal brands in a single work. Forbin continued to publish Le Bulletin Fiscaliste to publish new issues of fiscal stamps to update its catalog.

Forbin was since October 1904 a member of the Fiscal Philatelic Society and from 1912 to 1916 on its board.

In 1908 he sold a large part of his brand portfolio to Alexander B. Kay , the founder of the Fiscal Philatelic Society , for the then enormous sum of £ 1,000 .

After the First World War, Forbin turned to other collecting areas. Shortly after the end of the war, a catalog of the emergency money issues and provisional banknotes appeared in the territories occupied during the war. The Catalog des billets émis pendant la guerre had seven editions in just two years; the last edition from 1920 is also considered unsurpassed to this day.

In 1922 Forbin gave up his shop and concentrated on the wholesale of fiscal stamps, for which he contacted the tax authorities of various countries and bought brands directly from there. Correspondence preserved in the National Archives of Australia from 1925 to 1947 shows that Forbin was in contact with the Australian authorities for many years and purchased tax stamp issues from them.

Despite the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II, Forbin was able to continue trading, but was no longer able to raise the funds for a planned new edition of his catalog of fiscal stamps. Letters pictured in The Revenue Journal show that Forbin was still trading postage stamps in August 1955.

Publications (selection)

Forbins catalogs, like all early stamp catalogs, served primarily as sales catalogs and only secondarily as a guide and reference work for collectors. He published exclusively in French:

  • Timbres rares , Paris, 1895 (price list only)
  • Prix-courant de timbres, cartes, enveloppes et bandes postales de A. Forbin , 1898.
  • Prix-courant de timbres, cartes, enveloppes et bandes postales de A. Forbin et Co , 4th edition, 1900.
  • Catalog prix-courant de timbres-poste / Catalog general de timbres-poste , Yvert & Tellier , Amiens, 1902.
  • Catalog de Timbres-Fiscaux , Yvert & Tellier, Amiens. Three editions: 1905, 1909 and 1915. (Reprints of the 3rd edition 1980 and 1991)
  • Catalog Prix Courant de tous les Timbre Fiscaux emis dans le monde entier , ca.1910 .
  • Catalog entente cordiale Colonies Francaises & Anglaises / Prix courant de timbres-poste des Colonies Anglaises et Francaises , Paris, 1912.
  • Catalog des Timbres Fiscaux de France et Colonies . Three editions in 1925, 1931 and 1937.
  • Les Timbres Fiscaux d'Allemagne Part 1 Timbres jusqu'en 1939 , 1955.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joost Meijer: More Forbin ... Pioneer of Revenues. The Revenue Journal of Great Britain , Vol.XXIV, Issue 1, June 2013, pp. 11-14 and Vol.XXV, Issue 3, December 2014, pp. 66-67
  2. ^ A b c Brian Birch: Biographies of Philatelists and Dealers . 9th edition Standish, Wigan 2008, p. 540.
  3. ^ "On the History of Fiscal Stamp Collecting" by A. Preston Pearce, 1905, reprinted in The Revenue Journal of Great Britain , Vol.III, Issue 2, September 1992, pp. 29-33
  4. ↑ The Fiscal Philatelic Society in Morley's Philatelic Journal , Vol. 5, No. October 10, 1904, p. 79.
  5. ↑ KEVII-KGV Key Types 1902-1921 by Peter F. Mansfield in The Revenue Journal of Great Britain , Vol.XI, No. 2, September 2000, p. 55.
  6. ^ The Bulletin , The Fiscal Philatelic Society, No. November 16, 1912.
  7. ^ Joost Meijer: More Forbin ... Pioneer of Revenues. The Revenue Journal of Great Britain , Vol XXIV, Issue 1, June 2013, p. 13
  8. ↑ Joost Meijer: More Forbin ... continued. The Revenue Journal of Great Britain , Vol XXV, Issue 3, December 2014, p. 66
  9. ^ The Forbin file in the Australian National Archives by Dingle Smith in The Revenue Journal , Vol.XIX, No. 3rd, December 2008, pp. 120-121.
  10. ↑ A. Forbin cntd. in The Revenue Journal , Volume XIX, No. 4th March 2009, pp. 156-158.
personal data
SURNAME Forbin, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Forbin, Alfred J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French stamp dealer and catalog author
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH August 14, 1956