The Swiss Association for Postal History, SVPg for short, came into being only in 1974 through the merger of two specialist associations, the Swiss Special Collectors Association (SSSV) and the Swiss Old Letter Collectors Association (SAV), which had already been founded in 1924 and 1935 respectively.
The interest in postal history in the broadest sense unites the almost 200 members of our association from Switzerland and abroad. Among the members are interested and experienced collectors and specialists in various fields of collecting from whose knowledge the other members can benefit.
The interests of our members lie primarily in the following major areas:
- The postal rates at home and abroad.
- The routing of mail, its provenance and destination, the sometimes complex agreements that were necessary especially in international postal traffic.
- The various forms of mail, from the ordinary letter to the international reply postcard.
- The stamps and dispatch notes that were affixed to a postal item to ensure its dispatch and forwarding as well as its correct accounting.
- Social Philately, which goes beyond the actual postal item and its dispatch and sees the letter as a contemporary document for the classification of historical and social developments.
These diverse and complex areas of interest can usually only be dealt with through the cooperation of several collectors. The aims and purposes of our association are therefore as follows:
- The promotion of collecting through the regular exchange of information.
- The research of old and new postal history in working groups.
- The fight against forgeries and unlawful machinations.
- The contact to foreign special collectors' associations for postal history.
What does our association offer in return?
- A specialist journal published four times a year with articles and information from our members on topics of old and new postal history.
- An up-to-date website that not only bundles the knowledge we have acquired so far and presents it in an easily accessible way, but is also the first port of call when it comes to the future activities of our association and beyond.
- Annual training seminar for exhibitors.
- Regional meetings with lectures.
- Joint visits to exhibitions at home and abroad.
- A broadcasting service for postal history documents from pre-philately to more recent times (due to customs problems only within Switzerland).
- Subscription to the "Schweizer Briefmarkenzeitung SBZ" (Swiss Stamp Newspaper), with specialist articles, references to events, book reviews, etc.
- All the benefits of the Federation of Swiss Philatelic Societies and, of course, contacts, contacts and more contacts among like-minded people.
So if you are interested in postal history topics and want to get further than a lone wolf can, you should seriously consider membership in the Swiss Postal History Association.