Alphin Pieters keeping stamp collecting alive in New Plymouth

Few people write letters any more, with mail’s decline impacting the postal service, but there’s another group ruing its demise —stamp collectors.

Once as popular at school as social media, ‘stamp collecting’ is in danger of dying out.But there’s a staunch defender in New Plymouth, fighting to keep the hobby alive. Alphin Pieters is a lifelong stamp enthusiast, collecting more than 55,000 individual stamps.                                                                       The hobby, called philately, has kept Pieters enthralled for the last 65 years.

He started when he was eight while growing up in South Africa.

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Reporter Carolyn Robinson