Philately is a study of of any area related to the postal system. Stamp collecting is however only one part of Philately. Philately is study about the fake, rarety or quantity isued, howmany exist, price apraisal, category etc of postal object. There’s many object of philately such as First Day Cover, Miniatur Sheet, Souvenir Sheet, and the main core is stamp. All of them is issued by government authorities in a limited quantity. Couse of that, its became rarety for each day and being expensive. And collecting of them being popular. Most of philatelist are a collector, but a collector not exactly is a philatelist.
The coining of the word "philately" in its French form has been circumstantially attributed to Georges Herpin in the publication Le Collectionneur de timbres-postes, Vol. 1, November 15, 1864. It is formed from the Greek words philos (friend) and ateleia (exempt from charge, or "franked"), which is a stretch to relate to the study of stamps, but the alternatives of "timbrophily" & "timbrology" or "timbrologist" never caught on.
There’s many club of philately in every country, and for some times there an exhibition of philatelly by local, regional or international. A collector can sold their collection in an auction or in stamp market.
