Valeriy Yotov has been an APS member since 2021. He lives in Varna, Bulgaria and collects thematic stamps, mainly anything related to lighthouses, submarines, and the history of radio (see his collection on the history of radio here) and has won several medals for his exhibits "The History of Radio" and "The Postal Stone and Other Maritime Stories".
APS interviewed Valeriy to find out more about his stamp collecting background. (translated from Russian by Taisia Osipova).
How did you begin collecting stamps?
Even when I was 5 or 6 years old, my grandfather on my mothers side Hristo Dobrev Vlev-Otozbirov ignited a passion inside of me for collecting stamps. He was working in the post office before and after 1944. That year there was a government overthrow from the czarist regime to socialism, not without the help of the former USSR. A lot of the stamps that he got from people who visited the post office were soaked off from an envelope. The stamps were from all around the world: Canada, USA, France, England, Russian Empire, USSR, Bulgaria, Palestine, Egypt, and many others. He taught me how to soak the stamps in a glass or a deep plate, and after the stamps came off the paper would put them on newspaper to dry off. After that I would place them in a small album that my parents gave me as a gift from the USSR. I still have that album to this day - it is my first stamp album. I remember laying out the stamps on the floor of my grandparents house in Varna, only stopping when I would be called down for lunch or dinner.
Later when I began school my collecting interest grew to anything related to stamps. My father would send me stamps from the USSR, mostly from letters of officers attending the naval academy in Leningrad (Now St. Petersburg in Russia).
Like before, the stamps were from all over the world: Egypt, Syria, Yemen, G.D.R., Poland, USSR and others, and I would place them in my album from the USSR. Eventually, my brother and I moved to Leningrad along with my mother. I began trading my Bulgarian stamps for stamps from other countries: India, Hong Kong, USSR, Russian Empire, English and French colonies etc.
In sixth or seventh grade I decided to specialize in collecting thematical stamps, mainly stamps related to ships. My brother and I enrolled in a stamp club in the Orbit youth house in Varna. A lot of help with my collection and exhibits during this time was provided by Boris Kalinkov from Varna. He taught me a lot about formatting exhibits - for example, placing very dark or very bright stamps closer to the center of the exhibit panel. He would also write all of the text for the exhibit by hand in a nice cursive font. The secretary of the philatelic society Asen Stepanov-Bai helped me a lot with acquiring material for exhibits. He had correspondence all around the world so he would give me covers with stamps based on themes: space, planes, cars, trains and ships.
At my first exhibit I won the silver medal at the Sliven '76 exposition in Sliven ( a small city in Bulgaria). On one of the days of the exposition there was a banquet at one of the famous hotels in the city. During this banquet I was able to get an autograph from admiral Branimir Ormanov, who was also a philatelist and wearing his uniform at the time.
After that I took part in multiple philatelic exposition with my collections: "The History of Radio" and "The Postal Stone and Other Maritime Stories". At the show in Toronto I received two silver medals and a gold medal for my book.
The book, titled "The Postal Stone and Other Maritime Stories", was published after 10 years of hard work in 2017 with the help of my father. Only 25 copies were printed.
These days I mainly collect stamps, envelopes, and postcards with the followng themes: lighthouses, submarines, and history of radio.
My passion for philatley has not gone away for what is now almost 64 years. It gives me knowledge in many areas such as history, geography, science,etc. and calms me down and gives me an opportunity to relax from the stress of daily life.
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Award from the Bratislava show