Jean-Baptiste Philippe Constant Moens (27 May 1833, Tournai

Tournai

Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....

 – 28 April 1908) was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 philatelist recognized as the first dealer in stamps for collectors

Stamp dealer

A stamp dealer is a company or an individual who deals in postage stamps and philatelic products. It also includes individuals who sell postage stamps for day to day use or official stamps for use on court documents.-Stamps on Approval Basis:...

. He was one of the original philatelic journalists

Philatelic literature

Philatelic literature is written material relating to philately, primarily information about postage stamps and postal history- Background to philatelic literature :...

.

Youth

Moens began collecting stamps

Stamp collecting

Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is one of the world's most popular hobbies, with the number of collectors in the United States alone estimated to be over 20 million.- Collecting :...

 from his family's mail as a boy in Tournai

Tournai

Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....

. He was the son of Colette Blangenois and Phillipe Moens, a soldier. He began with a small business in coins. By 1853, at age nineteen, he was buying and selling new and second-hand books, and stamps

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

, from the Galerie Borthier, a covered walkway in central Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

. Within a decade he was putting out a stamp catalog

Stamp catalog

A stamp catalog is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting...

 with illustrated supplements.

First catalogue

In March 1862, with Louis Francois Hanciau, Moens published a catalog of stamps, the Manuel des collectionneurs de timbres-poste (Handbook for Stamp Collectors). This work is the first of its kind in Belgium and the second in the French language, following that of the Parisian, Alfred Potiquet

Alfred Potiquet

Alfred Potiquet was a French official who was responsible for the first illustrated stamp catalogue in the world.Alfred Potiquet developed his catalogue on the basis of the postage stamp and postal stationery register of the Strasbourg bookseller, Oscar Berger-Levrault...

. Also in 1862, he published De la falsification des timbres-poste (On the falsification of postage stamps) to alert stamp enthusiasts to the abundance of forgeries

Philatelic fakes and forgeries

In general, philatelic fakes and forgeries refers to labels that look like postage stamps but are not. Most have been produced to deceive or defraud...

. He began the first French language philatelic monthly, Le Timbre-poste, which ran from 1863 until 1900, as well as a series on fiscal stamps

Revenue stamp

A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a adhesive label used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things...

 from 1874 until 1896.

The Mauritius "Post Office" stamps

Moens became the owner of eight of the "Post Office" Mauritius stamps. In 1878 Moens published the first of his works on the early stamps of Mauritius, Les Timbres de Maurice depuis leur origine jusqu'à nos jours, (The Stamps of Mauritius from their Origin until Today), benefiting from the studies of Edward B. Evans

Edward B. Evans

Edward Benjamin Evans, RPS a British army officer, also known as "Major Evans", was a distinguished philatelist, stamp collector, and philatelic journalist...

, the Philatelic Society of London, and Judge Frederick Philbrick

Frederick Philbrick

Frederick Adolphus Philbrick was a lawyer and an early British philatelist.He was one of the founders of the "Philatelic Society, London", which later became the Royal Philatelic Society London...

. Helen Morgan noted, "All that is known of the discovery of the first specimens of the Post Office issue, indeed of much of the history of the handful of those stamps eventually found, came from his pen in the late 1890s. He handled most of the Post Office stamps discovered by Madame Borchard in the late 1860s."

Organised philately

Moens was an Honorary Member of the Fiscal Philatelic Society

Fiscal Philatelic Society

The Fiscal Philatelic Society was an early twentieth century philatelic society that is seen as a predecessor to today's Cinderella Stamp Club and The Revenue Society...

 until his death.

Retirement

As Moens' business prospered, he assembled a large stock of collectibles of all kinds and a library devoted to music and antiquities, as well as stamps. By 1 November 1899, to preserve his health, Jean-Baptiste announced in Le Timbre-poste that the time had come to free himself from the duties of publication and to liquidate most of his stock in trade. Moens' collections were sold the following year and his philatelic publications

Philatelic literature

Philatelic literature is written material relating to philately, primarily information about postage stamps and postal history- Background to philatelic literature :...

 were eventually sold to H. Edgar Weston, in London, in 1907.

Death

Jean-Baptiste Moens died in Ixelles in 1908 and was interred there in the Ixelles Cemetery

Ixelles Cemetery

The Ixelles Cemetery , located in Ixelles in the southern part of Brussels, is one of the major cemeteries in Belgium....

. His passing was noted by the philatelic press, many referring to him as The Father of Philately.

External links

• Christelle Harvengt, "Jean-Baptiste Moens (1833-1908)" Université Libre de Bruxelles (archive.org) (Fr).