Michael Sefi

Michael Richard Sefi (Born 11 December 1943^[1]) is a British philatelist, Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection since 1 January 2003.^[2]

Born in London, Sefi worked as a chartered accountant until a partial retirement at the end of 1992. He became an associate of Deloitte & Touche in the 1980s.^[3]

When a child, his grandfather introduced him to stamp collecting. He went back to it in his thirties^[3] when his own children received stamps and albums as a gift^[4][5] and while he was looking for a hobby to ease the stress from the Deloitte and Touche fusion.^[3] He specialized in the first postage stamps of George V's reign.^[5]

Quickly he became an active member of the Great Britain Philatelic Society of which he was president between 2000 and 2002, then of the Royal Philatelic Society London where he has been a member of many decision-making bodies since 1990.^[3]

In September 1996,^[3] he was hired as adjoint to the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, Charles Goodwyn. He helped him accelerate the mounting of the George VI collection.^[6] He participated in international philatelic exhibitions of parts of the Royal Collection and in welcoming students and researchers. He played a major role in the move of the collection from Buckingham to St. James's Palace at the beginning of the 2000s.^[5]

When Goodwyn announced his retirement late 2002, Sefi was chosen to succeed him among three other candidates by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.^[7] Sefi directed the preparations of The Queen's Own, a Royal Collection exhibit at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C. in 2004.^[8]

To assist him, he kept architect and conservation specialist Surésh Dhargalkar, assistant since 1996 who became adjoint to the Keeper in 2003.^[9] To help him for the mounting, he hired George VI specialist, Rod Vousden, as assistant.^[10]

References and sources

References

1. ^ SEFI, Michael Richard’, Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 2009, accessed 11 March 2010.
2. ^ "Royal Collection gets new Keeper", Stamp Magazine website, retrieved 20 December 2007.^{[dead link]}
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Interview on 15 October 2004, The Chronicle, journal of the Great Britain Collectors Club, January 2005. WebCite archive here.
4. ^ Sefi, Michael. "A Collector's Tale", Royal Mail website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 310.
6. ^ In October 2004, Sefi announced that Vousden, his adjoint, and he finished three quarters of this mounting.
7. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 312.
8. ^ The Queen's Own, National Postal Museum, official website.
9. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, pages 308-309.
10. ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 313.

Sources

• Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, The Authorised History of the Royal Philatelic Collection, éd. Methuen, 2004, ISBN 0413772284.

External links

• "In the Spotlight", interview of Sefi by Larry Rosenblum on 15 October 2004. Published in The Chronicle, journal of the Great Britain Collectors Club, January 2005. Reedited on the GBCC website, 28 May 2005, retrieved 20 December 2007.
• Sefi, Michael. "A Collector's Tale", Royal Mail website, retrieved 20 December 2007.

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Name	Sefi, Michael
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Date of birth	11 December 1943
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