Michael Sefi (original) (raw)

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British philatelist

Michael SefiLVO
Born (1943-12-11) 11 December 1943 (age 80)London
Occupation Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection
Academic work
Discipline philatelist

Michael Richard Sefi LVO (born 11 December 1943[1]) is a British philatelist and was the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection from 1 January 2003.[2]

Sefi was born in London. When he was a child, his grandfather introduced him to stamp collecting. He began collecting stamps again in his early thirties[3] when his own children received stamps and stamp albums as a gift[4][5] and while he was looking for a hobby to ease the stress from the Mann Judd and Touche Ross merger.[3] He specialized in collecting the first postage stamps of George V's reign.[5]

He worked as a chartered accountant until he partially retired in 1983. He was a partner of Mann Judd, later Touche Ross, [later Deloitte] in the 1970s.[3] He became an active member of the Great Britain Philatelic Society of which he was president between 2000/02 and 2012/14. Sefi was a member of Council of the Royal Philatelic Society London between 1990 and 2005 where he was a member of many decision-making bodies.[3]

In September 1996,[3] he was hired as deputy to the Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection, who was Charles Goodwyn. He helped him accelerate the mounting of the George VI postage stamp collection.[6] Sefi participated in international philatelic exhibitions of parts of the Royal Philatelic Collection and in welcoming students and researchers. He played a major role in the move of the collection from Buckingham Palace to St James's Palace in 1999.[5]

When Charles Goodwyn announced his retirement in late 2002, Sefi was chosen to succeed him among three other candidates by the Keeper of the Privy Purse.[7]

He retired as Keeper of the Royal Philatelic Collection in September 2018.

He directed the preparations of The Queen's Own, a Royal Collection exhibit at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., which was held in 2004.[8]To assist Sefi, he had the help of Surésh Dhargalkar, an architect and conservation specialist, who was Sefi's assistant from 2003.[9]To help him for the mounting, he hired George VI specialist, Rod Vousden, as assistant.[10]

References and sources

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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" Archived 27 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Stamp Magazine website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
  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" Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Royal Mail website, retrieved 20 December 2007.
  5. ^ a b c Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps, page 310.
  6. ^ In October 2004 Archived 23 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Sefi announced that Vousden, his assistant, and he had 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.
  11. ^ "No. 60534". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2013. p. 3.

Sources