02 September 2025
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Michael Burzan has created this project titled the “Stamp Rain’ Project to help motivate young collectors. The aim of this project is to sow some seeds of collecting, contrary to the current downward trend. How does he aim to do this? This article will break down the whole project and how you can help.
Even if success is unlikely to be measurable in the short term or have a noticeable financial impact. We have been hearing for years that children and young people are no longer interested in stamps. But isn’t it also partly because they have less contact with stamps and are unable to develop an interest in them on their own?
Maybe only a few children will be stimulated and inspired but aren’t these few worth the effort of helping them explore the world of stamp collecting? And when one child starts collecting, another may also develop an interest through their examples.
Gifts for the Start
Over the past months, Burzan has been developing a sustainable campaign that could help to encourage future generations of collectors and perhaps even philatelists by providing children with free stamps on as large a scale as possible.
The motto is ‘let it rain stamps!’
Many stamp dealers have vast quantities of cheap varieties in storage which have virtually no real commercial value. They could be rescued from their pointless existence and put to better use in advertising and distribution of stamp collecting campaigns.
Suggested article: A beginners guide to stamp collecting
Stories in Kindergarten
As an initial test on how today’s children react to stamps, three different groups of 5–6-year-olds were brought in from a local kindergarten to help. The children were currently learning how to say their addresses correctly and how to send a letter.
As a hook, Burzan read aloud a condensed version of one of the two stories he wrote for two new German stamp releases on behalf of the Ministry of France. These were Zampino the Magic Bear from May 2010 and Bezi and Kim from September 2010.
At the kindergarten teacher’s suggestion, enlarged black and white copies of the stamp images were distributed to the children for them to colour in.
Then stamps were spread on the table and the children picked stamps to be soaked off in little bowls of water. They were fascinated, watching how the stamps detached and whose stamp started to float around first.
They were also shown how to carefully handle postage stamps with their fingers on the side edges without damaging them or leaving fingerprints.
Finally, packs of 50 to 100 stamps, insert cards and an album were given to the children. All of them were interested, happy and motivated – disproving the claim that kids and youngsters are no longer interested in stamps.
Next Steps to the Project
Burzan’s ‘Stamp Rain’ project is going to be released on a larger scale in a school for Germany’s National Stamp Show, NAPOSTA, in Remseck on 12th September. It will also be released at the International Stamp Fair in Ulm from 23rd to 25th October.
To announce this campaign PhilaTec and Christian Smyrek generated some PR images using AI technology. This is because as a rule, children may not be photographed and published without their parents’ permission. A sketch after this AI image will be used for a special cancellation by Deutsche Post in October.
We encourage everyone to turn this into an international campaign involving the entire philatelic community.
Anyone who would like to carry out similar activities is welcome to do so!
If you want to find out more about this project or more about all things stamps then have a look at our newest edition of Stamp Collector inc Coin Collector.