Hello, and thank you for visiting.
I hope you are doing well!
I am Henrique Costa Braga, and I have been passionate about philately for more than 40 years. My philatelic journey, especially its earliest stages, was very similar to that of countless other collectors.
My first contact with philately occurred when I was about 12 years old—at that time, we were still children at that age. I went to a school friend's birthday party, and he showed me some stamps belonging to his father, who was a philatelist. Noticing my interest, his father gave me two beautiful stamps and shared some basic guidance with me. My curiosity was immediate. I began looking for more information and eventually found my way to the small post office in my neighborhood. Yes, at that time, the Brazilian Post Office sold stamps at virtually every branch and played an active role in promoting philately among children and young people. Eventually, I registered and began receiving the Jornalzinho Filatélico free of charge at home, published by the Minas Gerais Regional Directorate of the Brazilian Post Office.
During this journey, I also discovered Filatélica Globo, located in the traditional Galeria do Ouvidor in downtown Belo Horizonte. There, I was assisted countless times by the late Mr. Sebastião Ribeiro, who always welcomed me with great kindness despite my young age and very limited financial resources. At that time, my main reference was the small F.I.R.T. pocket catalog. The RHM catalog was, for me, a distant dream. Another inseparable companion was Gehiza Saldanha's book on philately. I took every opportunity to exchange correspondence with friends and relatives, gradually expanding my small collection of stamps and the few envelopes I managed to find among family members.
Around the age of 20, however, university became my priority. Internships followed, new commitments arose, and life took other directions. Philately was temporarily set aside. My stockbooks and envelopes were carefully stored in boxes inside a wardrobe. And life moved on.
Many years later, when I was around 45, I rediscovered those old stockbooks. Without fully understanding why, I returned to philately. It was a natural reunion, as though time had merely put the hobby on pause. Today, more than ten years after that return, I have decided to create Atlas do Colecionador.
I am a Metallurgical Engineer and an Occupational Safety Engineer, with a Master's degree in Materials Engineering and both a Master's and a Ph.D. in Mathematical and Computational Modeling. My academic background and professional work are primarily concentrated in engineering and the exact sciences. Philately, however, holds a special place in my life as a constant source of leisure, culture, learning, and personal satisfaction. Over the years, it has also become a stimulus for studies and research which, although conducted independently, have always been pursued with seriousness and great enthusiasm.
My philatelic interests are mainly focused on Brazilian philately, and I maintain a basic traditional collection covering various aspects of its history. Within this broad field, I gradually became particularly interested in subjects that may not be among the most popular: modern postal stationery (aerograms, envelopes, and postal cards), Brazilian Republican-era postmarks, telegrams, and private or semi-official aspects of Brazilian philatelic and postal history. These subjects attracted me precisely because they still offer countless opportunities for research, discovery, and learning.
Atlas do Colecionador was created as an open space for documentation, research, and knowledge sharing, dedicated primarily to Brazilian philately and to these often so-called secondary subjects. Its purpose is to bring together and make available, in an organized manner, my publications, studies, catalogs, and other contributions developed over decades of collecting and research, preserving and sharing knowledge that I consider valuable to the philatelic community.
I hope this space will be useful, spark curiosity, and perhaps encourage new studies, friendships, and future collaborations.
Please feel free to contact me, whether for a pleasant conversation, to share information, or to offer any comments you may have regarding the works and subjects presented here.
You are most welcome!
(in memoriam)
Filatélica Globo
