Edward Stanley Gibbons

Stamps, Plymouth and London. Gibbons began selling stamps from his father's chemist's shop in Plymouth in 1856, famously buying sacks of rare Cape of Good Hope triangulars from sailors. In 1865 he published a price list that grew into the Stanley Gibbons catalogue, which became the standard reference collectors use to identify and value stamps. Owning the reference book gave his firm lasting authority in the trade.