Who actually coined the term 'cartophily'?

[Sam Salt]

Who actually coined the term 'cartophily'? I'm pretty sure that the Romans didn't collect cigarette cards  so the term can't have been an original latin term. So who sat down one day and thought 'we'll call this hobby cartophily'?...

[IanSammel]

The term was first mentioned in "Cigarette Card News", April 1935

..... We can easily agree, then, that there is something in a name; but
finding a suitable one is a much more difficult matter. Most titles,
slogans, and the like which have had an enduring popular appeal seem
to have happened rather than been consciously created. At any rate,
their origin is very difficult to trace. Ready-made suggestions too often
have a stiffness and lack of spontaneity which bars their universal
adoption, but no doubt we shall receive a number of ideas as a result of
this article, and correspondence, and amongst them may be that absolutely
right title which will secure unanimous approval. So far, easily
the best we have heard is the effort of a colleague. He suggests
" Cartophily," and we are not at all sure this may not ultimately prevail.......

(BTW, it's derived from Greek :-)

[dant melys]

taken from our Antipodean cousins web site ,the Australian Cartophillic Society state


The Word “Cartophilic?
 

It is believed that this unusual word was coined in the 1920s by Col. Bagnall, an Englishman, who was the father of the hobby of cigarette card and trade card collecting. It is thought to be a combination of a Latin word, “carto” meaning “card and the Greek word “philic”, meaning “love”.- lover of cards. The term originally related to the collection of the two types mentioned, however, our Society has included postcards in the range of items collected by our members.
 

[IanSammel]

Colonel Bagnall formed the London Cigarette Card Company of which Cigarette Card News was the "house organ" as they were called in those days.  It could well be that he suggested a term which he had been using privately for more general use when the question arose.  On the other hand would one of the founding fathers of cigarette card collecting be referred to as a "colleague"?  (It might of course be a classic British understatement.)

BTW, the Greek for card is κάρτα which is karta in the English alphabet, so there's no need to mix languages for the derivation of cartophily.