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Welcome to the Tegestopedia Wiki Edit

Hello there! Welcome to Tegestopedia, the beer mat and coaster collectors friend! This wikia is designed to catalogue and as much about beer mats. We are here to help you find out about a beer mat you have found, help identify it and find somewhere you can exhibit or trade your beer mats.

While here please edit as much as possible in order to expand our community and detail as much as possible about this bizzare and underappreciated form of collecting

What is a beer mat? Edit

beer mat (plural beer mats)

A small square cardboard mat, often with an advertisement for a brewery on it, that is used to rest one's glass on, and to protect the surface of a table or a bar in a pub. The question 'What is a beermat' is a tricky one and the answer is less than straightforward. 1. above suggests it is square and made of cardboard, that in itself eliminates all the other shapes and all the other materials that beermats can be found in. Trying to get a definition for some time now and found that many collectors simply use their judgement to say it is or it isn't a beermat, but they have no way of putting it into words that makes sense. Once you begin to define a beermat any definition need to be able to eliminate what isn't a beermat, but also needs to satisfy all the collectors who have been adding beermats for 50 years or more, and they do not like to be told that something they have isn't a beermat. There may not be a satisfactory definition that is acceptable to everyone, and at the end of the day it might just be left to the individual to say what is or isn't a beermat, and that might be the best that can be hoped for. It is a great question to keep collectors thinking for a long time.

Why Tegestopedia? Edit

Tegestology is a term coined from Latin (teges, -etis covering, mat) defined as the practice of collecting beer mats or coasters, with practitioners known as tegestologists. This practice is seen all around the world where there are alcoholic beverages served and a beer mat is needed, the the US and Australia bee mats are called coasters generically. but the practice of collecting beer mats is seen greater in Europe especially the UK because of the abundance of beer and establishments to serve it.