AERO POSTAGE STAMPS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1924, Page 16

AERO POSTAGE STAMPS

A MODERN INNOVATION SOUGHT

BY PHILATELISTS.

The collecting ot aero stamps, issued for use on postal matter transported by air, is the most popular vogue philately has experienced since the height of the war stamp boom. It has this advantage over the war stamp collection : that- the available material is developing steadily, and at a pace with which it is not very difficult to keep up, states Fred J. Melville, in the "Daily Telegraph." The war stamps came in their thousands in a short period of four years. Since Italy gave us the first special postage stamp for the air mail between Rome and Turin in May, 1917, only 30 Governments have followed, aiid between them they havo. produced a total of 280 standard varieties of aero stamps. The philatelist, with his penchant for small differences of detail, can elaborate this total to his heart's delight, but the field is still a small one, aiid one which offers tho collector to-day a good chance of approximating to completeness; hence its iinmenso vogue with the new collectors, who aro now legion. The distribution of the 280 different aero stamps reflects features which are familiar in the records of all modern stamp-issuing. The largest output of varieties comes from tho smallest and least important places. Lithuania has issued 32 different stamps for air postago, but most of them- fly in set form straight to our stamp albums, and their legitimate uso on air mail is doubtful. The same may bo said of Memel (28 varieties) and Syria- (25), while Danzig (30) and Germany (26) havo been largely necessitated by the collapse of the old mark currency. Germany's latest aero stamps are a modest series of seven values in pfennigs of tire ren-ten-ma.^k currency. The record of other countries includes Austria- 11 Belgian Congo .4, China 5. Colombia 1, Czechoslovakia 9, Esthonia. 11. Holland 3,' Hungary 9, Italy 2, Japan '2, Latvia 2, Mexico 1, French Morocco 6, Newfoundland 7, Portugal 16. Russia 9. Spain 5, Sweden 5. Switzerland' 11', Tunis 2, United States .6, and Uruguay 6. . ° •*

Among the cavlicr issues the overprinted class predominated, but now wo arc getting a larger proportion of stamp.! specially designed fur- this branch ol Ihr- postal sc-vice. The Rui-sian stan.pu show a machine in flight over Moscow, tie recent Uruguayans show a whit,.-, aeroplane ou a ulain ground of solid colour, the last Danziis in Ihe new gold currency have a machine in flight over the • city, Esthonia's triangular set of this year depicts five different types oi machine in flight, and the two'newest series link the modern deevlopinent in nipil transport with the Grecian fable of Daedalus and Icarus. One of these seU from Hungary shows a winged man flying over Budapest; these are in four denominations, each surface printed in two colours:—-100 korona, red and chocolate ; 500 korona, arcen and blue-green; ICOO korona. mauve and bistre-° £000 korona. bright and dee]) hhtc. ' The'new Swiss aero 'stamps also show a winded human li-Tire. from a design by V V Vibi.it. of G..n,.>-a. Ihe value,-; hrin'.r--! 6* centimes, blur, and n-iy blue : 75 "T-fii--l.imra. re.l. brown, and purple :'l'trrn.-. viok-t and p.dc violet.