PRECIOUS STAMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 3

PRECIOUS STAMP.

BRITISH GUIANA OF 1856. A POSTMASTER'S MAKESHIFT/ (From Our Own Correspondent.) . SAN FRANCISCO, August 23. Probably the most classic example of the economic law that scarcity creates ■value has been on exhibition in a one: cent stamp worth 40,000 dollars. It is the property of Artlmr Hind, of Utica, New York State, a -manufacturer, hotel owner and philanthropist, whose 500,000-dollar collection of stamps constituted, financially speaking, just about half of the national philatelic exhibitionof 1930, which was opened in Boston. . .-■ The history of this remarkable stamp goes back to 1856 and to British Guiana. The postmaster of that isolated colony had found his supply of stamps exhausted. In the emergency a local printer was called into conference', and with the aid of a picture of a ship, borrowed from a local newspaper, and a handset inscription, the stamp was turned out: . A few days later the regular supply arrived, and the makeshifts were destroyed. Sixty years later the only known copy came into the possession of Mr. Hind for 32,0,00 dollars, and to-day,i collectors say it is worth at least -10,0001 dollars. ' '