Postage Stamps Worth Four Figures

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 135, 10 June 1933, Page 19

Postage Stamps Worth Four Figures

Once again stamps havo come into the news because of £4150 realised for the t,wo Mauritius stamps at a London auction sale. Very soon now wo may anticipate more philatelic' excitement, for tho recent death of a well-known collector will probably put on the market tho world's highest priced single stamp, the 1-cent British Guiana, for which, he paid £7323 in 1922, writes George F. Cocks in. tho "Daily Mail." The first recorded transaction in its history is that it passed out of <a schoolboy's collection for 0s in. 1873. It was eventually absorbed into the great Ferrari collection in 1878 and emerged at the behest of the French Government in 1922, for its owner was regarded ns aii enemy and the,proceeds ol: tho;sale alleviated tho French taxpayer's.butden. But oven this price is put into the shade by an envelope in tho Lciehtcnsjein collection. It has on it copies of both of the stamps just sold, and it cost the owner £11,000 —a lot to pay for three-pennyworth of paper. Before the United States printed stamps some were issued tinder tho authority of the postmasters of certain towns, and theso crude productions have exerted extraordinary fasodnation upon American collectors. Tho Boscawen 5-cent has been sold for £2625, and tho Lockport o-cent for £1875, while tho Alexandra oft buff' paper is priced at £2000, and on giey paper at £3000, and others are; also to be included in 'the four-figure' class.

British Guiana has other four-figure

stamps besides its outstanding rarity. They all emanated from a newspaper office and could be so easily forged that each one was initialled either by the postmaster or one of the dorks. The 2-cent is the- rarest, ten copies only being known. A pair on an envelope fetched fivo thousand guineas, and a good single copy would probably reach two thousand guineas even in these times of financial stringency. Tho stamps used by our colonies are the main source for those' moguls of philately, but Franco has her rarities. Thcro arc pairs in which one is upright and its neighbour inverted. For a pair of the bluo 20-ccntimc 40,000 francs is quoted and 60,000 francs for the vermilion one-franc, used; and the same' for a pair of the one-franc NapoIcon, unused. The first issue of Hawaii conies into this select group of outstanding Tarities. They are called "Missionary" stamps because the early missionaries-' letters are the- solo source of supply. Tho 2-cent has been sold for £3900, No such fantastic figures have been •reached by British stamps, but the King has one which, if put on the market, would probably have to bo included. It is the only specimen of a 6tl stamp which was ready for issue but suppressed owing to King Edward's death. This one ' copy was sent through from Qharing Cross Post Office to Buckingham Palace; the rest were burnt. Its value will never be tested, for kings' collections arc never marketed.