FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 21511, 8 September 1933, Page 2

FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

[By R.W.W.]

Any news and notes of philatelic interest will always bo appreciated. Address care Editor, ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENT. “ Junior ” (Caversham) asks if there is any record of the price at which the unique 1c British. Guiana was first sold. Incredible though it may seem, the original owner, Mr L. Vernon Vaughan, of Deraerara, 8.G., parted with it for 6s when ho was a' boy of 12. Its present owner paid £7,343 for it! NEW ISSUES. Colombia. The industrial propaganda series, heralded as far back as July, 1931, has now materialised. The stamps are finely engraved and recessprinted by Waterlow and Sons Ltd., London, and perforated 12£. Their values, colours, and subjects are:—lc, green (emerald mining); 2c, carmine (petroleum wells); sc, brown (coffee cultivation); Bc, deep blue (platinum raining); 10c, yellow-orange (gold minLithuania.—The ■ fiftieth anniversary of the publication of 1 Austra ’ has been commemorated by a series of portrait stamps inscribed “ Austra, 18831933.” A series of • triangular air stamps commemorating the 550th anniversary of the death ot the Grand Duke Kestutis has also appeared. Bechuanaland.—The periodically recurring rumour that the overprinted stamps of Great Britain, hitherto circulailng in this protectorate, are to be replaced by a permanent series of a pictorial character is revived by “ Specimen ” in the ‘ Hand Daily Mail,’ dated June 27, who is “ informed on good authority that an order has been placed in London for the new stamps, so that their release for sale may not be far distant.”

Ceylon.—A new issue is on its way out for the Maldives protectorate, states tho ‘ P.M.’ The new values expected are 6c, 15c, 25c, 50c, and 1 rupee. Belgium. The coming “ unemployed ” charity issue is to consist of twelve values of a total face value of 25fr, to which must be added 75fr surtax. The stamps will be on sale for one, month, and will remain valid for postage for ninety days. Chile.—A special issue has been authorised to celebrate the centenary of the political Constitution of 1833. Peru. —An unemployment relief stamp in a new design, illustrating the monument of the Mayas; 60c, violet. NOTES. From the very first stamp issued by Chile in 1853 until the 1903 series no other person or subject appears on any of Chile’s postage stamps. And on subsequent issues Columbus is featured on many other Chilean postage stamps. Yet it is a fact that Columbus never visited the place that was to be Chile nor did he visit any land on the South American continent anywhere near Chile. As far as he was aware no such place was over to exist. Why, then, this preference for his portrait? Just 994 people live in the Vatican City, and one of our readers wonders how long it would take them were they to decide to use all the present issue of the Vatican City instead of lumping inost of it off to the stamp collectors. Complaint is rife in France that it is impossible for that country* to produce an artistic stamp. Even before the new stamp of the Republic holding out an olive branch makes its appearance we hear that it represents a parody on the depression. The jobless in France are trying to make expenses by selling anything they can on the street, and it is alleged that the Republic looks like one of the jobless holding out an olivo branch for anything it will fetch. _ Covers divide themselves into three distinct classes first flights, special flights, _ and just the ordinary cover, which is a representative of a regular air mail service. A market for first flight covers is slowly _ but surely establishing itself, and in these circumstances I think it is as certain as anything can be that everything is in favour of first flight cover collecting for investment. It has been suggested to me that this type of collecting must eventually fail, because of the longstanding difficulties of housing entires—difficulties which have led to a prejudice against the idea of collecting covers in large quantities. An interesting feature in connection with the recent aero-charity stamps of Latvia is the presence of the Swastika in the design of the stamp and as its watermark. Does this mean that Hitler’s Brown Shirts are finding support in Latvia? It is interesting to note that the Swastika has not yet appeared on the stamps of Germany, but those who live longest will see most!

On October 20 and 21, 1931, the board appointed to select designs for the proposed issue of a series of New Zealand pictorial stamps met and decided on the designs with which wo are now all quite familiar. It also stated that it was expected that the new stamps would be available for issue early in 1933. Tho latest information is that they will bo with us early next year, and we are also informed of a change—viz., the Is value showing a droving scene has been substituted by a design showing the tui, as the proof of the droving scene did not come up to tho department’s artistic expectations. It seems incredible that it takes two years to produce an issue of stamps, hut collectors and the general public in New_ Zealand are long-suffer-ing. If the issue is not, a first-class production I fear to think of tho comments of overseas philatelic journals! Now Zealand would do well to take a loaf out of Australia’s book with_ respect to designs and the induction of first-class stamps. GRUESOME STAMPS. There are plenty of horrors to bo found in the stamp album for those W'ho like a touch of the weird or mys-

terious. Everyone knows the “doubleportrait” stamps of Serbia, which, turned upside down, show the “ death mask ” of the murdered King Alexander.

Not so familiar are the crude stamps bearing the skull and cross-bones, which were issued at Chimara, Greece, early in 1914. Equally fearsome is the design of the large 1 and 2 kronen stamps of ’Jugo-Slavia, issued in 1919. At first sight the innocent little boy might be sauntering down a stony pathway, but closer inspection will show that the “stones” are really grinning skulls. The idea behind this “picture-parable ” is that of the young nation of Jugo-Slavia emerging joyfully from the horrors of the Great War. RAINBOW STAMPS. Which stamp is printed in the most different colours? It would be difficult to say off-hand, but readers could probably name a few that would bo well in the running for that honour. That" big, ugly Arms stamp of Bolivia, the 2 bolivar value of 1897, is printed in black, red, yellow, and green, and horribly gaudy it looks. Then there is _ the Panama stamp with the flag which the printer tried to get in its correct colours _ of red, blue, green; and orange, which is a fit companion to it. Persia has some very pretty threecoloured stamps, notably the high values of the beautiful Coronation series, with their silver or gold frames, but her provisionals of 1903 show four colours, violet and silver on the stamp itself, and two more colours in the overprint. The record is probably held by the 1914 issue of the Dominican Republic, which was issued to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Juan Pablo Duarte. Here the background is in lozenges of red, white, and blue, the portrait in black, and the frame in yet another colour, varying for each value. The effect is very striking. STAMP SHEETS. The ordinary collector does not see many stamps in complete sheets, except when he goes to his post office and the obliging counter clerk tears off the stamps he requires from a largo block. Even then it is likely that the clerk has torn his stamps into sixties for convenience in handling,_ though they arrived at the post office in sheets of 240, and were possibly printed in still larger sheets of 480 or 960. The size of the sheet varies in different countries according to the currency. Most of our own stamps come in 240’s because that number of pence make a pound. If we had a decimal currency with ten pence to the shilling aiid ten shillings to the pound wo should have our stamps in sheets of 100. In India a still different arrangement has to be adopted to fit in with the rupee currency. Of course, countries which produce their stamps by rough and ready methods do not worry much about the number they get in the sheet. All sorts of odd numbers are found in sheets of stamps of the Indian Native States, sheets of six or oven four stamps being quite common. The smallest' sheet on record, however. was recently issued by Luxemburg. who sent out a large pictorial 10 franc stamp in sheets, complete with marginal paper, of only one stamp each 1 PHILATELY OVER THE AIR. The recent Philatelic Congress of Great Britain complained about the shabby treatment accorded to the hobby of stamp collecting by the " 8.8. C.” Could not the same complaint ho made in New Zealand! There must be many radio listeners who are collectors, and yet we never once have a stamp talk over the air. It would he useless, for those in control, to deny the fact that such talks would prove popular, for one only needs to see the quantity of philatelic journals read in New Zealand to estimate the popularity of the hobby. Again, if these talks were started 1 feel confident that those collectors who are not already listeners would soon become owners of radios; hence an increase in number of licenses. And _is this not the board’s aim to popularise the wireless?

In America the philatelists are well catered for, although they do not probablv number a greater proportion of the listening public than hero T verityseven stations in U.S.A. now have in their programmes a regular philatelic feature, and with this in view it is. a reproach that our wireless authorities cannot provide even a halfhour for collectors a month.

By such means philately must grovy. An increased demand for stamps will bo created, dealers will enlarge their turnover, philatelic journals their subscriptions, and clubs their membership. Tho Now Zealand Press, like that of Australia, with some notable exceptions, devotes little or no space to philately. Few radio stamp talks are given, and a total survey shows that tho hobby is greatly in need of stimulation. This can only bo accomplished by the help, as the ‘ A.S.M.’ puts it, of the “whole philatelic fraternity.” “ A stamp journal can only penetrate into certain prescribed fields, but dailv, weekly, and monthly publication's have a wide range of readers, each of whom is a potential collector.” Our Broadcasting Board supplies radio listeners, with talks on a variety of subjects, but philately is loft out in the cold. Why should this be? To a certain extent it is duo to the lack of energy on the part of the clubs . throughout New Zealand, to the con--1 servatxve outlook of collectors of the old school, and finally to the lack of union between tho various clubs of the dominion. Here is an excellent chance for collectors to spread tho pleasures of tho hobby, and if tho clubs can come together to approach the Broadcasting Board I feel that something will be done; but it lies with tho collectors themselves whether or not this idea would bo a success.

I think the time is ripe for the clubs of New Zealand to take this matter up, and try to have, at least, a iponfhly talk on stamps _ from the four YA stations; failing this, wc still have the B stations.