FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 2

FOR STAMP COLLECTORS

[By Philatelist.]

New Zealand Notes. Coronation Stamps.—A set of three stamps of the denominations Id, 2Jd, and 6d will be issued by New Zealand to commemorate the Coronation of their Majesties, King George and Queen Elizabeth. The stamps will depict the effigies of their Majesties surrounded by a typical New Zealand border. Each sheet will bear 120 stamps. Cook Islands and Niue Coronation Stamps.—The three denominations of the New Zealand Coronation stamps will be approximately overprinted for Cook Islands and Niue, and issued at the respective islands for the same period. New Zealand Pictorial Stamps,—The 3d and 4d pictorial stamps printed on paper bearing the multiple watermark have been issued with the watermark inverted. The Oregon Trail. The United States has issued a special 3 cent stamp to mark the centenary of the State of Oregon. The design shows a map on which the Oregon Trail is indicated. The Oregon Trail is the most famous of all the great roads of America leading from the east to the west. It was the route from St. Louis to the fur country of Oregon, and was first travelled over by white men in 1811. Later, the covered wagons of settlers went in a constant stream along the road, , and in the border panels of the stamp there are representations of a settler’s wagon and of a mounted redskin, typifying the constant struggle that went on between the settlers and the Indians in those early days. The completion of the railway across the United States in 1869 led to the decline of the famous trail, but even today there are places in the Western States where grooves worn by wagon wheels may be seen on the prairie.

The Cross and the Stamp. The continuation of the article on ‘ The Cross and the Stamp ’ reads as follows: —Many charity stamps have been issued in aid of the Red Cross, and bear the appropriate symbol. Perhaps the 1930 stamps of Estonia are among the best of these. It will be remembered that a similar cross forms the arms of Geneva, and appears on that canton’s transitional stamps of 1849 and 1850. Since the Red Cross Society was started in Geneva by Dunaiit (who appears on the 1928 Swiss charity stamps), it is appropriate that its badge should be taken from its mother town. Surinam has a “ Green Cross ” Society to raise funds for welfare work among natives. In 1927 the cross itself was the central feature of three charity stamps. The swastika on German official stamps is a very ancient type of cross known in pre-Christian days. It was used as a religious emblem in India and China many centuries before the Christian era. An unusual form of it appears on the low values of Estonia’s 1922 issue. We now come to what may be called “ heraldic ” crosses. The most familiar examples appear on flags. Thus, on the Jd stamp issued by Sierra Leone in 1933, we have the Union Jack, which is part of the colony’s arms. The flag shown is the first Union Jack, showing only the cross of St. George and the saltire or diagonal cross'of St. Andrew. The 1933 stamps of Guatemala depict the flag of the Spanish-American race. This shows three crosses representing the three ships of Columbus—with the sun rising from the centre one, symbolic of the light of civilisation. On the stamps of Danzig we find two crosses on a shield, the insignia of the ancient Teutonic knights who once possessed Danzig. The well-known Maltese cross was the badge of the' Knights of Malta. It is a white cross with eight points, and appears on the island’s postage due labels and on the 5s stamps of 1886. The 1840 British postmark is frequently styled a Maltese cross, but is not correctly so. It is actually a croix patoe. The cross has been largely used as an honourable decoration. On the stamps issued in 1900 by Victoria we see the Victoria Cross, the most coveted military decoration, while on the 1933 Polish stamps we have the Cross of Independence, awarded to Poles who have rendered signal service to their country. As a personal ornament, the cross came into use many years ago, and is usually worn over the chest, therefore being known as a pectoral cross. Pope Pius is shown wearing such a cross on the Vatican stamps of 1933. A magnificent processional cross appears on the stamps of Brazil issued in memory of Jose de Anchieta. Two floriated crosses are shown on the charity stamps issued by Austria in 1932. A floriated cross is one with the end flowered in a fleur-de-lis fashion. A typical Greek cross with four equal arms ending as trefoils or treble buds, appears on the Greek stamps issued in 1913 to commemorate the occupation of Macedonia. A few only of the stamps showing crosses have been mentioned in this short article. There are many others, but space forbids their inclusion. The writer can only hope that readers will set out to discover them and their significance, and assures them of an engrossing search.