ERRORS IN STAMPS

Grey River Argus, 29 July 1940, Page 10

ERRORS IN STAMPS

THE CRITICAL COLLECTOR. Even when a postage stamp has a portrait for its centrepiece it does not always ‘escape criticism, says the “Manchester Guardian.” The risk of provoking objection is greater still when some unusual type of subject is selected for the body of the design. The United States Post Office has commemorated by an appropriate equestrian stamp the eightieth- anniversary of the starting of the famous pony express between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento. The champions of realism in philately have immediately called attention to some of its defects. They point out that the rider in the picture is seated on a saddle which did not come into use until fifty years after the last express ponv dropped in its tracks. His rems dangle lootely, although the pony is plunging ahead at breakneck speed. And the pony’s nostrils appear to have been bored straight through his nose by a rifle bullet. . Should these mistakes be r ® ctlfter J, in later issue s the the revision will be that the P originally printed, being comparatively S few in number, will’ acqume an enhanced value among collectors. But nothing very dreadful is likely to tapped whether the erroneous design is perpetuated or amended. Th o con IroveSv about It will, at any rate, hove no such serious consequences tiResulted a few years ago when two Central American republics were brought to the verge of war because the stamps issued by one of them showed a map of territory claimed t)y ths other.