WORLD’S STAMPS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 9

WORLD’S STAMPS

fTVHE mouth of many a stamp collector would water, or he would display whatever form of ecstatic manifestation is peculiar to the race of philatelists, were he given the job which Air 0. W . Watts has in the Post and Telegraph .Department (says the “Evening Post. ”) Amongst his other duties, he has charge of the department ’s stamp collection, a collection which is far more complete than that which the ordinary philatelist can ever hope to amass. This stamp collection, which is a very useful adjunct to the work of the department, is being formed for quite a different purpose from those made by ordinary collectors. The latter special, ise probably in the stamps of one or more countries, or they may even collect the postal issues of the world as a whole, this depending upon purse and inclination, and nothing delights them more than the study of papers, watermarks, perforations, shades of colour, and all the minor varieties which are to bo found in stamps, and which are unintelligible to all but philatelists. All that the department ’s collection aims at is to have the copy of each stamp issued by every country in the world, whether it belongs to the Postal Union or not, minor varieties of these, for which many a philatelist would barter his soul, not being considered. Even then to arrange and to keep up to-date such a e'oiiection is a neverending labour, 20 specially-bound volumes, each containing from 150 to 200 pages, being needed to hold the stamps. .The issues are being arranged in chronological order with all the requisite data written in, and as every mail j brings many fresh sets it will be realised that there is no end to the work. ' The. collection is of interest in many ways, but it is being formed primarily for Its practical uses, chief amongst which is the detection of forgeries. Then, too, having the world’s stamps to look at and to compare facilitates the taste of the design of new ones and gives hints as to future issues. The International Postal Union, to which every stamp-issuing country belongs with the exception of Tonga and one or two others, has forwarded to its bureau complete sets of all new postage stamps and of their franking machines, and these are distributed to the members of the union, lienee it is that the P. and T. Dcparmcnt of New Zealand is kept up to date in its collection. The Postal Union has been functioning for about 50 years, and postage stamps i }, a vp been’ issued for about 80 years. When the union started on its distribution scheme many countries made' reprints of their early issues; these, of course, have not the same value as the originals, but they serve their purpose

A FINE COLLECTION

in making collections complete. For all that, many of the department ’s older stamps are originals, and therefore of considerable value. The practice adopted by many British colonies when sending out their new stamps to collections of this sort is to overprint them with the word “ Specimen, ” thereby making them of no commercial value should the} - happen to fall into wrong hands. Iu looking through a collection of tin kind it is impossible to learn much of the history of many of the countries represented. Frequent changes in the stamps of some of the European countries indicate the troublous days of the Great War and after. Even in tlio colour of the stamps one may learn of the financial condition of the country of origin. For instance, the stamp representing the postage on a single rate letter is, amongst, countries subscribing to the Postal Union’s scheme, dark blue in colour. A. few years ago, taking French stamps as an example, this dark blue stamp was one of a face value of 25 centimes, but now by various stages it has reached one franc 50 centimes, and yet all the time it has only corresponded in value to our two ponce halfpenny. In other words, what previously cost a Frenchman ,25 centimes to send by post now costs him six times as much. The same may be seen in the stamps of many European countries, which makes one all the more thankful to be in New Zealand, where low’ postage rates prevail. Endless is the information to be gleaned from stamps, and one can understand the fascination of philately as a hobby.

The department’s collection is kept safely locked in a vault, for, although it does not contain any of the world’s rarest stamps (which are valued at £4000), it contains many others of oreat value. 'Space will not permit of the enumeration of these, but brief mention may be made of the New Zealand portion of the collection. This is naturally fully representative, and contains amongst other treasures u shilling stamp cut in half to represent sixpence. “Easily done,” one might say. ‘‘Where is its value?” This particular bisection, however, took place in Dunedin in the vear 1858. At that time the colonlv'hnd onlv just begun to enjoy the use' of .samps, and the supply of sixuse of stamps, and the supply of sixpenny stamps running short, the enterprising postmaster at Dunedin took his scissors and made one -shilling stamp do the duty of two sixpenny ones. This unique stamp in the collection under notice is on the original envelope, as it Inilist be to bo of any value, and in the ! auction room it would fetch a very substantial sum.