STAMP NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 304, 21 November 1935, Page 2

STAMP NOTES

(By “Philatelist.”)

One million pounds to post a letter ! Among the huge collection of President Roosevelt, is a special collection of the inflation stamps of Germany, presented to him by someone as a special record of what can happen to the currency of a country once banknotes are issued without being backed by tangible assets. At one time, a Gorman mark was worth Is, and about 20 marks was worth a gold sovereign. After the war, when the stability of the currency was upset, the paper mark gradually fell in value, and its fall is traced in the stamp album. The highest value stamp .on issue was 5 marks (about ss) up till 1920. In 1920, values up to 20 marks appeared ; early in 1923, values up. to 50 marks. Then came the financial .debacle, and high values followed September, 1923, 100,000 marks; October, 1923, 2 million marks; November, 1923, the highest value reached oO milliard marks, 50,000,000,000 marks —and the unused value of that stamp to-day is threepence in our money! Then these German marks, once worth Is each (50 milliard —£2,500,000,000) were declared of no value whatever. And a fresh currency, with a definite gold backing was introduced. lhe banknotes are once again backed by definite assets and the highest value stamp now required for postage is 4 llenten-marks. Imagine the misfortune of someone who, say in 1919, put aside 20,000 marks (£100) in banknotes. By the end of 1923, these notes were worth —nothing, Even early in IJM, they were insufficient to pay the postage on a single letter! Other cases of this interesting business of the fall in value following currency manipulation occur in Poland, when a stamp of two million 1 olish marks appeared in 1924, just before the currency. was re-establislied m “groszv” and “zloty”; in Danzig, where values up to 500 million maiks were issued; in Hungary, where values up to 10,000 krona were used ; and in Russia, where one set . of charity stamps was sold at 5 million times face value, and among other sets, some had no value expressed at all, but were sold according to the fluctuation of the rouble from day to day. Concluding the notes on the Silver Jubilee issues, these particulars ot the one stamp of Egypt are particularly interesting. As stated in tne list published a fortnight ago, the 1 pi letter seal for the British Forces in’ Egypt was specially printed in blue, and overprinted in red Jubilee Commemoration 1935.’ Apparently about 27,000 only were printed, and only 10 were allowed to each man. These' stamps lasted only two or three days, and are probably the scarcest ot the Jubilee issues. . The error, “10 centimes, in the Jubilee set for the Spanish zone in Morocco, did not exist in the ongma printings. The later printing, in which one stamp' in the sheet ot ru centimos” had the French wording “10 centimes,” was not watched by philatelists and dealers so closely tor errors, with the result thftt the rnajority of dealers had separated their supplies' and sent them out to customers before it was realised that an error existed. Some collectors apparently received a “10 centimes” stamp in their set of Spanish zone stamps—and will have little satisfaction in knowing that it is the rare error because it could only he definitely identified as an error by being in a pair with a normal stamp. On its own, it cannot he distinguished from the 10 centimes stamp' in the set for the French zone. Another variety of the Jubilee senes that should be watched for is the Id Samoa, perf. 14 x 141, as these are stated to be scarce. The value of stamps is a question that worries a lot of people. Some dealers publish a price list of the stamps of the world—a stamp catalogue it is called. On the fact of it, this purports to be a list of the prices at which they are prepared to sell stamps. However, frequently many of the stamps are not in stock; and other stamps are being advertised at bargain prices, much below catalogue. Actually a stamp dealer conducts his trading the same way as anv other dealers—-a grocer, a banker, a stock dealer, for instance. His object is to sell his wares at a reasonable profit on what he pays for them, just the same as a grocer sells his goods for more than cost price, or a banker sells you American dollars for a little more than they cost him, or lends you money for a greater interest rate than he is paying for it. The catalogue list is a guide to comparative rarity and value. If a dealer buys a particular lot of stamps at a bargain price, lie can afford to offer them at an attractive figure. One English catalogue goes so far as to state that a dealer needs a grosy margin of 40 per cent. _ on stamps to cover his expenses, various losses, etc. Contrary to general opinion, dealers do not lay in big supplies of stamps while they are in current use, with the object of selling them at a substantial profit after they have become obsolete and somewhat scarce. The greatest stamp dealing firm in the world could not afford to tie up such a large sum of cash as would be necessary to lay in a reasonable supply of even just the stamps that are-in current use throughout the world today. While a dealer can obtain supplies of stamps easily and cheaply, the price is low. When a set goes out of issue, a dealer lias more difficulty in obtaining supplies and lias to pay more, and so has to raise his price. The supply of obsolete stamps on the market comes not from quantities hoarded by dealers, hut from the numbers that become available from time to time when private collections are broken up and sold. [These notes are published with the co-operation of the Manawatu Philatelic Society. Queries and items of ' interest for publication should be ad- - dressed to the Stamp Editor, care t “Standard” Office.J