TALES ABOUT STAMPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20367, 23 September 1929, Page 13

TALES ABOUT STAMPS.

VANITY OF POSTMASTER* }

VERY COSTLY PHOTOGRAPH. \

The keen stamp-collector is an inqui&it tive person. He is always looking tor a story in connection with his scraps ofl coloured paper, and quite often finds one* There was a Swedish boy, for instancy whose father wa3 a stamp-dealer. He| liked to help at odd times and used to sort out big batches. One day ha noticed that ono particular 20-ore Swedish! stamp of the 1872 issue looked a little different from all the others of the samo sort. He got his magnifying-glass ami examined the stamp carefully. Then tha reason for the slight difference became clear; the stamp had been printed twice* The boy showed tho stamp to his father and learned that this specimen was ono of a batch which tho printer had made with pale orange-coloured ink, bnt* as this did not show up at all well, hj« had put another impression, in red ink, over the top. Tho ordinary stamp of this year and value can be bought for 3d, but the specimons that were printed twice over are worth ss.

Another interesting story is connected with a bluo 5-cent New Brunswick stamp; issued about 1860. A now set of stamps was wanted, and the postmastor, Charles Connell, arranged for various pictures to appear on the various sorts. Among these was a railway engine, a steamship, portraits of Queen Victoria and the rrince of Wales, on the 5-centj stamp, a portrait of himself! When the now issue appeared, everybody was thunderstruck at the vanity or a postmaster who put his own picture on a stamp. There was so mucn trouble that the man had to resign his post—and a salary of £6OO a year. Later the funny, side of it dawned on people, and tho whole affair was summed up in a rhyme whicl* ran:— Six hundred pounds to see his face Posted around from place to rlace!