THE STAMP-COLLECTOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE STAMP-COLLECTOR.

TALES ABOUT STAMPS, VANITY OF POSTMASTER. The keen stamp-colloctOr is an inquisi* tive person. He is always looking for a story in connection with his scraps of coloured paper, and quite often 'finds one. * ■ '.. ! t j' There was a Swedish boy, for instance, whose father was a stamp- dealer. He liked to help at odd times and used to sort out big batches. One day he noticed that one particular 20-ore Swedish stamp of the 1872 issue looked a little different, from all the others of the same:, sort. ; Ho got his magnifying-glass and i-sxamined the stamp carefully. Then the reason for the slight difference became clear; ; the. stamp bnd . been, printed twice. The hoy showed the-stamp to hia father and -learned that this specimen' was one .of'a batch which the printer had made with pale, orange-coloured ink, but, as this did/not show up at aUwell, lie- had put another impression, in red ink, over the top. The ordinal stamp of this year and value .can be bought for 3d, but the specimens that were-printed twice over are worth 6s. Anothor interesting story is connected with a blue five-cent Nfew Brunswick : stamp issued about 1860, A new set Of stamps waa wanted, -and-the "postmaster, ' Charles Gkjnnell, arranged-for various pTe- " tores'-' to appear -oh"- the various sorts; Among these was a railways engine, a steamship, portraits of Queen Victoria and the -'Prince-.of; Wales, «nd, on the five-cbnt stamp, a portrait of himself! When the new issue appeared, everybody was thunderstruck at the vanity of a postmaster, who put his own pictore on a stamp. There was so- much trouble . that the man had, to resign his post—and salary of £6OCTa yeaK Later,, the funny side of it dawned..'on people, and the whole affair was sanimed of) in a rhyme, which ran: \ ./ Six hundred fotinds to see hia fac« , Posted around from place to place!