STAMPS WORTH £10,000.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21111, 19 February 1932, Page 6

STAMPS WORTH £IO,OOO.

[GIFT TO MELBOURNE LIBRARY

EARLY AUSTRALIAN ISSUES.

[from oitb own correspondent.]

SYDNEY, Feb. 11

A collection of Australian stamps, the finest, of its kind in the v;orld, and computed by experts to be worth moie than £IO,OOO. will shortly be presented to the trustees of the Melbourne Public Library by' Messrs. R H. and D. J. Johnston, eons of the late Mr. H. W. Johnston, the noted Victorian philatelist, who died on January 4. It represents a lifelong collection by Mr. Johnston who, in later years, was assisted by his two sons. At present the stamps are in five volumes and have been placed in a safe deposit. The collection is notable for its series of "Sydney Views," the earliest issues of New South Wales stamps, in which the late Mr. Johnston specialised. It is also rich in specimens of the first issues of Victoria, and is a complete record of the early stamps of the other States with the exception of South Australia. The specimens were obtained from all parts of the world, and are in a*supeib condition. The collectors concentrated on assembling only the best copies available. Mr. Johnston began stamp collecting in 1887. A.very complete collection of Australian stamps is at present housed in the famous Mitchell Library, in Sydney. This, too, is valued at many thousands of pounds, and ranks with the most notable collection of stamps in the world.