PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 62

PHILATELY.

By Old Stamp,

THE SIDNEY STAMP FRAUD.

This fraud has so far ended that the prisoners (a Japanese and his wife) have been committed for trial. It is not necessary for me to make any comments further than I have already made, but as the attempted swindle is of so clever a nature, and of a kind never before attempted, or rather discovered, the following details elicited at the preliminary hearing of the case will prove interesting to my readers: —

A cass in which a Japanese engraver ond his wife, a Victorian lady, were arrested upon a charge of having forged certain old and rare postage stamps is likely (says the Sydney .Evening News) to excite groat interest among enthusiasts in stamp-collecting. That a forgery has boon carried out by somebody is stated by several exports as undeniable, but, of course, it is quite possible that the persons under arrest for the alleged offence may thenselves have been imposed upon in the ordinary ■way of business. The stamps were extremely rare, owing to a difference in the water ms<rk. They belonged to the New South AVales variety, and were supposed to bo what are known as tho " imperforated " cla^s, the idea of perforating stamps having only been introduced in the year 1860. Previous to that year it was necessary to separate postage stamps by means of a pair of scissors or a knife. It is not generally known by others than collectors that, each postage stamp at one time had, as a water mark, the figure which represented its value in ponce. A Jd stamp had the figure 1 as its water mark, 2d stamps tho figure 2, etc. Occasionally, however, oM'ing to mistakes (which are liable to occur anywhere) a sheet with a certain figure as a mork might be urod for printing a sheet of stamps of a different value, and these are much sought after by philatelists. Thus if a 2d stamp of tho imperforatcd class bo found to bear tho figure 8 in its substance its value is at once increased to no less a sum than £80. Sometimes they are found with 4-, 5, 3, and other figiires, as errors have occurred, but the 2d stamp with an 8 visible when its transparency is tcstodis the acme of a philatelist's happiness, and competition is keen accordingly. Then ancther element enters into the matter, which makes the " mark 8 twopenny " still more rare. Tha 8d stamp is larger than the humble 2d, and whereas a sheet of the preuaml paper makes 100 of the former, it will cut into 120 of the latter. Thus of 120 such stamps only a dozen or so may have the •water mark m tho centro, the others being spoilt as regards the centre-mark. Stamp experts are of opinion thai the mistake in printing referred to only occurred with one sheet, and therefore tho species of stamps mentioned is so very rare as to be almost entirely obsolete. In April last Mr Fred Hagen, of Elizabeth street, who deals in foreign and colonial stamps, was surprised and doubtless delighted whon a young woman visited him with seven stamps of perverted water marks, one of which was a 'mark 8 twopenny,' wMi the mark perfectly plain and right in the centre. Mr Ha gen, it is stated, purchased the lot for £'15, and the lady departed. He sent four of the stamps Home to his London agents, and by return of pont he received a remittance of £100, tho sale hitting been effected without difficulty. Mr Hagcn sold two otherr io a local customer for a sum of £30, and retained the remaining stamp. Presently, however, hi? suspicions were aroupod, and he sent Home requesting that his customers might return tliQ stamps, as ho was not satisfied of their genuiuone&s. This was by reason of the iact that he had heard of others of a similar nature being upon the market. Closer examination increased, rather than allayed, his uneasiness. He tested tho almost priceless treasure, and, it is slalcd, found thai instead of consisting of one thickness of paper, there were no less than tlnoe. It appeared that the face of the stamp hid been stripped of its back until it had become extremely thin, and then two layers of exceptionally fine and while paper had been affixed to it with a brown, dirty coloured gum, by which it gained an appearpnee of age. In the centre piece of the three, it is supposed, the form of the figure 8 had been cut, and thus lent an appearance of transparency to the stamp in the places interfered with. That the stamp is not of Ihe kind it h claimed to bo is, tiie police state, evident from tho fact that there is to be plainly ween a traco of tho water mark which is being used in tho current issue. This seems to indicate that ihe stamp, instead of having been issued prior to 1860, is of recent date, comparatively spoaking. The fa-ca design of tho stamp was not altered for many years. If a forgery, the clamp in question represents one of the cleverest pieces of work which has been seen for many years, as is plain by the fact that expert!;, both in Sydney and London, were willinc? to pay fancy prices for it. Tiie tfnekncss of paper' which seems to have been afii\:cd lo the back would appear to have been attached by an exceedingly powerful gum, as it •withstood a ton minutes' application of boiling water. The Jap and his wife have been committed for trial.

In England the telegraph clerks are not allowed to aflix tho necessary stamps to toleRT.ims in payment therefor. The reason for this system is as follows : —Some years a<ro a

I ring of telegraph clerks was formed in a big office. Very few telegrams are handed in ; in which a few words could not. bo easily J left out without altering the sense of the mesi sage. The clerks road tho message, charged I and collected the full amount, and then f-üb-edh/ed the contents by crossing out the superfluous words. They then tvflixod the new charge in stamps, which in all cases was lower than the amount paid, the difference being . pocketed by tho manipulators. As soon as I this fraud was di c covered strict ordcis wcro ! given that no dork iv»b to uilix stamps to ielegraph form?. A curious piece of old pi amp history Ikis boen published in the I>.-pbano Cornier. It reads*: ''Up to 1865, ant 1 , in facl, light up to the cyrly so\onlicK, tho sloom communication between Brisbane and noilhoru porl^ 1 v,hp of I a very inegular character. As an instance of how this iniorlerrod with and harassed busij ness tho following incident, which occurred I late in tho sixties, may prove inlci citing. Mr I Day, a postmaster stationed at iiowen, run- } r.ing rhori of stamps, vured to BrWiano for a ] fre3h supply. There happened lo be no steamer leaving for lio',on lor *omc days, and to overcome the difficulty the head of the department instructed Mr Day to manufacture the required damps himself. This Mr Day did in the following way : Getting some shoots of foolfcpp he ccnered ono ride with pti-ong 1 gum. j le then cut tho paper into li^le equal es about the size of an ordinary postage strmp, and signed each wi'h his name in full. ] There ' homo-mado ' stamps were ifs'uc.l ?nd I used for postage purposes until the steamer am red with a fresh supply of the official article." The Australian Philatelist adds: — '•The paragiaph does not slate whether Mr Dny addod any words to donoto the value of each si amp, but his issue wtu perhaps as attra<c<ivc *md finished in appauance as some of ihe highly-prized poslmaslors' stamps of the fjnitcd State?. It was duly authorised by tho head of the department, and issued before the serpent of philatelic suggestion entered that postal IXlon. Wo would very^nuch like to see a copy on tho original cover." } " One of tho s:t>TiS of the timed," writes the > Philatelic Keconl, "is undoubtedly a ten- ' deucy of general collecting, but it would bo a mistake to suppose that it is a development ' of genoial collecting at the expense of specialism. Specialism will always remain of nocos1 sily the high-water mark of collecting, for it means the highest gr?.de of collecting, or what may bo termed collecting in a scientific manner. Before an ordinary g-onoral collector can specialise, he needs to add materially <o his sum of phikt-olic knowledge. Hvch increase as there has been in general collecting represents rather the tendency of specialists i to run, as an addition to their special country, , a more or Jen general collection as well. And it is an excellent idea from every point of view. It broadens Ihe philatelic sympathies of the otherwise too exclusive spoci.-list, it Blrcnqihe-.is tne fon""la'ion«i of stamp colloctin^ as a jrirsuil, ond it comerts tho specialist, from a ]Ai ; aielio hojjrit into a more sociable boi-.a-. }?a«T wrfl-biowii collectors now run a general collection, specialising certain countries as thoy can 'nft'oril iv.no nnd menus-. ' When a specialist is a.« c- ( -'-'- as he r?n hope to bo in his- favour! if < ho h naturally dip^poinied at Iho ■ lolma, ol things collectable, and ps lus pi.i-uU of tl\e h<,bby is the j-esull of a desire to srrnfify iho collecting instinct, it is a wonder that he has not before this taken to general collecting as , a relief to his feelings." 1 — — —