PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2331, 3 November 1898, Page 45

PHILATELY.

By Old Stamp.

THE NEW COLLECTOR.

Very little has been said of late about the New Collector, but we are glad to notice that more and more our adyice is taken with regard to the collecting of new issues, starting with current stamps instead of running after old issues, which in too many cases will leave blanks in the collections which perhaps may never be filled. The present time has never been surpassed in this respect, new issues necessitated by changes or other postal requirements come out in such rapid succession that even from a monetary point of view the profit on a moderate expenditure at current rates must be enormous. Our publishers have at present stocks of stamps which only arrived when they were actually out of issue at their respective offices. We can only advise our readers not to hesitate, but to fill the spaces while there is time. The prices for such stamps are bound to go up, and, therefore, do not delay, and buy at current prices. — Philatelic Journal of Great Britain. . I Paris is to have a grand philatelic exhibition. All the leading French .collectors are taking active interest in it, and every effort is being made to make it a success. It> is quite time the prospectus was issued. j A large majority of my readers have never seen a Mulready envelope. I will not attempt to describe it — it would take too long. I may say, however, that there are seven animals purposely depicted on the allegorical design — viz., one lion, two elephants, two camels, one dog, and one reindeer. The Philatelic Chronicle publishes a paragraph which reads : — " But where the puzzle comes in is why such an unmistakable rabbit should be calmly crouching beneath the sugar hogshead, on which mighty blows are being dealt by a negro with a big hammer. It is meant, probably, to represent a stone, or merely a bit of shading, but it is not passing strange that a fortuitous concourse of lines should so plainly suggest to the observer the outline of the quadruped above-mentioned? Every person to whom it has been pointed out without exception has pronounced it to be a rabbit, whether they had previously seen a Mulready or not." A pretty story is reported from London. A London collector of some importance entered the shop of a well-known dealer and offered him one of the early Moldavias. The dealer made him an excellent offer of £3 or £4 for it. A few weeks after tbe same collector entered the same shop, and this time asked to see specimens of the same envelope, as he wished to purchase some. Two or three were produced, priced at the very moderate figure of £30 or £32. Then there were ructions. Red tapeism as a rule is slow and tiresome reading, but now and then very funny things ' are ordered to be carried out. For instance, the French postal authorities have lately issued the following instructions to their employees : — 1. It is forbidden for any employee to read the information written on a postcard ; 2. it is forbidden to allow insulting or libellous postcards to pass through the post. The sixpenny carmine Jubilee stamp of New South Wales bas made its appearance printed in a very light green, while the twopenny dark blue is printed in an almost ultramarine colour. The appearance of the sixpenny in this colour at the present time is very strange, for in the ordinary course of events the colours agreed upon by the Postal Conference for halfpenny, penny, and twopenny halfpenny stamps of all countries belonging to the Postal Union should come into use at the beginning of the year. The colours agreed upon -nere halfpenny green, penny red, twopenny halfpenny blue. This change will (necessitate the further change of the sixpenny in a shurt time if the halfpenny is to be printed in green. The New York Herald publishes an article on the new war revenue stamps of the United States.^ Concluding, it writes :— " About two-thirds of the force employed on the new stamps are women, mostly young girls, selected because they are more neat, careful, and dexterous for delicate work than is tbe ordinary man. To keep the wheels running fast enough to file the variety of new orders necessitated by the Revenue Act, the force of the great Bureau of Engraving and Printing has been increased by nearly 1700. By making two ' shifts ' Chief Johnson says he can turn out 16,000,000 of the new stamps daily." The Monthly Journal writes : — " We have to go abroad to hear of what is said to have taken place in London. We have heard nothing about the matter here, and venture very much to doubt the accuracy of the report which is given in Die Post of August last. A translation of the paragraph in fiuestion is given below, and we shall be glad if any of our friends who are fiscal collectors would inform us if there is any truth in this report, as it would be interesting to know if any fiscal stamp ever fetched such an enormous price as £250. We do not doubt the rarity of the stamp, because personally we know nothing at all about fiscals, but certainly we think that no fiscal has fetched such a price as that now re-

ported, and we should like to know the truth of the matter : 'An Argentine stamp has lately been sold in London for £250. It is a stamp for use in the Customs, and when new has a face value of £280, or 1400 pesos. The stamp is one of the greatest rarities.' " The following cutting, taken from the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, may be accepted as authentic in reference to the issue of " Charity " stamps there some time since : — " Owing to the decision of the English dealers in stamps not to recognise them, the Jubilee charity issue made by the Victorian Post Office department of 40,000 one penny stamps at Is and 10,000 twopenny halfpenny stamps at 2s 6d has not proved an unqualified success. The latter were all sold, but a considerable number of the former (1200) are on hand. The department has accounted for £2950 worth sold, and has handed £2638 7s Id to the Treasurer for distribution, that being the net sum after deducting the full value and cost of printing the issue." I should take the above to be anything but an unqualified success. They have sold more than nine-tenths of the total issue, which must be looked upon as very good business, when we consider the result is all profit. My wonder is that there are enough foolish people in the world to buy such rubbish. But I may be wrong in hinting that there are this number of foolish people. I suspect that the large number of these charity stamps are being held by speculators, dealers, and others for a rise. All the harm I wish those who may be holding them for this purpose is that they may live till they get it.