PHILATELY. By Pelure.

Otago Witness, Issue 2424, 30 August 1900, Page 54

PHILATELY. By Pelure.

Whilst on the siibject of Australian Federation, one of the principal English philatelic papers says: — The great philatelists \ of the early days may almost be said to ! have been brought up upon Sydney views I and old Victorians ; -whilst the swans of j Western Australia rivalled even the " tri- ; angular Capes "' in the eyes of the younger ! collectors. The most interestiag of the problems connected with the early Australian stamps have, it is ti've, been solved ; but when the lists of the issues of the j separate colonies are closed, as they will 1 bo when federation becomes an accomplished fact, many of our twentieth century philatelist*- will rediscover the scope which those stamps present for close study, and , we do not doubt that it will be found ; there is still much to be learned about and from them. The Victorian and Queensland war stamps . have been a fearful frost, and it is said ! the cost of preparing them will scarcely be covered by the sales, for all of Avhich let us be truly thankful. Collectors of postmarks are not to bu forgotten at the Paris Exposition. The Government of the Uniled States has been authorised to open a post v omce in the United States pavilion. This office was opened on April 15, and is in chprge of poMal officials from tho United States. Letter? will be obliterated as follows: ["U.S. Postal .Station, Paris (France, Ex- , position, 1900)'?" j As there seems to be a probability of | tho Danish West Indies being shortly absorbed by some Power, I clip the foilowj ing from a Home paper: — There seems to j be very little doubl that the Danish West 1 Indies* will shortly '' change hands," so to I say. Indeed, a political scramble i.s uiiderj stood to be going on among certain powers foi the '" refus-il "' of the group. Germany j and the United States are both believed to Ibe coveting the islands ; and nothing is j more likely Hum that the Doniph West Indies will be supplied one of the^e da;,-s with stamps of the new German colonial type — either this or a nice long set of ';Hircharged United Slates poM/igc slranps, o la Guam. | One thing is quite certain : the islands 1 are of little use to Deaauirk. Probubly their I transfer to some other Power irf only a i question* of time. i The first stamps of the Danish West Tn1 dies are distinguishable from those of the mother country only by «ihe difference of coinage. Instead of ihe skill in 5s or ore of Denmark the Danish West Indies have always used the cents nncl dollars ox Brother Jonathan. In the succeeding issues, again, the type of the Danish stamps is adhered to, the only difference being that in the place of the inscription "Denmark" we fee on the colonial stamps, "Dansk — Vestindiske — Oer." These stamps of the Danish West Indies are an exceedingly simple study, but certain points of interest may be noted regarding them. Firstly, as regards the 'stamps of the first issue, some very noticeable varieties of gum will be found. The stamps exist with very light, and also very dark brown, gum ; and it lias always been supposed that this j variation is due to the fact that in 1855 j the colonial authorities in the Island of St. Thomas received from the home government a consignment of postage stamps, Avhich, owing to the clamp atmosphere of tha ship's hold, were all stuck together, necessitating a regummmg process. For this purpose the stamps were sent, half of them to one firm and half to another — to be regiumned. In the one case they were coated with the purest gum arable, and in the other case a gum of very inferior quality was applied. Naturally age has told upon the commoner gum, and the difference in colour Las become more striking v,ith the passing years. The earliest stamps of the Danish West Indies are to be found rouletted, but there seems to be no doubt that this rouletting is entirely unofficial. Not before 1872, when the first perforated stamps appeared, was any official means of separation adopted an these stamps. In May, 1887, the Danish Indies perpetrated their first surcharge, owing, I believe, to a run upon the 1 cent stamps of the colony. The 7 cents of 1873 were converted into 1 cent stamps by means of a black surcharge, and this stamp nowadays is not nearly so common as some of our catalogue quotations would lead one to suppose. Another surcharge, the 10 cents on 50 cents rf 1895 completes the tale of Danish West Indian stamps. None of them are sa rare as to tempt the forger, but in the past rough imitations of these stamps have found their way upon the stamp market ; these are all lithographed on unwatermarked paper, and thus easily separable from genuine specimens., j