PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2467, 26 June 1901, Page 61

PHILATELY.

Ey Pellre.

In the Home country of late there have besn. many criminal prosecutions of sellers of forged stamps, obtaining stamps under false pretences, and last, but not least, changing stamps on approval sheets. In every instance a conviction has been recorded, with sentences from six months to three years. It is very evident the judicial bench at Home is determined to put a stop to frauds on philatelic people.

Possibiy many collectors have wondered why the stamps of the 1882 issue of Cuba were surcharged, in fancy characters of various designs in the following year. An American contemporary puts forward as a feasible explanation the fact that a great quantity of unused stamps were stolen, and the Government destroyed their value by overprinting those that remained in this manner.

The Transvaal Id stamps surcharged " E.R.1." are said to have been issued in Johannesburg on March 20. They are, by the way, the fk B t stamps to be issued under King Edward's rule.

The Duke of Cornwall is a very enthusiastic stamp collector, and has a really fine collection. I understand our New Zealand Government are preparing an extremely handsome album of as many New Zealand issues as possible 3 for presentation to his Royal Highness. It is quite impossible to make the collection anything like complete, as some varieties are simply unobtainable, but the old archives of the G.P.0., Wellington, have been thoroughly ransacked for old varieties. Rumour has it that more than one advanced collector has parted with some- of his duplicates to help the good cause. All the way out on his tour the various Governments have been very -kind towards the Duke's philatelic proclivities. In Malta a philatelic exhibition was held in his honour, as per following cutting from a Valetta paper : — Tin, festivities for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York's visit have been really a success. On tha 27th April the Duke opened an Art Exhibition, a section of which was allotted to postage stamps. The collections were 1 many. Among th<- most prominent were Mr Micallef's Maltese collection, which is unique in the whole island. In it there were the yellow stamp with pin perforation, and another with watermark crown CO. inverted, the latter the only specimen known. Blocks of the 5s watermark inverted and of the 4d imjjerforated^

used and unused, were in abundance. The Dyke was prtsented with a collection of Maltese stamps, dating since 1866, by the Exhibition Committee. He al?o accepted a general collection from Baron Testaferrata, C.AI.G-., which he had been uniting fc.inre 40 years ago. Mr E. Leonandini \ cry kindly filled some \aluabie gaps in the Duke's collection.

Hoarding i' 1111 11" 1 proposed new i<-sue for the United States, 1 take the following exti-aefc from a Washington newsnape which appeared in Mekecl's Weekly:— The question of changing the de--ign of the regular issue of pottage i^ under consideiation at the Po.st Office department. Tl ird Assistant Po«lmactergeneral Madder said it was probable that thp name of the perfeon v-ill bo printed under the head boine on the &lampt>. Other changes suggested which may leeehe serious consideration are that tre dale? of birth and death of the person may be printed under the name, and that the design also bear an inscription ghing the year of issue of the particular series of stamps. It the suggestion that each year of i^sue be engraved on the stamps is seriously entertained, and ultimately becomes an accomplished fact, we are afiaid the stamps will be rather on a level with Nicaragua and others of that ilk.

"Entires" is the name given to envelopes, wrappers, and postcards, etc., that are uncut, which is the only correct or effective way of collecting those most interesting issue's, and as a whole, they are the least expensive in proportion to the quantity received for your outlay. Adhesive stamps on original covers are Fomeumes crllod by the' same name, but are seldom collected and are of little interest. In a tew cases. where low-priced issues such as the Central Americans called Seebecks, are to be bought for less money unused than when postally used, the former are "postmarked to order," and m a genuine postmark on an original envelope becomes interesting. Also in respect of certain large "remainders" of unused Continental stamp«, on which fictitious postmarks are printed to enhance their value ; and, again, as indicating by the dates the periods when such stamps were actually in use.

The "Optimist," writing in the Metropolitan Philatelist, ptates that sharply on the day of* the closing of the Pan American Exposition, October 31, all the Pan American stamps will be immediately withdrawn from sale and returned to Washington and promptly destroyed. It would thus seem that the forthcoming issue will be speculative and unneceeoary in the widest sense of the term.

It is rumoured that M. llouchon. the designer of the new French stamps, is at present at work retouching the designs owin<j to the unfa\ ourable criticism thtir is suo has evoked

>,'"Most collectors are aware that the arms of Madrid— a bear and a tree— form the central design of the two stamps, value 1 and 3 cuaitos, if sued in 1853, for use in the Spanish capital, but probably few have any idea of the origin of the device. The follow ing story was told in an ancient number of Le Timbrophile to account for its adoption by the city of Madrid, and though we cannot vouch for its truth, it as nevertheless interesting. Long years ago, when the site of Madrid was occupied by only a few peasants' cottages, a young girl, resident in one of them, left her home to go and pluck madronos. On approaching the ! tree she was about to despoil she observed a huge bear seated in its branches busily engaged in munching fruit. Horror-stricken, the girl hastily retreated; but on telling her mother what she had seen, received in reply a blow from her distaff. Indeed, madre" (mother), said the girl, "if you do not believe go into the orchard and see, and you will soon believe I am speaking the truth." Nothing loth, the - mother went ; the bear saw and seized her ; and the justice of heaven was accomplished by her destruction. In memory of the fact the Government of the dny conferred on the infant comnuvnity the name of Madre-id (corrupted in time to Madrid), and granted it permission to take for its arms the "Bear and the tree."— Ewen s \\ eekly.