PHILATELY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 55

PHILATE L Y .

By PeltjSß,

Stamp-collecting, ia .steadily growing, in popularity a<3 a pastime. It is cne of the hobbies combining pleasure and instruction, and deals with euch a variety of subjects as to rr^ake it of greater educational \alue than mci-t othor forms of diversion. It is essentially an indoor amusement ; ie is reetful and quieting after the mind 1 as been busily cooupifcd with duties, and has no unpleasant features. Being carried on largely by correspondence the opportunities afforded those living 111 the small towns .ire almost equal to those enjoyed in the cities. The care with which tiie specimens are handled and mounted and the taste and originality displayed in the arrangement of the various issues have much to do with the appe.ara.nco of a collection. It is not necessarily the large collections which make the best showing or give the greatest amount of pleasure ; it is the individual ideas used to bring out the effects that make an album most attractive. Specialismg — by which is meant the selection of certain countries — is being much favoured, as many persons of limited time prefer to make a good showing in a few countries rather than to gather parts of all issues and have them more or less scattered.

For some time past the Stamp Collector has furnished biographical stamp notes intended as a help to form intelligently a philatelic portrait gallery from one's duplicates. The Philatelic West is taking a different plan by grouping the stamps into olasses. For instance, portraits of women. Pictures of women are common enough on stamps, but moet of them are fanciful, and real portraits are scarcer than one would think. The following is believed to be nearly a comple-fes list : — Queen Victoria ; Great Britain and about 60 British Colonies. Princess of Wales, now Queen Alexandra; Newfoundland. 1808, 3 cents. Duchess of Cornwall ard York; Newfoundland, 1901, 4 cents. Queen Wiilielnima, Holland, Curacao, Dutch Indies and Surmame. Isabella I :>f Spam; United States, 1893, several ; Salvador, 1894, 10 pesetas. Queen Isabellp 11 , Spam and Colonies. Queen Maria II of Portugal ; Portugal. Martha Washington; United States, 1903, 8 cents. Queen Makea ; Cook Islands. Queen Emma of the Sandv;ich Islands; Hawaii, 1883, 100 cents. Queen Kapiola.ni of the Sandwich Islands ; Hawaii, 1882. 15 cents. Princess Kamainaiu; Hawaii. 1871, 1 cent. Princess Likthko ; Ha .van, ISB2, 1 cent. Princess Liliuokolam; Hawaii, 1591, 2 cents.

A Swiss resident of Liberia writes to the- Basoler Zeitung : — A queer i?tate of affairs pievails in the poet omee of the Republic Liberia. It is only with the greatest of risks that one hands his lettc-is, etc., to tho Libenan post. If you want to be sure of tianemission, then you mv t go to tho counter, take up tho obhterofcor and with it cancel the po-tage stamps yourself. If you leave uncancelled stamps to the post director, he will tear them off and sell them over again, while the lotteis unceremoniously drop into a thing resembling our European waste paper basket. This, adds the V X.8., reminds us of a nie-3 little story which a humorous periodical once told at the expense of the Turkish Post Office at Constantinople. A German tailor received from Berlin a money order for 20m. (£1). When Wishing tame, the post official ccraped together with the greatest difficulty 10s in compel 15; A s he received in shape of the Sultan's photograph, bearing ms own signature; and fo* the rest, the tailor had to be coiitent With a high Turkish decoration!

I tinned it ovc-r : it was an old stamp catalogue juiblir-N-d at Brussels in 1850, and vi as included with a lot of okl stamp iiteratuio I Lad ju*t purchased. Tho cover was ehabby, but the interior of tho vvoik struck me as being- singularly comprehensive for its early dato of issue. I manvlled and wondered : before, howevor. I had even studied its title page or observ od tho name of its publisher, I found several leaves stuck together, and opened them: there weie "heet-j and sheets of unused stamps in mint =tpie, mo«tly numeral and early head issues of Hawaii. What a find! Tho panes, ho-r-evc-r, wcie differently arranged to those known at the preidit day, and T discovered a novelty in the chape of a sheoc of 2c blue, 1864-. Could it be an error, and t. a= I destined to make co fortunate a discovery? I roughly estimated their value it £5000. Wliile musing thusly I heaid a rap at my door, and a familiar voice saying, "Your hot v atcr, sir." Curbed illusion! I v. oko from my slocp a paddor but a wiser man.

The use of stamps for ornamental purposes h&vt been in vogue for many yeais, tho practice being to put tiie stamps on the suifdce ia any kuid of crazy fashion viiia-

out regard to colour or effect. "Wo Imvc st tim^s -cm" veiy pretty dc*igns made with po tago Ynsce, fhip-. and miniatuie hori^p-s h.ue a'^o been found good material to work upo.i. But riuito n new hobby has sprung into prmninenco recently — viz., the making of picture in postage stamps ra ckvciiixd and beautifuPy illuctratod in the November number of the Windsor Magazine, which says: — "Indeed, to finch an extent r>as tho demand for pictures made in postage stamps increased recently, to such an extent has the craze- of making them developed among persons who have time to devote t-o a hobby, that stamp dealers have begun to ftudy the requirements of st-imp artists, and make ready fop their iu-o as-orted packets of stamps comprising all the colours they arc likely to want in the making of their pictures."

NEW ISSUES.

Jamaica. — The follow ing is a description of a now d&sign of 2j, and 2 postage stamps for this colony: — "The design of the 2£ stamps is dr noted by the arms of the colony in black, <.hb in a groiind of drab, and in a frame of blue. The design of the i stamp Is denoted by the arms of iho colony in black, set in a ground of dark drab, and" in a frrme of pale green. The respective face values of the above stamps are shown in numerals on either sid-© of the word 'Jamaica' v at the top of the stamp, and in words at the foot thereof."

Panama. — The first etamps- of the new Repubh'o are already making their appearance. The Metroj>olitan Philatelist haa been shown the following by Mr J. A. Klemaun : — Aclhesives. Old issue, overprinted "Eepublica de Panama." 2 centavos, rose Surcharge, blacl

20 centavos. violet „ red. 1 peso brown-carmine „ red. Registration Adhesive. 29c. b!ue and brown Surcharge, red.

Presumably the lc. 100 and 50c have also b-oen Gin charged.

Albania. — The current stamps of Italy have been overprinted "Albanir, — 4-0 para 40" — for use in the Mediterranean ports there, but the Sultan is said to have ob-jecled to this postal acquisition of territory, and so the value, on'y is to bs. fiuroharged in future, as witr. other issues for the Levant, like our own. 10 paras on 5c green. 35 paras on 20c oringe. 40 paras on 25c blue.

Korea. — Tho Am. J. of P. chronicles a new issue for this countiy, which, at the present moment is very much in the publio eye. The design is characteristically Japanese, the centre figure being known as the "Violet Falcon " Bones th the falcon is a plum blcsFom, the imperial flower. The legends "are now in French, instead of English. There are 13 values.

Australian Commonwealth — It is rumoured that a different design is contemplated for each value of the "Postage Due" series, aa innumerable mistakes are made by postal officials, owing to the similarity between the values. A like complaint is mad© with regard to the revenue stamps of Western Australia.