The Stamp Club

Southland Times, Issue 20538, 14 July 1928, Page 11 (Supplement)

The Stamp Club

Dear Chums, Well, here we are again! Another week gone and I am glad to say that several more have written to me. But not as many as I should have liked. I know that there must be scores of Little Southlanders who are or would be interested in stamp collecting but so far, I have not received anywhere like that number. Now, I know that a very pleasant little club can be formed with only a few members, but I also know, the more members there are, the more chance of having a good time. So please all of you who are interested write to me and get that set of three Tunisian stamps that I have promised, together with a perforation gauge and membership ticket. Now comes the good news. I have arranged that next Friday night week (that is July 27) at the Y.M.C.A. in Tay Street there will be a cosy little room with a fire probably and we shall all meet together and have a look through each others' albums and “swap” stamps. I am looking forward to it immensely and I hope that all the town members will turn up. Hoping to hear from many more Little Southlanders this week, I sign myself, Your Fellow-Collector, Cousin Phil. HOW TO COLLECT (Continued.) Last week I explained some ways of collecting—taking the stamps off letters you have received, buying packets of foreign stamps and “swapping” your duplicates with other collectors. Another good way is to have correspondents all over the world as I have. Most of you could find addresses of people in Australia, England, America or South Africa with whom you could exchange stamps. To get addresses from all over the world, the best way to do is to join a Stamp Exchange Club. There are several good English, American, French and German clubs in existance. I am a member of a French club and have found the experience very good. The position is that in return for a small registration fee, you get a booklet in which are the addresses of all the other members of the club. By using the figure code supplied no one needs to know any foreign language but. can carry on exchanges by means of it. In return for so many New Zealand stamps, your correspondent will send you the same number of stamps of his own country. When a fairly big collection has been got together, you will find that packets are giving you too many duplicates. It is then that the buying of sets is to be recommended—you know exactly what you are getting and order them accordingly. NEW ISSUES PICTURE SET FOR GREECE. Greece’s philatelic set-piece for the centenary of the Battle of Navarino last October misfired, says Fred. J. Melville in the Daily Telegraph. A series of stamps had been prepared for the occasion and distributed to the post offices, but at the last moment orders were issued to withhold them, and only a few of the 1A and 5 drachmai values were sold at Pylos at the date of the anniversary, October 20. The delay was due to the discovery of a very un-English title on one of the 5 drachmai stamps in honour of the English admiral; beneath the portrait the caption read “Sir Codrington.” You can never tell just what will happen with Greek commemorative stamps, and so it proves. For the stamps have been issued after all, and the only change is that, in addition to the 5 drachmai inscribed “Sir Codrington” there is another stamp of the same denomination correctly labelled “Sir Edward Codrington.” So the “errors” will be plentiful; there were 270,000 of them, while eight millions have been printed of the corrected stamps. There was another complaint about the series, that the French Admiral, de Rigny, was shown in civilian dress instead of in uniform like Admirals Codrington and Van der Heyden, but this has been allowed to pass without alteration. This set, of genuine historical interest, now comprises six stamps, all lithographed locally. On the 1.50 dr. grey-green is a view of Navarino as seen from Sphacteria. The 4 dr. blue depicts an incident in the battle, the blowing up of the Egyptian flagship. The other stamps are all of the 5 dr. denomination, presumably to avoid indicating any order of precedence; sdr. brown and black, Sir Edward Codrington; 5 dr. brown and black, “Sir Codrington” (error) ; 5 dr. red and black. Van der Heyden; 5 dr. blue and black, de Rigny. FACSIMILE STAMPS There have always been people who have argued that if a stamp is rare and you cannot afford it, the next best thing is to fill up the space for it in your album with a facsimile, says Fred. J. Melville in the Daily Telegraph. Stamps, however, cannot be regarded in the same light as pictures, and facsimiles of them are nothing less than forgeries. In this country the law would not permit the making or selling of “facsimile” stamps, but a number of such factories have existed abroad. Gradually, however, they are being suppressed. The worst are now in Italy and Spain. Formerly the greatest of the makers of facsimile stamps was the late F. Fournier, of Geneva. In the course of many years he reproduced, more or less cleverly, about 1,000 different sets of stamps of value. These he sold openly as facsimiles, but he had no control over what his customers passed them on as, and many Fournier facsimiles have been cherished in collections throughout the world as genuine specimens. Swiss philatelists have long been at war with the facsimile makers, and how the Union Philatelique of Geneva has brought off a transaction which will effectively stop the circulation of any more of the productions of Fournier or his successor. They have acquired the whole of the plant, consisting of dies, matrices, “postmarking” chops, perforating and printing machines, and have put them in the Museum of History and Art at Geneva. At the same time the society acquired the whole of the printed stock of facsimile stamps, an enormous lot, weighing 18cwt, and these have been classified in 300 collections, after being definitely cancelled “faux.” These collections are being distributed at 50 francs each exclusively to philatelic experts and to societies for reference. Only one album is allowed to an individual, but societies may acquire two. They should enable experts to identify readily supposed stamps of the Fournier brand.