STAMPS

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 3

STAMPS

THE COLLECTORS’ COLUMN.

(By

Star N.Z.)

From Viceroy, Saskatchewan, Canada, I have just received advice from a correspondent of the issue of new postage due stamps in French and English, also that there is soon to be issued a series of commemorative stamps in honour of Cartier, the Frenchman, who was really the pioneer of colonization in Canada. My friend writes stating that everyone is after the eight cents blue (S.G. 292). I secured a used copy of this stamp from him, but he tells me that he has had so many requests that now his stock is down to the single stamp that forms part of his collection. Stanley Phillips in his book upon stamp collecting stresses the need for careful attention to the condition of the stamps. He says, inter alia: “An unused stamp in perfect condition must be as fresh as on the day when it came from the printing press, with colour bright, paper clean and uncreased and gum untouched. If it is of an imperforate issue, it must have margins on all sides as wide as can possibly be obtained, and certainly the scissors which separated it from Its brethren must not have touched even the outermost line of its design. In the case of used stamps, the freshness, the margins, and the uncreased and entirely undamaged character of the stamp also apply while the postmark must be light, and applied in such a way as not to obscure the more important part of the design. As far as imperforated stamps are concerned, perfect condition forbids any shortness of tooth in the perforations, and good centring is a sine qua non.” However, the search for stamps in perfect condition has, he points out, become a craze with many collectors leading them to actions which, in any other connection would be regarded as mad.

“What can one .think,” he asks, “of an enthusiastic amateur who, shown a rare and interesting item, of whose rarity and interest, moreover, he is in his heart, convinced, spurns, and regards it of no account only because it does not reach his standard of condition? To preserve condition it is necessary to exercise the greatest care in the handling of stamps —in fact they should be handled only with the aid of a pair of tweezers. Stamps should be mounted on only one side of the paper or, if mounted on both sides, they should be separated by a thin sheet of softish paper. Better still is the idea of covering the page (when mounted with stamps) with a sheet of cellophane or window paper which is gummed down to the page at each, of the two outer corners whilst the inside of the sheet is held in position by the springback device in the cover of the album. This allows the stamps to be inspected without the danger of their being handled by thoughtless or careless persons.” The annual meeting of the Invercargill Philatelic Club is to be held to-night in St. Paul’s Schoolroom. It is to be hoped that there will be a full muster of members. Any stamp collector wishing to join the club should attend this meeting, where he will be made very welcome. New Zealand has so far issued one series of air mail stamps, but even she is ahead of Great Britain, which has not issued an air mail stamp at all. Compare them both with the prolific air mail issues of Newfoundland. In 1919 there were three provisional overprinted air mail stamps. In 1921 another provisional, and in 1927 a further overprinted issue for the de Pinedo air mail. Then in 1931 we had a furtherissue in three new and separate designs. In 1932 another provisional for the transatlantic air mail per Dornier DO-X. And in 1933 another set of five values of air stamps in entirely new designs.