FORTUNES IN WAR STAMPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17552, 23 April 1919, Page 7

FORTUNES IN WAR STAMPS

How much money has been invested in. postage-stamps issued in, consequent of the war? Tw issues of Red Cross stamps of the Belgian Congjo are of a total face value of about £3, and if anybody wants a single set of similar franks for North Borneo he will have to pay for it about £4. Yet that is only a beginning. A collection must include som« stamps of German Togoland, and these are priced from a few shillings up to £160 apiece, though the rarer varieties are now generally from £40 to £70 each. Other essential items are German New Guinea, Busrah, Bagdad, and other stamps illustrating occupation by the Allies. Now, for a certain New Guinea stamp, issued at 4d., the market price is £150, and stamps of Basrah and Bagdad are so rare that forgeries are cropping out —one by one, of course —every where.

"Errors," too, are wanted, and these —phew! The Jamaica l|d orange war stamp, for instance, costs in the usual way about sd; but if the surcharge is printed "WAR TAMP" the price is £65. While, again,, you can have a perfect Trinidad war stamp for 1/3 or less, you are asked £90 for one with the surcharge-:—"War Tax" —upside down! But do collectors actually pay such amazing prices for rarities? As a fact, one recently gave £700 for two Togo stamps