AIR MAIL STAMPS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 278, 24 November 1931, Page 5

AIR MAIL STAMPS

DOMINION’S FIRST SERIES INTEREST OF PHILATELISTS VALUE IN WORLD'S MARKET. AUCKLAND, Nov. 16. Considerable interest is being evinced by stamp collectors and dealers in the number of letters carried by the first New Zealand air mail from Invercargill to Auckland on Thursday. More than idle curiosity lies behind requests for information on the subject, for, on their number will depend the value in the world’s stamp market of dated stamps and specially prepared covers recording the flight. An Auckland collector, who described himself as “merely one of the 4 small fry’ in phitately, ” said yesterday that he had invested over £5O in the preparation of covers which were posted to him along the route. The covers had a neat border, the address was typewritten, each was registered and the air mail stamps were affixed with more care than was usually displayed with ordinary postage stamps. The covers also bore au endorsement testifying that they were carried on New Zealand’s first official air mail. Their contents were merely a piece of cardboard inserted to prevent the cover from being damaged. Assessing the Value.

“The interest in first flights of air mail services is a new development in stamp collecting, and, although the majority of New Zealanders will look on Thursday’s flight as a ‘stunt,’ 1 can assure you that it is not going into the realms of fancy to say that it may possibly have keen attention on the part of collectors in all parts of the world,” said the philatelist. “Only first flight stamps aud covers have commercial value, and the fewer there arc of them relating to any particular service the more valuable they will be. “It is conceivable that if 2000 letters were posted at Dunedin for Auckland, the covers may bo worth a few shillings, but because of the fewer number hali-a-dozen posted from Invercargill would realise a greater price in the market. That is why 1 had my modest investment spread in letters from point to point along the route. That is also why those of us who are interested are anxious to ascertain how many letters there were in each bag. On that information there is a collector in Wellington w’ho will be able to determine very quickly for the guidance of others the value to collectors of the stamps and covers.” Charity Stamps Criticised. The detailed information sought is not available at the Auckland post office, but it was learned that on Thursday’s flight two bags of letters came from Christchurch and one each from Invercargill, Dunedin, Blenheim, Wellington, Palmerston North and New Plymouth. A considerable volume of the correspondence was for delivery in Auckland, the remainder being for despatch overseas to connect with the air mail from Sydney to England. The collector was definite in asserting that the New Zealand Government was not alive to the money-raising possibilities of stamp isues. “Take the charity stamps now on sale,” he said. “I had a commision from an American dealer to buy £25 worth if they were likely to be of interest to collectors. From that point of view I have decided that I cannot fill the order. A stamp or cover must be attractive; it must be such a one that it will interest not only the big collector but also the father and the uncle who are willing to spend a few shillings in purchases on behalf of sons and nephews. To arouse that interest it must have more appeal to the eye than the charity stamps on sale this year. I am. certain that, if the stamps met this one condition, dealers all over the world would have purchased them in bulk lots and the Government would have raised more money than is possible by casual sale to letter writers.”