Stamp Collecting.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XXIII, 4 June 1904, Page 55

Stamp Collecting.

Great Britain and her colonies represent about one-third of the stamps of t)>e globe in actual numbers issued. • • • 'A corner pair of the. 3d rose of Great Britain, with white* spots, date 1802, and unperforated, realised 122/6 at auction in London. • • • A good collection of stamps sold for a high figure in Sydney within the last few months, the price being £2500. The collection was rich in early Australians. • • • Since 1891 Wurtemberg has issued a complete new set of municipal stamps every six months, or 263 fresh ones in 12 years. Buenos Ayres started in 1869, and has now 907 issues. • • • The 5 eents blue, 13 cents brown lilac, 15 cents olive green, and one dollar greyblack stamps of the new United States Presidential issue have been surcharged for use in the Philippine Islands. • • • The Berlin Postal Museum some years ago gave exchanges worth £ 1700 for the penny “Post Office,'’ Mauritius. Now the twopenny “Post Office’’ has been secured for the museum, but so far the price has not transpired. • • • In order to economise stamps during the Franco-German war, in 1870, an order was issued t» all post offices authorising the use of a little oblong hand stamp with the letters P.P. in a frame, meaning postage paid over the counter at the office.

No fewer than 13,000,000 halfpenny, and 15,000,000 penny, embossed envelopes of Great Britain were sold during the financial year of 1903. The commercial envelope with a penny stamp sells at the rate of 5,500,000 a year. • • • After being so persistently vilified in the London “Philatelist” it is gratifying to quote the following note regarding the colony, from K.W.S.N.: “New Zealand has never re-printed its postage stamps, nor surcharged them for its own use.’’ • • • On the Ist of August, 1904, tenders will be received for the remainder of the present issue of Virgin Islands stamps, which will be recalled as soon as a stamp of a new type is available for issue. • • • A pair of the first issue of Queensland Id rose stamps, unused, sold for £2 18/ at auction in London, and a fine pair of the Victorian issue of 1854, Queen on throne, lithographed. value 2d, led lilac, one with the error ■’Tvo,” realised £3. • • • It is stated that only 10,800 of the 10/ stamps of St. Lucia were printed, and at the end of 1903 there were still 6326 left, so that only 4474 were used in 12 years. Most of these were used on mortgage deeds and land cancelled, and it is estimated that only 400 were really used postally. Liberia has issued numerous surcharged stamps, but with regard to some cases the over-prints were really the result of changes in the postage rates. In 1892 the postage was 8 eents for half an ounce, but in 1896, when the postage was reduced to 5 eents per half ounce, the issue was altered to suit the new rates. The 16e, 24c, and 32c stamps were over-printed ten, fifteen and twenty cents in bold letters in blue.

At a recent sale in London some British stamps realised high figures, the Id V.R. sold for £6: Id retl-brown, £lO per pair; block of four, 1/, green, £l6; 2d, blue, large crown. £7; 4d carmine, 1855-7, watermark small gaiter, on deep blue, and unperforated, £l3 10, ; 10/, grey, 1867-78, £9 9 ; 20 , purple brown, 1867-78, £l3; 5A rose, on bluish (anchor), £l3; and 20/. purple-lilac (orbs), £7 5/. • • • Reporters are generally supposed to be up-to-date, and it is interesting to know that in 1653 M. de Velayer, a reporter on petitions in France, was granted a privilege, or a royal charter, for putting up letter-boxes in different quarters of Paris, and for establishing an office at the palace, where a certain kind of printed little labels (stamps) were sold for a sou each. These labels bore the words “Postage paid the day of 1653,’’ These were, however, private stamps, and it was not till 1848 that Government postage stamps were authorised by law in France.