STAMP COLLECTING

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVII, Issue 21, 24 November 1906, Page 40

STAMP COLLECTING

Another stump has been added to the pictorial set of Roumania. It is oblong in shape, brown and black in colour, and of the value of 50 Irani. 0 0-0 A change has taken place in the stamps of the Dommean republic. The new issue have black centres and frames in various colours, whereas the former issue had black frames with the centres in different colours. The values range from Ic. to 50e.. and a Ip. violet, • • • 'fhe one riqwe stamp of East Africa and I'gM.nda. King Edward ty|<e, on toned paper, is already obsolete, being replaced by one rupee green on watermark Crown e.e. thin chalk-surfaced pa t «-r. • • • The late Mr Roliert Elirenliack once had an unfortunate experience in Moroeeo. He bougth a fine lot of Portugese early in Lisbon, ami a splendid collection of Spanish stanqra while wandering from place to place in that country. Then lie

went on to Morocco, and wan attmtaO by Bedouins- who stoh- his baggage, including the philatelic treasure-. • • • Two very opposite opinions have been published regarding the tai-centennial stamp of Rarbadoes. One writer statea, “As far as ugliness goes, it certainly surpasses many issues of the same order.” while another -says, “The stamp haa been generally described as the handsomest of the year. In fact, there are very few stanqis ever issued that are prettier than the latest addition to our albums.” Such contrary opinions regarding the same stamp remind one of rival newspapers’ comments on the same candidate for polities! honours. • • • An express delivery stamp is reported from China. Hie. value, and dark and light green. It is 8J inches long by inches deep. The whole is covered by a groundwork of the inscription, “Chin ese Imperial Post Ofliee," which for some reason is printed in small c apitals all in one word. The left hand portion seems to be a kind of counterfoil; it contains only a vertical inscription in Chinese, at the right-hand side, in deep green, and a number, in Chinese and European figures, in black (tliis number is repeated, in black, on each of tlic other portions) ; the rest of the label is occupied by a large device, all in dark green, extending across the other three parts, and consisting of a very elaborate dragon, enclosed in a fancy frame, inscribed “Chinese Imperial Post” at top, and “Express letter" below and at each end. There is also a Chinese inscription, outside the frame, at each end, and there are some Chinese characters mixed up with the Dragon. • • • With regard to the recent issue of provisional stamps in Gambia, “Stanley Gibbons' Monthly Journal” has the following, which should meet with the approval of stamp collectors generally:—• “The collecting of stamps is a very interesting pursuit, of a more or less scientific mature, so long as it -remains the collecting of things genuinely issued for real business purposes. When we get to the stage at which varieties are multiplied simply because collectors exist, there is serious risk that the whole nature of the pursuit may be altered for the worse. This Gambia case is a typical one: there was no dearth of Ad or Id stamps, lr.it there were supplies of 2/6 and 3/ stamps that seemed to be superfluous. Tn the ordinarv course these liigli-value stamps would either have been destroyed oiv gradually used up; there was no saving whatever in converting them to lower values, because the overprinting no doubt cost far more than the price of an equal number of stamps from Home, and (his provisional issue would never have taken place if the authorities had not been well aware that the cost would be more than repaid by sales of Stamps that would never do postal duty. How many, we wonder, of the 3500 stamps that are supposed to have been used upon cones (londence. really paid any postage? Probably not 20 per eent. Even if they all did so. and were not merely stuck' upon envelopes in order that they might he postmarked, the Post Office wifi have made a profit of about £ 15, more than enough t<> cover the printers bill. Local spetntlators are believed to have made one hundred times this amount; dealers in Europe must have a little (irofit also, and the result is that collectors are mulcted to the amount of some two thousand pounds for stamps that were absolutely unnecessary for any good purpose.”