STAMP COLLECTING

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIX, Issue 13, 28 September 1907, Page 51

STAMP COLLECTING

According to the “Melbourne Herald,” a post office has been established at Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands. Letters may be sent from Australia at the 2Jd rate. The articl) also states that the High Commissioner of the Solomon Islands has issued a new stamp, and is now asking the approval of Ithe British authorities. In this connection, it may be mentioned that as the Solomon Islands have not been admitted to the Postal Union, letters have to be re-stamped at Sydney, N.S.W. The issue of Soloman Islands was 'authorised by the Secretary of State last July, therefore these stamps are in every way a Government issue. The next step will no doubt be to join the Postal Union, and when that occurs the colours will require to be altered. • • • A further lot of the Nelson stamps were ordered by the postal authorities of Barbadoes. They appear to be the sama in appearance as the original issue, but are on crown C.A. multiple paper instead of the Crown C.C. It is stated that only the id, 2d, and 2Jd were ordered on account of the original supply of those values being so speedily absorbed by dealers and speculators that it is impossible to sell full sets. This, if true, shows how carefully these places cater for the pockets of stamp collectors. It is, however, gratifying to learn that under no circumstances will any more of the Nelson series be ordered. • • • It is now officially stated that the number of Labuan stamps of each denomination overprinted Straits Settlements was as follows: —1 cent, 6000; 2 cent, 4000 ; 3 cent, 10,000; 8 cent, 28,000; 10 cent, 41,700; 25 cent, 46,200; 50 cent, 42,600; 1 dol., 45,800; (surcharged 4 cents) 18 cent, 48,400; 16 cent, 28,300; and 12 cent, 25,700. ... . : “Mekeel’s Weekly Sjamp News” states that "the",current set ,-from J- centavo to 1 peso is now printed on paper watermarked with alternate rows of crosses and circles. The new stamps are being issued as the old stock runs out. • • • Owing to the introduction of stamp booklets in Natal, the first stamp on the first page is obliterated with the words in three lines “Not for use.” The explanation is that there are 30 stamps in each booklet, when only 29 are required!. thfis singular (way has Ibeen adopted for rendering one unfit; for franking purposes. The eost of obliterating one stamp ia each book must neuriy equal the value of the stamp. • • • , A set of postage due stamps has been issued in Transvaal. They are inscribed “Transvaal” at the top, “Post Office” at the bottom, and in the centre a large numeral' indicates the value. The Jd. is bluish green, Id. scarlet, 2d. orange, 3d. pale blue, sd. violet, 6d. red brown, and on all these' the value is in Mack: The 1/ stamp is blac:; with the value in carmine. These stamps are on Crown C.A. multiple paper. At a recent meeting of the Roval Philatelic Society (states Stanley Gibbons’ Journal ’), Mr. R. B. Yardley showed a block of four of the St. Vincent 1/, slate grey, of 1866, perf. 11 to 12J all round, a variety which, used to be listed years ago, but whieh was struck out of the fc>t. V incent handbook because no evidence could be obtained of its existence. This evidence has now been supplied, and a note by Mr. E. D. Bacon, in The L.P. for May, accounts for this variety as follows: The first supply of 1/ stamps was sent out in July, 1866, and the second in February, 1869; both are entered as purple in Messrs. Perkins Bacon and Co.’s books, but as a matter of fact the first lot was slate grey and the second indigo; 500 sheets were perforated on the first occasion and 300 on the second. Miss Stewart, the lady who worked tho old perforating machine, noted the former as “ purple ” in her book, but did not note the colour of the latter, and Mr. «*acon suggests, probably quite correctly,

that a few sheets beyond the 500 may have been printed in 1866, and that these may have formed part of the supply sent out in 1869, and thus have been perforated with the same gauge as the 1/, indigo, which are always perf. 11 to 12J. All were intended by the printers to be the same colour, but Miss Stewart must have noticed that this was not the case, and therefore entered the second lot in her perforating book as “300 sheets St. Vincent, 1/,” without mentioning the colour.

In the light of subsequent events it is somewhat interesting to note that in 1852 the 13 cents stamp of Hawaii had the letters H.I. and U.S. on them, and the following year the stamp bore the words, Hawaiian and United States. A writer in a Philatelic Journal has deduced from this fact the argument that as far back as 1852 King Kamehameha 111. contemplated being incorporated in the United States of America. Gibbons’ Monthly Journal, however, gives a more satisfactory explanation, that only one value in each issue bears the compound inscription referred to, and there were . other values issued at the same time which did not bear anything of the kind. In the first issue the inscription is “ H. I. & U. S. Postage,” which in the second is explained as “ Hawaiian—s cts. United States 8 Cts.”, showing conclusively that, far from annexation being “an accomplished fact,” postage was charged separately for the two countries, and the reason for the inscription was that the stamp in question was intended exclusively for postage between the Hawaiian Islands and the United States.” The singular feature of the affair is, however, that near half a century later the United States secured possession of Hawaii.