Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Sankar Viswanathan, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
THE
Stanley Gibbons Philatelic Handbooks.
STAMP COLLECTING
AS A PASTIME
BY
EDWARD J. NANKIVELL
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISTS
MEMBER OF THE PHILATELIC SOCIETY OF LONDON
London
STANLEY GIBBONS, LTD., 391, STRAND, W.C.
New York
167, BROADWAY
1902
PREFACE
Many people are at a loss to understand the fascination that surrounds
the pursuit of stamp collecting. They are surprised at the
clannishness of stamp collectors, and their lifelong devotion to their
hobby. They are thunderstruck at the enormous prices paid for rare
stamps, and at the fortunes that are spent and made in stamp
collecting.
The following pages will afford a peep behind the scenes, and explain
how it is that, after nearly half a century of existence, stamp
collecting has never been more popular than it is to-day.
And perchance many a tired worker in search of a hobby may be
persuaded that of all the relaxations that are open to him none is
more attractive or more satisfying than stamp collecting.
Its literature is more abundant than that devoted to any other hobby.
Its votaries are to be found in every city and town of the civilised
world. Governments and statesmen recognise, unsolicited, the claims of
stamp collecting--the power, the influence, and the wealth that it
commands. From a mere schoolboy pastime it has steadily developed into
an engrossing hobby for the leisured and the busy of all classes and
all ranks of life, from the monarch on his throne to the errand boy in
the merchant's office.
In the competition of modern life it is recognised that those who
must work must also play. The physician assures us that the man who
allows himself no relaxation, no recreation, loses his energy, and
ages earlier than the man who judiciously alternates work and play.
As stamp collecting may be indulged in by all ages, and at all
seasons, it is becoming more and more the favourite indoor relaxation
with brain-workers. It may be taken up or laid down at any time, and
at any stage. Its cost may be limited to shillings or pounds, and it
may be made a pleasant pursuit or an engrossing study, or it may even
be diverted into money-making purposes.
So absorbing is the hobby that in stamp circles there is a saying,
"Once a stamp collector, always a stamp collector."
CONTENTS
I. STAMP COLLECTING AS A PASTIME
II. THE CHARM OF STAMP COLLECTING
III. ITS PERMANENCE
IV. ITS INTERNATIONALITY
V. ITS GEOGRAPHICAL INTEREST
VI. ITS HISTORICAL FINGER POSTS
VII. STAMPS WITH A HISTORY
VIII. GREAT RARITIES
IX. THE ROMANCE OF STAMP COLLECTING
X. PHILATELIC SOCIETIES AND THEIR WORK
XI. THE LITERATURE OF STAMPS
XII. STAMPS AS WORKS OF ART
XIII. STAMP COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT
XIV. WHAT TO COLLECT AND HOW TO COLLECT
XV. GREAT COLLECTIONS
[Illustration:]
I.
As a Pastime.
According to the authorities, the central idea of a pastime is "that
it is so positively agreeable that it lets time slip by unnoticed; as,
to turn work into pastime." And recreation is described as "that sort
of play or agreeable occupation which refreshes the tired person,
making him as good as new."
Stamp collectors may fairly claim that their hobby serves the double
purpose of a pastime and a recreation. As a pastime, it certainly
makes time pass most agreeably; for the true student of the postal
issues of the world, it turns work into a pastime. As a recreation, it
is of such an engrossing character that it may be relied upon to
afford the pleasant diversion from business worries that so many tired
mental workers need nowadays.
For nearly half a century it has maintained unbroken its hold as one
of the most popular of all forms of relaxation, and its popularity
extends to all classes and to all countries.
But this very devotion of stamp collectors to their hobby has puzzled
and excited the uninitiated. The ordinary individual, especially the
man who has no soul for a hobby of any kind, regards it as a passing
fancy, a harmless craze, a fashion that must have its day and
disappear, sooner or later. But the passing fancy has endured for
nearly half a century, the harmless craze still serves its useful
purpose, and the fashion has acquired such a permanence as to convince
most people that it has come to stay.
Of all pastimes, and of all the forms of recreation, not one can claim
more lifelong devotees than this same stamp collecting. And where is
another pastime with such international ramifications? In every
civilised country, in every city, and in every town of any importance,
the wide world over, thoughtful men and women are to be found formed
into sociable groups, or societies, quietly and pleasantly enjoying
themselves in the harmless and enduring pursuit of stamp collecting.
There must be some reason for this popularity, this devotion of all
classes to a pursuit, this unbroken record of progress. It cannot be
satisfactorily accounted for as a passing fancy or fashion. It has too
long stood the test of years to be so easily explained away. Fancies
and fashions come and go, but stamp collecting flourishes from decade
to decade. Princes and peers, merchants and members of Parliament,
solicitors and barristers, schoolboys and octogenarians, all follow
this postal Pied Piper of Hamelin,
"Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles,
cousins,"
all bent upon the pursuit of this pleasure-yielding hobby.
Why is it? Whence comes the fascination?
To the unprejudiced inquirer the reply is simple. To the leisured man
it affords a stimulating occupation, with a spice of competition; to
the busy professional man it yields the delight of a recreative
change; to the studious, an inexhaustible scope for profitable
research; to the old, the sociability of a pursuit popular with old
and young alike; to the young, a hobby prolific of novelty, and one,
moreover, that harmonises with school studies in historical and
geographical directions; to the money maker, an opening for occasional
speculation; and to all, a satisfying combination of a safe investment
and a pleasure-yielding study.
Old postage stamps--bits of paper, as they are contemptuously called
by some people--may have no intrinsic value, but they are,
nevertheless, rich in memories of history and of art; they link the
past with the present; they mark the march of empires and the
federation of states, the rise and fall of dynasties, and the peaceful
extension of postal communication between the peoples of the world;
and, some day in the distant future, they may celebrate even yet more
important victories of peace.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
II.
The Charm of Stamp Collecting.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in a letter to a
correspondent, referring to stamp collecting, wrote: "It is one of the
greatest pleasures of my life"; and the testimony of the Prince of
Wales is the testimony of thousands who have taken up this engrossing
hobby.
The pursuit of a hobby is very often a question of expense. Many
interesting lines of collecting are practically closed to all but the
wealthy. But stamp collecting is open to all, for the expenditure may
in its case be limited at the will of the collector to shillings or
pounds. Indeed, the adaptability of this hobby is one of its chiefest
charms. The rich collector may make his choice amongst the most
expensive countries, whilst the man of moderate means will wisely
confine himself to equally interesting countries whose stamps have not
gone beyond the reach of the man who does not wish to make his hobby
an expensive one. The schoolboy may get together a very respectable
little collection by the judicious expenditure of small savings from
his pocket money, and the millionaire will find ample scope for his
surplus wealth in the fine range of varieties that gem the issues of
many of the oldest stamp-issuing countries, and which only the
fortunate few can hope to possess.
In all there are over three hundred countries from which to make a
selection. In the early days collectors took all countries, but as
country after country followed the lead of England in issuing adhesive
stamps for the prepayment of postage, and as series followed series of
new designs in each country, the task of covering the whole ground
became more and more hopeless, and collector after collector began
first to restrict his lines to continents, and then to groups or
countries, till now only the wealthy and leisured few attempt to make
a collection of the world's postal issues.
This necessary restriction of collecting to groups and individual
countries has led to specialism. The specialist concentrates his
attention upon the issues of a group or country, and he prosecutes the
study of the stamps of his chosen country with all the thoroughness of
the modern specialist. He unearths from forgotten State documents and
dusty files of official gazettes the official announcements
authorising each issue. He inquires into questions surrounding the
choice of designs, the why and wherefore of the chosen design, the
name of the engraver, the materials and processes used in the
production of the plates, the size of the plates, and the varying
qualities of the paper and ink used for printing the stamps--in fact,
nothing that can complete the history of an issue, from its inception
to its use by the public, escapes his attention. He constitutes
himself, in truth, the historian of postal issues. The scope for
interesting study thus opened up is almost boundless. It includes
inquiries into questions of heraldry in designs, of currency in the
denominations used, of methods of engraving dies, of the transference
of the die to plates, of printing from steel plates and from
lithographic stones, of the progress of those arts in various
countries, of the manufacture, the variety, and the quality of the
paper used--from the excellent hand-made papers of early days to the
commonest printing papers of the present day--of postal revenues and
postal developments, of the crude postal issues of earliest times, and
the exquisite machine engraving of many current issues.
He who fails to see any justification for money spent and time given
up to the collecting of postage stamps will scarcely deny that these
lines of study, which by no means exhaust the list, can scarcely fail
to be both fascinating and profitable, even when regarded from a
purely educational standpoint. It is true it may be contended that all
collectors do not go thus deeply into stamp collecting as a study;
nevertheless the tendency sets so strongly in the direction of
combining study with the pleasure of collecting, that the man who
nowadays neglects to study his stamps is apt to fall markedly behind
in the competition that is ever stimulating the stamp collector in his
pleasant and friendly rivalry with his fellows.
Then, again, an ever-increasing supply of new issues from one or other
of the many groups of stamp-issuing countries periodically revives the
interest of the flagging collector, and binds him afresh to the hobby
of his choice. Old, seasoned collectors, whose interest once set never
flags from youth to age, relegate new issues to a back seat. They find
more than enough to engage their lifelong devotion in the grand old
issues of the early settlements. But the collector of modern issues
who cannot afford to indulge in the great rarities, finds new issues a
source of perpetual enjoyment. They follow one another month after
month, and infuse into the collector's life the irresistible charm of
novelty, and every now and again an emergency issue comes as a
surprise. There is a scramble for possession, and a spice of
speculation in the possibility, never absent from a makeshift and
emergency issue, that the copies may be scarce, and may some day ripen
into rarity.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
III.
Its Permanence.
Ever since the collection of postage stamps was first started it has
been sneered at as a passing craze, and it has been going to die a
natural death for the past forty years. But it is not dead yet.
Indeed, it is very much more alive than it has ever been. Still the
sneerers sneer on, and the false prophets continue to prophesy its
certain end.
To the unsympathetic, the ignoramus, the lethargic, the brainless,
everything that savours of enthusiasm is a craze. The politician who
throws himself heart and soul into a political contest is "off his
head," is seized with a craze. The philanthropist who builds and
endows hospitals and churches is "a crank," following a mere craze.
The earnest student of social problems is "off the track," on a craze.
The man who seeks relaxation by any change of employment is certain to
be classed by some idiot as one who goes off on a craze. You cannot,
in fact, step off the beaten track tramped by the common herd without
exciting some remark, some sneer, perchance, at your singularity.
The most ignorant are the most positive that stamp collecting is only
a passing fancy of which its votaries will tire, sooner or later; and
yet for the last forty years, with a brief exception, due to an
abnormal depression in trade, it has always been on the increase.
Indeed, it has never in all those years been more popular with the
cultured classes than it is to-day. The Philatelic Society of London
has an unbroken record of regular meetings of its members extending
over a quarter of a century. The literature devoted to stamp
collecting is more abundant than that of any other hobby. Its votaries
are to be found in every city and town of the habitable globe.
"All very fine," say our bogey men, our prophets of impending evil;
"but blue china has gone to the wall, autographs are losing caste, old
books and first editions are on the downgrade, pipes are relegated to
the lumber-room, metallurgical cabinets are coated with dust, and even
walking-sticks survive only at Sandringham!" Just so. We are
all--Governments, people, and weather--going to the bad as fast as we
can go, according to the croakers, the wiseacres, and the
self-appointed prophets. Nevertheless, stamp collecting has survived
the sneers and the evil prophecies of forty years, and so far as human
foresight can penetrate the future, it seems likely to survive for
many a generation yet.
And why not? In the busy, contentious bustle of the competition of the
day, the brain, strained too often to its utmost tension, demands the
relaxation of some absorbing, pleasure-yielding hobby. Those who have
tried it attest the fact that few things more completely wean the
attention, for the time being, from the vexations and worries of the
day than the collection and arrangement of postage stamps. In fact,
stamp collecting has an ever-recurring freshness all its own, a scope
for research that is never likely to be exhausted, a literature varied
and abundant, and a close and interesting relation to the history and
progress of nations and peoples that insensibly widens the trend of
human sympathies and human knowledge.
What more do we want of a hobby? We cannot ensure, even for the
British Empire, an eternity of durability: nations decay and fashions
change. Some day even stamp collecting may be superseded by a more
engrossing hobby. The indications, however, are all in favour of its
growing hold upon its universal public. The wealth invested in it is
immense, its trading interests are prosperous and international, and
no fear of changing fashion disturbs either dealer or collector.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
IV.
Its Internationality.
Wherever you go you find the stamp collector in evidence. The hobby
has its devotees in every civilised country. Its hold is, in fact,
international. In Dresden there is a society with over two thousand
members upon its books; in out-of-the-way countries like Finland there
are ardent collectors and flourishing philatelic societies. The Prince
of Siam has been an enthusiastic collector for many years, and even in
Korea there are followers of the hobby. Australia numbers its
collectors by the thousand, and many of its cities have their
philatelic societies, all keen searchers for the much-prized rarities
of the various States of the Commonwealth. In India, despite the
difficulty of preserving stamps from injury by moisture, there are
numbers of collectors; one of the best-known rajahs is collecting
stamps for a museum, recently founded in his State, and the Parsees
are keen dealers. There are collectors throughout South Africa, in
Rhodesia, and even in Uganda. Wherever a postage stamp is issued there
may be found a collector waiting for a copy for his album. In no part
of the world can an issue of stamps be made that is not at once
partially bought up for collectors. If any one of the Antarctic
expeditions were to reach the goal of its ambition, and were to
celebrate the event there and then by an issue of postage stamps, a
collector would be certain to be in attendance, and would probably
endeavour to buy up the whole issue on the spot. The United States
teems with collectors, and they have their philatelic societies in the
principal cities and their Annual Congress. From Texas to Niagara, and
from New York to San Francisco, the millionaire and the more humble
citizen vie with each other in friendly rivalry as stamp collectors.
Many countries are now making an Official Collection, and there is
every probability that some day in the near future most Governments
will keep a stamp collection of some sort for reference and
exhibition. Under the rules of the Postal Union, every state that
enters the Union is entitled to receive, for reference purposes, a
copy of every stamp issued by each country in the Postal Union. Hence
every Government receives valuable contributions, which should be
utilised in the formation of a National or Official Collection. And
some day stamp collectors will be numerous and influential enough to
demand that such contributions shall not be buried in useless and
forgotten heaps in official drawers, but shall be systematically
arranged for public reference and general study.
Not a few countries are every year rescued from absolute bankruptcy by
the generosity with which collectors buy up their postal issues; and
many other countries would have to levy a very much heavier burden of
taxation from their peoples if stamp collecting were to go out of
fashion.
So widespread indeed is our hobby that a well-known collector might
travel round the world and rely upon a cordial welcome at the hands of
fellow-collectors at every stopping-place en route.
International jealousies are forgotten, and even the barriers of race,
and creed, and politics, in the pleasant freemasonry of philatelic
friendships.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
V.
Its Geographical Interest.
A few years ago many heads of colleges prohibited stamp collecting
amongst their boys. They found they were carrying it too far, and were
being made the easy prey of a certain class of rapacious dealers. Now
the pendulum is swinging in a more rational direction, and many
masters themselves having become enthusiastic collectors, judiciously
encourage the boys under their care to collect and study stamps as
interesting aids to their general studies. They watch over their
collecting, and protect them from wasteful buying. In some schools the
masters have given or arranged lectures on stamps and stamp
collecting, and the boys have voted such entertainments as ranking
next to a jolly holiday.
The up-to-date master, who can associate work and play, study and
entertainment, is much more likely to register successes than the
frigid dominie who will hear of nothing but a rigid attention to the
tasks of the day. In the one case the lessons are presented in their
most repellent form, in the other they are made part and parcel of
each day's pleasant round of interesting study.
The genuine success of the Kindergarten system in captivating the
little ones lies in its association of play with work. The same
principle holds good even to a much later age. The more pleasant the
task can be made, the more ready will be the obedience with which the
task will be performed. The openings for the judicious and helpful
admixture of study and entertainment are so few, that one wonders that
such a helpful form of play as stamp collecting has not become more
popular than it has in our colleges.
Take, for example, the study of geography, so important to the boys of
a great commercial nation. The boy who collects stamps will readily
separate the great colonising powers, and group and locate their
separate colonies. How many other boys, even after they have passed
through the last stage of their school life, could do this?
Little-known countries and states are too often a puzzle to the
ordinary schoolboy, which are familiar places to the stamp collecting
youth. Ask the ordinary schoolboy in which continents are such places
as Angola, Annam, Curaçao, Funchal, Holkar, Ivory Coast, Liberia,
Nepaul, Reunion, St. Lucia, San Marino, Sarawak, Seychelles, Sirmoor,
Somali Coast, Surinam, Tahiti, Tobago, or Tonga, and how many of all
these places, so familiar to the young stamp collector, will he
properly place? Not many; and the same question might probably be
asked of many an adult with even less satisfaction.
The average series of used stamps are now so cheap that a lad may get
together a fairly representative collection for what he ordinarily
spends at the tuck shop. Some educationists have advocated the making
and exhibiting of school collections of stamps as aids to study. Such
collections would certainly be much more profitably studied than most
of the maps and diagrams that nowadays cover the walls.
With few exceptions, every stamp has the name of the country, or
colony, of its issue on its face; and most colonial stamps bear some
family likeness to the stamps of the mother country. Our British
colonial stamps are distinguished by their Queen's heads; the stamps
of Portugal and its colonies by the portraits of the rulers of
Portugal; those of Germany by the German currency; those of France
mostly by French heraldic designs; those of Spain by the portraits of
the kings and queens of Spain. So that the postage stamp is a key to
much definite, valuable, and practical information.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
VI.
Its Historical Finger Posts.
When considered from the historical point of view, postage stamps
attain their highest level of educational value. They are finger posts
to most of the great events that have made the history of nations
during the last fifty years. Here are a few out of many examples which
might be quoted.
The introduction of adhesive stamps for the prepayment of postage
found France a Republic. A provisional government had just been
established on the ruins of the monarchy which had been swept out of
existence in the revolution of 1848. As a consequence, the first
postage stamp issued by France, on New Year's Day of 1849, bore the
head of Ceres, emblematic of Liberty. Three years later Louis Napoleon
seized the post of power, and, as President of the Republic, his head
figures on a stamp issued in 1851, under the inscription "REPUB.
FRANC." Two years later the Empire was re-established, and the words
"REPUB. FRANC." were changed to "EMPIRE FRANC." over the same head. In
1863 the customary laurel wreath, to indicate the first victories of
the reign, won in the war with Austria, was added to the Emperor's
head. In 1870 the Franco-German War resulted in the downfall of the
monarchy, and the head of Liberty reappears on a series of postage
stamps issued in Paris during its investment by the German army. The
issue of the stamps of Alsace and Lorraine in 1870 marks the
annexation of the conquered territory.
Italy in 1850 was a land of many petty states, each more or less a law
unto itself, and each, in the fifties, issuing its own separate series
of postage stamps. The stamps of the Pontifical States are made
familiar by their typical design of a tiara and keys, and pompous King
Bomba ordered the best engraver to be found to immortalise him in a
portrait for a series of stamps. The other states had each its own
heraldic design till the foundations of the Kingdom of Italy were
laid, in 1859-60, by the union of the Lombardo-Venetian States, the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchies
of Parma and Modena, the Romagna and the Roman (or Pontifical) States
with Piedmont. The first issue of stamps of the newly formed kingdom
bore a portrait of King Victor Emmanuel II. with profile turned to the
right. In 1863, after the Kingdom of Sardinia had been merged in the
Kingdom of Italy, a new series was issued for united Italy. The same
king's portrait appears, but turned to the left. In 1879 King Humbert
succeeded Victor Emmanuel, and his portrait appeared on an issue in
the year of his accession. The assassination of King Humbert and the
accession of his son as Victor Emmanuel III. are followed by the new
portrait of the new king on the current series of the stamps of Italy.
The stamps of Germany tell a somewhat similar story. They mark the
stages of gradual absorption into a confederation of states, and the
ultimate creation of a German Empire. The postal issues of Baden
ceased in 1871, when the Grand Duchy was incorporated in the Empire.
Bavaria, though also incorporated, holds out in postal matters, and
still issues its separate series. Bergedorf was in 1867 placed under
the control of the free city of Hamburg, and thereupon ceased issuing
stamps. Bremen, Brunswick, Hamburg, Lubeck, Mecklenburg-Strelitz,
Oldenburg, Prussia, Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein formed the North
German Confederation, and closed their postal accounts with collectors
in 1868. Hanover became a province of Prussia after the war of 1866,
and thereupon ceased its separate issue of postage stamps; and Thurn
and Taxis followed suit in 1867. In 1870 the North German
Confederation was merged in the German Empire, which issued its first
postage stamp with the Imperial eagle in 1872. But the Empire is not
yet sufficiently united to place a portrait of the Emperor upon its
Imperial postal series.
Indian postage stamps, overprinted with the initials "C.E.F.", for the
China Expeditionary Force, _i.e._ the Indian troops sent to China in
1901 to relieve the besieged Embassies, mark an historical event of no
small import.
The early provisional issues of Crete of 1898 indicate the joint
interference of the Great Powers in its affairs, and the later issues,
in 1900, bear the portrait of Prince George of Greece as High
Commissioner of Crete.
The Confederate locals of America, issued, in 1861-3, by the
postmasters of the Southern States when they were cut off by the war
from the capital and its supplies of postage stamps, and each town was
thrown upon its own resources, proclaim the period of the great
American Civil War.
Collectors are all familiar with the long series of portraits of past
Presidents of the United States, from Washington to Garfield.
The stamps of Don Carlos mark the Carlist rising in Spain in 1873.
But amongst the most interesting of all stamps that may be classed as
historical finger posts, none equal in present-day interest the stamps
of the Transvaal, for they tell of the struggle for supremacy in South
Africa. In 1870 the Boers issued their first postage stamp, and a
crude piece of workmanship it was, designed and engraved in Germany.
Till 1877 they printed their supplies of postage stamps in their own
crude way from the same crude plates. Then came the first British
Occupation, when the remainders of the stamps of the first South
African Republic were overprinted "V.R. TRANSVAAL," to indicate
British government. Then, in 1878, the stamps of the Republic were
replaced by our Queen's Head. In 1881 the country was given back to
the Boers, when they in turn overprinted our Queen's Head series in
Boer currency, to indicate the restoration of Boer domination. And
now, finally, in 1900 we have the second British Occupation, and a
second overprinting of South African Republic stamps "V.R.I.", to
signalise once more, and finally, the supremacy of British rule in
South Africa. The Mafeking stamps are also interesting souvenirs of a
gallant stand in the same historical struggle.
The war which Chili some years ago carried into Bolivia and Peru has
been marked in a special manner upon the postage stamps of Chili. As
in the case of our own troops in South Africa, so the Chilian troops
in Bolivia and Peru were allowed to frank their letters home with the
stamps of their own country. So also the Chilians further overprinted
the stamps of Peru with the Chilian arms during their occupation of
the conquered country in the years 1881-2. Chilian stamps used along
the route of the conquering army, and postmarked with the names of the
towns occupied, are much sought after by specialists. These postmarks
include Arica, Callao, Iquique, Lima, Paita, Pisagua, Pisco, Tacna,
Yca, etc.
And so the stamp collector may turn over the pages of his stamp album,
and point to stamp after stamp that marks, for him, some development
of art, some crisis in a country's progress, some struggle to be free,
or some great upheaval amongst rival powers. In fact, every stamp
issued by a country is, more or less, a page of its history.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
VII.
Stamps with a History.
There are numbers of stamps that have an interesting history of their
own. They mark some official experiment, some curious blunder or
accident, some little conceit, some historical event, or some crude
and early efforts at stamp production.
What is known as the V.R. Penny black, English stamp, is said to have
been designed as an experiment in providing a special stamp for
official use, its official character being denoted by the initials
V.R. in the upper corners; but the proposal was dropped, and the V.R.
Penny black was never issued. For a long time it was treasured up as a
rarity by collectors, but now that its real claims to be regarded as
an issued stamp have been finally settled, it is no longer included in
our stamp catalogues. In the days of its popularity it fetched as much
as £14 at auction. It is now relegated to the rank of an interesting
souvenir of the experimental stage in the introduction of Penny
Postage.
Of curious blunders, the Cape of Good Hope errors of colours are
amongst the most notable. In 1861 the 1d. and 4d. triangular stamps,
then current, were suddenly exhausted, and before a stock could be
obtained from the printers in England, a temporary supply had to be
provided locally. This was done by engraving imitations of the
originals. Stereos were then taken, and made up into plates for
printing. By an oversight a stereo of the penny value was dropped into
the fourpenny plate and a fourpenny into the penny plate.
Consequently, each sheet printed in the required red ink from the
penny plate yielded a fourpenny wrongly printed in red instead of
blue, its proper colour; and every sheet of the fourpenny likewise
yielded a penny stamp printed in blue instead of red. These errors are
highly prized by collectors, and are now extremely scarce, even poor
specimens fetching from £50 to £60. At the time, copies were sold by
dealers for a few shillings each. Similar errors are known in the
stamps of other countries.
Now and again the sheets of a particular value have, by some
extraordinary oversight, been printed and issued in the wrong colour.
In 1869 copies of the 1s. of Western Australia were printed in bistre
instead of in green, and a few years later the twopence was discovered
in lilac instead of yellow. In 1863 a supply of shilling stamps was
sent out to Barbados printed in blue instead of black; but this latter
error was, according to Messrs. Hardy and Bacon, so promptly
discovered, that it is doubtful if any of the wrong colour were issued
for postal use. In 1896 the fastidiously careful firm of De la Rue and
Co. printed off and despatched to Tobago a supply of 6,000 one
shilling stamps in the colour of the sixpenny, _i.e._ in orange-brown
instead of olive-yellow. Several are said to have been issued to the
public before the error had been noticed. Indeed, the firm at home is
credited with having first discovered the mistake, and is said to
have telegraphed to the colony in time to prevent their issue in any
quantity.
Another and much more common error in the early days of stamp
production was the careless placing of one stamp on a plate upside
down. Stamps so placed are termed _tête-bêche_. They have to be
collected in pairs to show the error. The early stamps of France
furnish many examples of this class of error. They are also to be
found on the 6d. and 1s. values of the first design of the stamps of
the Transvaal, on the early issues of Roumania, on some of the stamps
of the Colombian Republic, and other countries.
Stamps requiring two separate printings--_i.e._ stamps printed in two
colours--have given rise to many curious errors in printing. A sheet
passed through the press upside down after one colour has been printed
results in one portion of the design being inverted. In the 1869 issue
of the stamps of the United States no less than three of the values
had the central portions of their designs printed upside down. The
4d., blue, of the first issue of Western Australia is known with the
Swan on its head. Even the recently issued Pan-American stamps,
printed in the most watchful manner by the United States official
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, are known with the central portions
of the design inverted, and these errors, despite the most searching
examination to which each sheet is several times subjected, escaped
detection, and were sold to the public. When, however, it is
remembered that stamps are now printed by the million, it will be
wondered that so few mistakes escape into the hands of collectors.
As a bit of conceit, the issue of what is known as the Connell stamp
is probably unequalled. In loyal Canada, in 1860, Mr. Charles Connell
was Postmaster-General of the little colony of New Brunswick, which in
those days had its own government and its own separate issue of
stamps. A change of currency from "pence" to "cents" necessitated new
postage stamps. It was decided to give the new issue as much variety
as possible by having a separate design for each stamp. Two of the
series presented the crowned portrait of the Queen, and one that of
the Prince of Wales as a lad in Scotch dress. Connell, apparently
ambitious to figure in the royal gallery, gave instructions to the
engravers to place his own portrait upon the 5 cents stamp. His
instructions were carried out, and in due time a supply of the 5 cents
bearing his portrait was delivered. But before many were issued the
news spread like wildfire that Connell had outraged the issue by
placing his own portrait upon one of the stamps. Political opponents
are said to have taken up the hue and cry. The matter was immediately
brought before the higher authorities, and the unfortunate stamp was
promptly suppressed. Half a million had been printed off and delivered
for sale, but very few seem to have escaped the outcry that was raised
against them, and to-day copies are extremely scarce. Poor Connell
took the matter very much to heart, threw up his appointment, and
forthwith retired into private life. But the portrait of the bluff
mechanic type of countenance will be handed down from generation to
generation in stamp catalogues and costly stamp collections long after
the authorities that suppressed him are forgotten.
Some folks question the appearance of the Baden-Powell portrait upon
the Mafeking stamps as a similar bit of conceit; but whatever may be
said in criticism of Baden-Powell's stamp, most people will be
inclined to accept it as a pleasant souvenir of an historic siege and
a determined and gallant stand against great odds.
But of all the portraits that have appeared upon postal issues, none
probably occasioned so much trouble and fuss as that of the notorious
King Bomba of Sicily. The most eminent engraver of his day--Aloisio--was
commissioned to prepare an exact likeness of His Sacred Majesty. After
much ministerial tribulation the portrait was approved and engraved, and
to this day it is regarded as a superb piece of work. A special
cancelling stamp had to be designed and put into use which defaced only
the border of the stamp and left the sacred portrait untouched. During
the preliminaries necessary to the production of the sacred effigy the
fate of ministers and officials hung in the balance. One official was
actually marked for degradation for having submitted a disfigurement
which turned out to be a carelessly printed, or rough, proof impression.
Numerous stamps have been designed, especially of late years, to
represent some historical event in connection with the country of
issue. The United States, in 1869, in the confined space of an
unusually small stamp, endeavoured to represent the landing of
Columbus, and in another stamp the Declaration of Independence. In a
much more recent series, stamps of an exceptionally large size were
adopted to give scope for a Columbus celebration set of historical
paintings, including Columbus soliciting aid of Isabella, Columbus
welcomed at Barcelona, Columbus restored to favour, Columbus
presenting natives, Columbus announcing his discovery, the recall of
Columbus, Isabella pledging her jewels, Columbus in chains, and
Columbus describing his third voyage. Greece has given us a set of
stamps illustrating the Olympian Games. But collectors look with
considerable suspicion upon stamps of this showy class, for too many
of them have been produced with the sole object of making a profit out
of their sale to collectors, and not to meet any postal requirement.
Crude productions of peculiar interest belong more to the earlier
stages of the introduction of postage stamps. Local attempts at
engraving in some of our own early colonial settlements were of the
crudest possible description, and yet they are, because of their very
crudeness, far more interesting than the finished product supplied by
firms at home, for the local effort truly represented the country of
its issue in the art of stamp production. The amusingly crude attempts
which the engravers of Victoria have made from time to time, during
the last fifty years, to give us a passable portrait of Her late
Majesty Queen Victoria, have no equal for variety. The stamps of the
first South African Republic, made in Germany, are very appropriate in
their roughness of design and execution. For oddity of appearance the
palm must be awarded to those of Asiatic origin, such, for instance,
as the stamps of Afghanistan, of Kashmir, and most of the local
productions of the Native States of India, marking as they do their
own independent attempts to work up to European methods of
intercommunication.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
VIII.
Great Rarities.
Of the many stamps that are set apart, for one cause or another, from
the ordinary run, as having a history of their own, those that by the
common consent of collector and dealer are ranked as great rarities
are the most fruitful source of astonishment to the non-collector.
They are the gems of the most costly collections, the possession of
the few, and the envy of the multitude. In a round dozen that will
fetch over £100 apiece there are not more than one or two that can lay
any claim to be considered works of art; indeed, they are mostly
distinguished by their surpassing ugliness. Nevertheless, they are the
gems that give tone and rank to the finest collections. Some of them
are even priceless.
To the average man it is astonishing that anyone in his senses can be
so foolish as to give £1,000 for an ugly little picture that has
merely done duty as a postage stamp. He contends there can be no
intrinsic value in such scraps of paper, and that settles the matter,
in his opinion. But is it not so with precious stones and pearls? They
are of value merely because they are the fashion. There is no
intrinsic value in them. If they were not fashionable they would be
of little or no value. Long-standing fashion, and fashion alone, has
given them their value. So it is with stamps; fashion has given them
their value, and every decade of continued popularity adds to that
value as it has added to the value of precious stones and pearls.
There is no sign that precious stones are likely to become worthless
by the withdrawal of popular favour. Fashion changes from one stone to
another without affecting the popularity of precious stones in
general. So it is with stamps. Fashions change from one line of
collecting to another without in the slightest degree affecting the
stability or popularity of collecting as a whole. Precious stones and
pearls minister to the pride of the individual, and stamps to his
pleasure; and each has its own strong and unshakable hold upon the
devotees of fashion and pleasure. There is a fluctuating market in the
case of each of these favourites, but I venture to think that there
is, and has been for the past forty years, a steadier rise in the
value of stamps than in the value of precious stones.
[Illustration:]
British Guiana, 1856, 1 c.--In 1856 this colony was awaiting a supply
of stamps from England, and pending its arrival two provisional stamps
were issued, a 1 c. and a 4 c. These were set up from type in the
office of the _Official Gazette_. A small illustration of a ship, used
for heading the shipping advertisements in the daily papers, was
utilised for the central portion of the design. Of the 1 c. value only
one specimen is known to-day, and that is in the collection of M.
Philipp la Renotiérè (Herr von Ferrary). Doubts have been expressed as
to the genuineness of the copy, but Mr. Bacon, who has had an
opportunity of inspecting it, says: "After a most careful inspection I
have no hesitation whatever in pronouncing it a thoroughly genuine one
cent specimen. The copy is a poor one, dark magenta in colour, and
somewhat rubbed. It is initialled 'E. D. W.', and dated April 1st, the
year not being distinct enough to be read."
This stamp may safely be placed at the head of great rarities. Of its
value it is impossible to form any opinion. If a dealer had the
disposal of the copy in question, he would probably want between
£1,000 and £2,000 for it, with a decided preference for the larger
sum.
[Illustration:]
Mauritius, "Post Office," 1d. and 2d.--The best known, the most
quoted, and probably the most popular of all the great rarities is the
"Post Office" Mauritius, so called because the words "Post Office"
were inscribed on one side of the stamp instead of the words "Post
Paid." There were two values, 1d. and 2d. They were designed and
engraved by a local watchmaker, and were printed from single dies, and
issued in 1847. The tedious process of printing numbers of stamps from
single dies was soon abandoned, and only 500 copies of each value were
struck. Of those 1,000 stamps only twenty-two copies are known to
exist to-day. There are in the hands of leading collectors two copies
of the 1d. unused, and three copies of the 2d. unused, twelve copies
of the 1d. used, and five copies of the 2d. used. These rarities were
only in use for a few days, and were mostly used in sending out
invitations to a ball at Government House.
The value, according to condition, is from £800 upwards for each
value, but unused they are of course worth a great deal more.
[Illustration:]
Hawaii, 1851, 2 cents, blue.--Like so many rare stamps, this first
issue of Hawaii was designed and set up from type in a printer's
office. About twelve copies are known to exist. The stamp was in use
but a very short time, as the Post Office of Honolulu was burnt down,
and the stock of stamps of this first issue was completely destroyed.
This 2 cents stamp is worth about £750.
[Illustration:]
British Guiana, 1850, 2 cents.--This is popularly known as the 2 cents
circular Guiana, because of its shape. A notice in the local Official
Gazette, dated February, 1851, announced that "by order of His
Excellency the Governor, and upon the request of several of the
merchants of Georgetown, it is proposed to establish a delivery of
letters twice each day through the principal streets of this city."
Certain gentlemen were named as having consented to receive letters
for delivery at their respective stores, and it was further announced
that "each letter must bear a stamp, for which 2 c. will be charged,
or it will not be delivered, and when called for will be subject to
the usual postage of 8 c." A supply of the required 2 c. stamps was
provided by a locally type-set design enclosed in a ring. It is said
that this delivery of letters was discontinued soon after it was
started, hence rarity of the stamp.
Only eleven copies of this quaint postage stamp are known, and its
market value is probably somewhere about £600.
[Illustration:]
Moldavia, 1858, 81 paras.--This rare stamp formed one of a set of four
of the first postage stamps issued in Roumania. The values were 27
paras for single letters travelling, and not carried more than about
seventy miles, 54 paras for double that distance, 81 paras for heavier
letters, and 108 paras for registered letters, all within the limits
of Moldavia. The 81 paras is the rarest of the series, as will be seen
from the following inventory taken in February, 1859, of the then
unsold stock:--
27 paras, printed 6,000, sold 3,675.
54 " " 10,000 " 4,756.
81 " " 2,000 " 693.
108 " " 6,000 " 2,568.
All these stamps were printed by hand on coloured paper in sheets of
thirty-two impressions in four rows of eight stamps. An unused copy of
the 81 paras has fetched as much as £350.
[Illustration:]
United States, Millbury, 1847, 5 c.--In the United States the general
adoption of postage stamps was preceded by what may be termed
preliminary issues, of a more or less local character, and known as
"Postmaster stamps." These "Postmaster stamps" were issued by various
country postmasters by way of experiment. The Providence stamp is the
commonest example. One of the rarest is the 5 c. stamp, with a
portrait of Washington, issued by the postmaster of Millbury, in
Massachusetts, in 1847. This stamp is said to be worth about £300.
There are others reputed to be equally rare. Among the local stamps
issued by various unofficial carriers and express agencies, there are
many of which very few copies are known, and as they are practically
all held by enthusiastic collectors, and never come into the market,
there are no data as to their current value.
[Illustration:]
Cape of Good Hope, 1861. _Errors of Colour_.--In making up the plate
of a provisional issue of triangular stamps, pending the arrival of
supplies from England, a stereo of the 1d. got inserted by mistake in
the 4d. plate, and a 4d. in the 1d. plate. Consequently each sheet of
the 1d. contained a 4d. printed in red, the colour of the 1d., instead
of blue. And the sheets of the 4d., in like manner, each contained a
1d, which, when the 4d. was printed in its proper colour of blue, was
also printed in blue instead of red, the proper colour. These errors
are very scarce, especially in an unused condition. The 1d., blue, is
the rarer of the two, and is worth about £70 used; it is not known
unused.
[Illustration:]
Tuscany, 1860, 3 lire.--In the early days of stamp production high
values, such as we are now accustomed to get from most countries, were
very rarely issued. For nearly thirty years Great Britain was content
with a shilling stamp as its highest value. In 1860 the Provisional
Government of Tuscany issued a stamp of 3 lire, for which there seems
to have been very little use. It represented but two shillings and
sixpence of English money, but it is nevertheless one of the great
rarities to-day, especially in an unused condition. Used copies are
worth about £65, and unused about £120.
[Illustration:]