POSTAGE AND POSTAGE STAMPS I7ss POSTAGE AND POSTAGE STAMPS 



ors for stamps which are equivalent in value 

 to the one-cent, two-cent and five-cent United 

 States or Canadian stamp. Th< 

 the ones chiefly used for dome-tie and I'D: 

 postage. The one-cent color the two- 



cent is pink, and the five-cent i.s blue. These 

 colors are permanently adopted, and when- 

 the mail clerk sees a blue stamp, even if the 

 words on it are in a language he cannot read, 

 he knows that five cents or the equivalent have 



Pictv -nips which are in current use 



cannot be printed in a general publication, 

 hence this general article cannot be illustrated. 



Stamp Collecting. The collection and study 

 -.>im 'times considered as merely a 

 hobby. Far from being valueless, it is a pas- 

 time of great interest and of educational value. 

 :i the youngest child who begins a collec- 

 tion learns the names of the different countries 

 of the world. If he knows nothing more about 

 them than their names his natural curiosity will 

 soon lead him to further inquiry. He also 

 learns the standard of coinage from the values 

 on the face of the stamp. If, as in Great 

 Britain and the British colonies, the head of 

 a ruler appears on the stamp he will soon learn, 

 in some way or other, who the ruler is. Other 

 ;ps show local views, or bits of famous 

 ry. native animals and plants, characteris- 

 tic devices in heraldry or arabesques, all of 

 which the child or adult assimilates, perhaps 

 unconsciously. See HERALDRY. 



Besides learning much geography, the stamp 

 collector cannot help but learn something of 

 history. For example, if he turns to France, he 

 will find that some stamps bear the legend 

 Empire Francois, and some Republiquc Fran- 

 . The question naturally arises, When was 

 France an empire, and when did it become a 

 republic? Again, the stamp collector will won- 

 der what the Roman states were, and why they 

 no longer issue stamps, and why Italy's first 

 issue of stamps was in 1851. 



Most collectors begin their study with gen- 

 eral collections, made up of all the stamps of 

 all the countries they can obtain. Later, cer- 

 tain kinds of stamps or certain countries appeal 

 more strongly, and the collector begins to spe- 

 cialize. He may confine his attention to a 

 group, such as the states which make up the 

 German Empire, or Great Britain and British 

 colonies, or he may gradually narrow down the 

 field to a single country. 



Rare Stamps and Great Collections. The 

 rarity of a stamp is determined not by its age, 



but by its scarcity. There are literally thou- 

 sands of stamps which can be purchased for a 

 few cents apiece. Nearly all dealers prepare 

 rtments of stamps ranging in quantity from 

 two to 4,000 or 5,000, and in price from live 

 cents to $100. The larger assortments are good 

 collections in themselves; if the purchaser can 

 afford to add to them, they form an excellent 

 basis' for a large general collection. It has been 

 estimated that the governments of the world 

 have issued 25,000 different stamps. 



The rarest of all stamps is the one-cent, issue 

 of 1856, British Guiana, of which only one copy 

 is known to exist ; this specimen is in a private 

 collection in Paris, probably the greatest col- 

 lection in the world. Next in value, though 

 not in scarcity, are the one-penny and two- 

 penny Mauritius of the issue of 1847, a pair of 

 which is worth about $5,000. Only fourteen 

 copies of the one-penny and twelve of the two- 

 penny are known to exist. Single specimens 

 have been sold for $1,500 to $3,000, depending 

 on their condition. There are a number of 

 stamps of which only ten or fewer specimens 

 are know r n, but for some reason or other they 

 are not as popular and do not bring as high 

 prices as the early Mauritius. 



Of the United States stamps the rarest are 

 the provisional issues of Baltimore and of Bos- 

 cawen, N. H. (only one copy of the latter is 

 known) ; these, stamps were issued by the local 

 postmasters in 1845 and 1846, under authority 

 of the United States government. Of the regu- 

 lar stamps issued by the government perhaps 

 the rarest is the 90-cent of the 1851 issue. Cana- 

 dian stamps, as a whole, do not bring high 

 prices, the chief exceptions being the 12-penny 

 stamps of 1851 and 1852, which are valued at 

 $400 to $600, according to their condition. An 

 almost complete collection of Canadian stamps 

 can be formed for a comparatively small ex- 

 penditure. W.F.Z. 



Reference!*. The bibliography of stamps and 

 stamp collecting is vast. Every collector should 

 own at least one of the standard catalogues 

 issued by the leading dealers. Their cost is 

 .small, and they are of great help in teaching the 

 beginner the value and identity of different varie- 

 tics. Dealers and philatelic associations also 

 publish stamp journals, which contain much in- 

 teresting information. For specialists there are 

 numberless works in limited fields; among the 

 standard books only a few can be mentioned here : 

 Caiman and Collin's A Catalogue for Advanced 

 Collectors; Luff's The Postage Stamps of the 

 United States; Tiffany, Bogert and Rechert's 

 The Stamped Envelopes, Wrappers and Sheets of 

 the United States; Caiman and Collin's Catalogue 

 of the Stamps , etc., of Mexico; Wright and 



