28 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



any problems for solution by the antiquary, inasmuch 

 as there was not a postage stamp in existence a 

 hundred years ago. Surely in a civilised community 

 a defaced postage stamp might stand as the very type 

 of intrinsic worthlessness ; yet such has been the 

 fictitious value created for such trash, that, as I am 

 assured by one versed in the mysteries of this traffic, 

 an old black penny stamp of the early 'forties will 

 command a ransom of 5, while for a clean, unused 

 one there are plenty of enthusiasts ready to plank 

 down 50, or twelve thousand times its face value! 

 Fifty years ago 65 apiece was the price demanded 

 for postage stamps issued in the Sandwich Islands 

 in 1852, while one of the Mauritius for 1847 brought 

 380 in public auction. 



The fashion sprang up among schoolboys in the late 

 'fifties ; whether it be creditable to our own system of 

 education that it should have grown to be a passion 

 among adults is a question which one might put, and 

 another shirk the consequences of answering. ^Estheti- 

 cally, there is far more justification for the naked 

 black's cupidity for beads. 



It is now more than thirty years since a friend, now 

 no more, 1 told me in that Temple of Truth, the House 

 of Commons, that he had just had his collection of 

 stamps valued at 35,000. 



' Well,' said I, ' I suppose you mean to realise.' 

 ' No,' he replied, ' I shall bequeath it to the nation.' 

 And, sure enough, the collection is now in the British 

 Museum. 



1 The late Mr. Thomas Taplin, M.P. 



