28 THE GENTLE ART OP 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 trafiSc, 

 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, ^stheti- 

 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,^ 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. 



