Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-09-19

Postage stamps.
Who that owns young relatives or friends
whether school boys or girls, has not been
asked for postage stamps-not new ones, but
old ones TO stick in an album "Can you
get me black penny Do you know any
body who has a red three -comered Cape of
Good Hope z" These are questions which
the friend of juvenile collectors has to an
swer whenever he has been coaxed into prom
Using that he will do his best to supply an al
bum. The taste for stamp collecting, how
ever, is one which grown-up people should
encourage, for it greatly helps to educate
boys and girls into knowledge Of cOntempo-
rary history and geography. The name and
birthland of the first collector of stamps are
not known all one can tell for certain is that
in 1861 that is the exact date-the passion
for stamp collecting spread of a sudden ev-
erywhere. In those days the divers stamps
that could be obtained did not exceed 500
nowadays an album, to be complete would
have to contain about 5000 different sorts.
IN 1861, Turkey, Egypt, China, Japan, Per
sa, Greece, Roumania, Seryia, with several
other countries and colonial dependencies,
had no stamps on the other hand, Hanover,
Lubbock Hamburg Bremen, Hesse- -Cassel
and the Pontifical States were Independent
and issued stamps which have now become
scarce. The gray stamps of the Dutch prov
ince of Limburg used originally to be the
rnrest, because there had been but small is
sue of them, and Limburg itself was a small
plnce but som chow there is no great diff
Guilty in obtaining them now. Russians,
again, were not easy to procure because the
ill-paid postal authorities in the cZar's service
had got into the habit of+emoving the stamps
sent abroad. The Russian stamps do not
bear the czar's head, but the double spread
eagle in 'scutcheon-light blue on buff
ground, green on rcd, or yellow on black.
These make pretty stamps, but they are no
longer scarce, because they belong to the cat
egory of what collectors call "unchangea-
bles"-that is, stamps whose patterns have
never been altered nor are likely to be. The
changing" stamps are those which bear the
head Of the ruler in countries where the gov
ernment is not very stable. Spain has had
fine diversity of stamps during the last
twelve years-those of Isabella, the republic
(two patterns), the commune of Carthagena,
Amadeo, Don Carlos, and, lastly, of Alfonso.
The last three kinds are very finely executed
reproductions of photographs, and form a
part of category which are more pictur-
esque generally than the stamps which bear
a medallion head like those of England. The
design of the queens head ON our English
stamps has not been altered since the first is
sue was made, but some of our colonies have
recently adopted stamps with Photographic
lik, ness Of her majesty taken since her wild
owhoUd. The emperor of Brazil brayely
caused the stamps in his empire to be altered
two years ago because the old ones represent
ed him as young man with black beard
In the new ones his majesty has white
beard but what would happen if he were to
shave Leopold II. of Belgium once re-
marked; lRughingly, that he was condemned
to wear his beard for life if he wished his
ubjects to get correct idea of him from
coins and stamps. For the same reason Leo
pold l. and Napoleon Ill could not have let
their face-hair grow. 1t is said that during
Marshal MacMahon's septennate, the duch-
ess of Magenta was very anxious to see her
husbands image set on postage stamps and
designs with the marshals head were prepar-
cd when it had been decided to abolish the
stamps that bore the emblt matte head of the
republic, but the postal commission rejected
the MacMahon stamps and chose the present
design, which represents two figures of com
merce and plenty. If the MacAIahon stamps
have not all been destroyed they would be as
great treasures to stamp collector as the
one or two Victoria and Albert" penny
stamps which are said to be extant, though
they were never officially issued.
As every collector knows the rarest Eng
lish stamps among those actually issued are
the black penny, with the Obliterating mark
in red ink (black was only used later the
postal envelope with the brown octagonal
penny embossed and the postal envelopes
with pictorial borders, black for one penny
and blue for twopence. Genuine specimens
of this sort must needs be very rare ; so that
collectors ought to beware of those offered
for sale, as there has been a good deal of
stamp forging since it was discovered that
amateurs would give several pounds for rari-
ties. It is all the easier to forge stamps for
collections, as a sham obliterating mark can
always be slurred over the parts where the
engraving is defective; experienced cOllec-
tors, however, should be able TO detect false
stamps by their bad coloring, How import
ant the stamp trade had become at one time
may be judged from the fact that two or
three years ago the Partisan police found it
necessary to disperse an assemblage that used
to be held daily towards one o'clock outside
the Cirque des Champs Elysees, and which
was very bOurse of stamp collectors. Here
schoolboys used to meet willy traders who
cheated them out of their money and here
too a weekly journal was sold which dealt ex-
clusively with the subject of stamps. This
print had good many subscribers, and was
pretty ably written; it contained, among 9TH
er things, regular list of quotations OF the
market value of stamps, and advertisements
from persons who had collections to dispose
of. A collection having 5000 genuine stamps
of different sorts is worth at this date over
f1OO; but one purporting to have speci,
men of every stamp that WINS ever issued
would command quite fancy price. 1t is
believed that not more than three or four of
this kind are in existence, and one of them
belongs to the prince of the duchy of Turn
and Taxis. whose family for a long time en-
joyed postal monopoly in Germany. Per-
sons who eau afford to pay from ESQ to elOO
can always get up very good collection
Pal Mall Gdzette.