Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-04-04
POSTAGE STAMPS.
CURIOUS seARcHeRs IN THE coRRI.
 ooRs OF THE PosToFFIce.
A watchful Young Woman on the Look out for Rare Foreign Stamps = Trad ing stamps-Ihe Various Col
 Iectors-How Prices Range.
Naw York Sun'

There is a young woman. said 6 watchman at the New l ork postoifioe. -who spends several hours a da, in the corridors looking for rare postage stamps. She never looks for a letter. and never ex- poets one. but she watches those who do get them, and examines the stamps on all caslaway enve.Opes with great care. The stamp must be very rare before she will ac ept it. and every time she gets a foreign stamp she consults a small book. whicn she takes from her pocket and at once decides whether she will keep it Or not he may not get a stamp for days at a time but she does not seem l. be discouraged When she geti one she is as happy as if she had found gold mine
 -ls she the only one who comes here for that purl osel" inquired the reporter.
 -Bless you! no. there are hundreds of them. and of every age. from small boys to graz haired cd men Most of them want thing but foreign stamps for col lections. while other cranks are tr,ing to collect l. .0JO. .OOO nited States stamps. At any time yoI can see these cOllec; ors going about the office carefully picking up every old envelope and removing the stamps. These people are all pretty well uEE~Nf e huA HNNAA N@f navy AShAAAE NA1~ " do but {, luok for stamps
 -Severll of these men who have been at it for a long time have struck up quite a business between themselves in trading stamps When one of the fel- lows who Is trying to collect 1000 QUO
 D ted States stamps finds q rare foreign stamp he trades it with one of the col l ctors of forei sn stamps for 2OO or 3OO old niied States stamps. and considers himself We paid. Tnere are a few young men who collect foreign stamps for the purpose of selling them to collectors.
 Almost every bank or large business house contains one or mere stamp collectors. said a downtown business man. Some of them kee what they get. but a greater part make a business of col acting them to sell. and have their regu- lar customers. In houses where they have a large foreign correspondence the col lecior has a good thing of it !"
 A large dealer in stamps on Nassau street sail that the number of stamps of all kinds which are being sold 10 col lectors IS greatly on the increase. Several f his customers have standing orders for rare stamps. which they will pay any rice for. while others watch every lot of stamps that comes in for something new. The value of old pos age stamps is ike that of rare coins; it depends either upon their age or the part of the world they come from. Some times only few stamps of an issue are put out and these then become high priced The value of old | nitei States stamps does ns | run high. The most val uable is the issue of 1881. which can be bought for 7j cents q set. whi.e the issue of Isl. anl 1NEl cOSt 70 cpuis n lOt
 mong the high priced foreign stamps is an cial l-cent stamp issued in Brit sh Guiana in ls6U. worth S4. a 2O cent stamp of Osia Rica, issued in lSS'. sells at -,j. and lO-pesos stamp issued at Bolivar in ls>s ,an be bought for Si Nearly every foreign country has rare stamps. for which collectors pay from sl 10 Sj. On the other hand. a good collection of stamps now in use in the different coun- tries of the world can be had for little money. Iacsa-es containing 100 vari- cities of stamps which are quite plentiful can be bought from Sl to S2.