The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-14
THE PosTAGE-sTAMP CRAZE.
Curious Searchers in the Corridors of tn,
POstoffice-VaIuable Stamps.

Curious Searchers in the Corridors of the
POstofice-VaIuable Stamps.
New York Sun.
There is young woman" said a Waterman
at the New York postoffice, ''who spends several
hours day in the corridors looking for rare
postage stamps She never looks for letter,
and never expects one, but she watches those
who do get them, and examines the stamps on
all eastaway envelopes with great care The
stamp must be very rare before she will accept
1t, and every time she gets foreign stamp she
consultS small book which she takes from her
pocket, and at decides whether she will
keep 1T or not She may not get stamp for
days at time, but she does not seem to be dis
couraged When she gets one she is as happy
as If she had found gold mine"
is she the only one who comes here for that
purposeP inquired the reporter.
BLESS you, no: there hundreds OF them.
and of every age. from small boys to gray
haired old Most of them want nothing
but foreign stamps for collections, while other
cranks are trying to collect million United
States stamps AT any time you can see these
collectors going about the Office carefully pick
ing up every old envelope and removing the
stamps These people are all pretty we'll dressed
and seem to have nothing else to do but look for
stamps.
Several of these men who have been at it for
a long time have struck up quite business be-
tween themselves in trading stamps. When one
OF the fellows who is trying to collect a million
United States stamps finds a rare foreign stamp,
he trades it with one of the collectors of foreign
stamps for two or three hundred old United
States stamps, and considers himself we'll paid.
There are few young men who collect foreign
stamps for the purpose of selling them to col
lectors."
Almost every bank or large business house
contains one or more stamp collectors" said a
downtown business man yesterday. Some Of
them keep what they get, but greater part
make business of collecting them to sell, and
have their regular customers. In houses where
they have large foreign correspondence the
collector has good thing of it."
A large dealer in stamps on Nassau street said
that the number of stamps of all kinds which
are being sold to collectors is greatly on the
increase. Several of his customers have stand
ing orders for rare stamps, which they will
pay any price for while others watch every
lot of stamps that comes in for something new.
The value of old postage stamps is like 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 United States stamps does not run high.
The most valuable is the issue of 1861 which
can be bought for 70 cents a set, while the is
sues of 1847 and 1851 cost so cents lot. Among
the high priced foreign stamps Is an official
1-cent stamp issued in British Guiana in 1862
worth 81; 81 20-cent stamp of Costa Rica, issued
in 1888, sells at So, and 10 pesos stamp, issued
at Bolivar in 1882, can be bought for So. Nearly
every foreign country has rare stamps, for which
collectors pay from ST. to So. On the other hand
a good collection of stamps now III use in the
different countries of the world can be had for
little money. Packages containing 100 varieties
of stamps which are quite plentiful can be
bOupht for from 81 to 50