The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-07
The POSTAGE STAMP CRAZE.
Curious Searchers in the Corridors of the
Observation-Disclosures Stamps.

Observation-Disclosures Stamps.
There is young woman" said d
Waterman at the New York postoffice, ="
''who spends several hours a 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 cast-away envelopes
with great care. The stamp must be
very rare before she will accept it, and
every time she gets foreign stamp she
consults a small book, which she takes
from her pocket, and at once decides
whether she will keep it or not. She
may not get stamp for days at a time,
but she does not seem to be discour-
aged. When she gets one she is as
happy as if she had found gold mine "
rs she the only one who comes here
for that purpose?" inquired the re-
porter.
BLESS you, no, there are hundreds of
them, and of every age, from small
boys to gray-haired old men. 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 care
fully picking up every old envelope and
removing the stamps. These people
are all pretty well dressed and seem to
have nothing else to do but look for
stamps.
Several of these men who have been
at it for long time have struck up
quite a business between themselves in
trading stamps. When one of the fell
lows who is trying to collect a million
United States stamps finds rare for
eign stamp he trades with one of the
collectors of foreign stamps for two OF
three hundred old United States stamps
and considers himself well paid. There
are few young men who collect for
eign stamps for the purpose of selling
them to collectors
almost every bank or large bust
ness house contains one or more STAMP
collectors, " said down town business
man yesterday. "SOme of them keer
what they get, but a greater part make
a 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 col,
lectors is greatly on the increase. Sev-
eral of his customers have standing
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 post
age stamps is like that of rare coins, il
depends either upon their age or the
part of the world they come from
Sometimes only a 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 set
while the issues of 1847 and 1851 cost 81
cents lot. Among the high priced
foreign stamps is an official 1-cent
stamp issued in British Guiana in 1860
worth 81; a 20-cent stamp of Costa
Rica, issued in 1888, sells at s., and a
10-pesos stamp, issued at Bolivar in
1882, can be bought for 50. Nearly
every foreign country has rare stamps
for which collectors pay from 81 to s..
On the other hand, good collection Of
stamps now in use in the different
countries of the world can be had fol
little money. Packages containing 10(
varieties of stamps which are quite plen
tiful can be bought for from 81 to 81
N. Y. Sun.