Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-10-27
srAmP cEANKs MAKE TRcv-oE.
They Are All the Time BOthering the Post
uhIce Department.

Uhlce Department.
No one has ever yet sent in 100000
cancelled postage stamps to the Post
Office Department, although 200 letters
are received annually requesting lnfor-
nation about the prize Of $500 which the
Government issupposed to offer for that
number, says the Washington Star.
How this popular delusion originally
started no one can tell. For twenty
wears il has prevailed, and during all
that time people have been making col
lections for sale to Uncle Sam. Pre-
sumably no one has thus far secured the
desired million. At all events the pack
ages OF old stamps sent to Washington
as ipstallmentS never contain more than
A few thousand; SO, 900 were the most
that ever came in one bundle.
Ordinarily the collector gets tired by
the time 1900 or 5000 have been got TO-
gether. Children mostly are engaged In
this interesting but fruitleSS pursuit,
though many women, both young ana
old, take it up for while and bother
everybody they know for contributions
of stamps from old letters.
People are constantly writing to the
department with requests for stamps to
put in their albums, both domestic ana
foreign. Sometimes they say that the
dealers charge more than they can al
ford, and so they appeal 10 Mr.. Wanna
maker, Awhile ago the postOthce used
10 sell specimen sets Of its issues, IN
used. but that was discontinued in 1884.
A very interesting album is kept in
the stamp division, containing sets or
sll the stamps that the government has
ever issued. The book is worth lot OF
money merely for the face value repre-
sented by It's contents. On the hrst
page are the two stamps OF Uncle Sans
issue In 1s47. One OF them Is for .
cents with head Of Franklin, and the
other is for ten cents with WaShington's
bust. Before that year letters were
distributed by mail in packages with &C
comp8nying way bills, and the price
charged for postage varied &C
cording TO the distance. On another
page OF the scrap book are found the
first perforated stamps, which appeared
in 1857. Up to that time the stamps
had TO be cut apart with shears. The
Derforations then were made much finer
than they are now. 10 is said that the
British Government paid large sum
for the idea, but the United States did
not give q cent for its use.
Another page In the scrap book IS
occupied by the stamps Of 1869, which
were 50 very beautiful that the printing
of them cost too much and they had to
be discontinued. Whereas Uncle Sans
postal tokens at the present time are less
handsome than those Of almost any
other nation, these were among
the most exquisite ever issued.
The fifteen cent brown bore a
picture of the landing of Columbus in
blue. The UNEMPLOYMENT green was
adorned with the signing Of the Dec
laration" In purple. The thirty-cent
stamp had a lovely design representing
q shield, eagle and flags in red, white
and blue. The twelve-cent sort was in
green with a steamer on it; the three
cent stamp was ultramarine, with a
locomotive, and the two-ceDt brown
showed man on horseback. All these
cost money, and, where a stamp was
printed in two tintS, it had to go
through the presses twice. Accord
ingly the entire series was soon sup
pressed