The morning call., 1894-09-02

| for S3OOO and started his new album by
! the purchase of $1,000 worth of stamps that
had never done service. Incidentally it
may be stated that In disposing of his
original collection he received a consider
able advance on its cost to him.
Though be makes specially of unused
| stamps there are two classes of labels
which he treasures in both uncanceled and
Cancelled condltlon-those of the ola Ger
! man and italian States, issued by them be-
| fore being cOnsolidat ted into the German
| empire and Italian kingdom respectively
! His reason for this is the much greater va
riety of the used stamps of these States.
! AS a rule he fights shy of Seebeck and
other speculative issues, among which
what ara known as surcharges or over
| printed stamps are numerous.
With his habit of buying every stamp
| sent him that was not already In his col
| lection he found it slow work to augment
his possessions, particularly in the line of
| the older issues. and he then had recourse
| to the auction sales, when large collections
were thus thrown on the market. At the
more important of these he was frequently
| a buyer to the extent of huudreds of
| dollars. For the new issues be had an nm
falling source Of supply. His banker.
with connections in all parts of the world,
| took his commissions to buy the new
| stamps as soon as knowledge of their issue
! reached Mr.. LevlsOn. Later he secured
all new issues through the purchasing de-
partment of the philaIelic societies to
| which he belonged.
OF late he has been travelling about con-
| sidera bly, and wherever he stops he makes
| the rounds of the stamp-deaIers and ire
| quently picks up a few varieties for his
| album, but does not hesitate to buy good
stamps if ne can secure them at what he
| considers reasonable rates. During his
stay in this city, for instance. he has pur-
chased in the neighbOrhood of $1,000
If cton hfak
| two that he did not possess. Both of these
! he bought al bargain prices. They were a
! pink 21ad of British Columbia, upper
! foraIed, of 1861, and a I'd of Western
Australia, which by mistake had been
! printed in violet, the color of the Cd. 1t is
! said that but one sheet of 100 of these
! stamps were thus printed when the error
was discovered and corrected. For the
! first mentioned he paid S35 and for the
latter $40 Each is catal0gued for 500,
| but the seller was unaware of their real
value. Mr.. Levison said he had never be-
| fore seen either of these stamps in any
collection during fourteen years of phila-
| telic experience. Since the local collectors
| have heard of his pickup thew are ex-
ceedingly wroth at themselves over their
| stupidity in overlooking these prices.
With the lapse of years his printed al
! bum became so crowded and unsightly
| that he had special books prepared for his
collection, which now includes also en-
| tire envelopes postal cards, wrappers and
| letter sheets. His adhesive s,amps are
| contained in three albums, one for the
! Western Hemisphere, one for Europe and
! one for Asia. Africa aud Australia. His
| envelopes and wrappers fill two albums
and his postal cards four. He also has a
! special albnm for Russian rural stamps.
| He estimates that he has in the neighbor-
! hood of $4,000 varieties of stamps, envel-
opps, wrappers and postal cards in his
| collection. Their value he places at about
| $50, eco.
The mention of few facts regarding it
will give fair idea OF it. In Confederate
| local or provisional stamps he has no less
! than 80, ranging in price from $40 to
| $50. and aggregating about $1,000. His
/ Russian rural stamps, mostly old issues,
| number about 600 and are worth an aggre-
| gate sum of $500. Then he aas, so far as
| he can remember, about 200 stamps worth
| $50 or more eacn.
When he left Europe he did not bring
his stamps with him, but had them shipped
later by express. with an insurance on
! them of $4,000 They are now in safe de-
post vaults IN New York City.
Although his interest in stamps contin-
ues undated, be cOntemplates selling his
accumulation. If the market proves
favorable he Will sell them within a few
months, probably in London. His reason
! is this, he feels he is getting along in years
and should the stamps be left to his heirs
to dispose of they would probably be sacri-
feed by their ignorance of their value. To
partially prevent such a contingency, in
case he should not dispose of them, he has
taken the precautio1 to mark the value on
all stamps catalogued at So and over
Should he sell his present collection, he
will Immediately begin another. lie ex-
poets TO make another trip to Europe, and
on his return Will take UP his permanent
residence in San Francisco,