Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-11-23
A POPULAR CRAZE.
THE MANIA FOR COLLECTING
POSTAGE STAMPS.
About 100000 Collectors in ThIl
Country Alonc-wild Demand for
Columbian Issues AbroadN
Most Precious Stamps
GOOD many postmasfcrs, nc

ments with spectators who desired to
procure cheap cancellations. For ex-
ample: A dealer sends 500 worth of
Tho stamps to postmaster in coun-
try town, saying: eff You will cancel
these will allow you $50, and you
can return tho balance in money to
me Small postmasters in lieu of
salary are pnid for the stamps they
cancel. Thus the postmaster gets $50
for his share, while the dealer obtains
q rebate on his stamps.
Collectors usually prefer unused
stamps. Why, then, do they 20 to
such trouble to have the Columbian
issues cancelled? Simply because the
latter have already been much coun-
forfeited abroad, and tho cancel mark
is sort of guarantee of genuineness.
as guarantee it is hardly first-rate,
inasmuch as the counterfeiter can easily
forge tho cancellation, but one cannot
expect people afflicted with the stamp
mania to be quite rational. At all
events, ordinary 2-cent letters with
stamps on them of denominations from
81 to 50 have been flying through the
mails for months past, for no other
purpose than to procure cancellations.
People address notes and packages to
themselves for this object, and the
madness is rather growing than dimin-
ishing, now that the stamps of the
quadro- centennial are nearly all sold.
Tho stock of the bigger denominations
in the hands of the Postoflico Depart
ment is practically exhausted, while
NIL the rest have been distributed
among the postoffices of the country.
Already they IRE at premium, the
quotations for tho larger denomina-
tions being S.. so for tho So stamp,
81. so for the 81, $3.50 for the So, so. 80
for the so and Sl.20 for tho 81; 60
cents for the 50-cent stamp, 30 cents
for the 30-cent and IS cents for the
15-cent. These prices will go up very
quickly. A dealer said that within a
few months the 3, G and 9-cent stamps
would cost from 25 to 80 cents each.
The Accent and Scent are gottin /.
scarce also.
There nro 100000 collectors of
stamps in this country alone. Abroad
they have gOno crazy over the Column
biau issues. In Europe the stamp
gathering habit is a persistent, popu-
lar frenzy. Foreign manufacturers
also have utilized the stamps for every
imaginable purpose of ornament-for
tho decoration of vases, for inlaying
in glass, etc.
Now that the source of supply has
we'll nigh dried up the dealers are
making frantic. cxertions to corner the
market for some of the scarcer issues.
They could not know year ago that
only $4,000 stamps in all of demon
nations running from 81 to S. would
be printed. The big stamps have
mostly gone abroad on packages of
bonds and other valuable papers sent
from this country by bankers and
brokers. Many of them are coming
bnck now to meet the demand for
them on this side of the water. Natu-
rally, the value of Columbian stamps
was much enhanced by Mr.. Bisseli's
action in cutting down the total num-
Der printed from three billions to two
billions.
The question has been raised
whether it wns not n mistake to print
the high priced issues, which, owing
to their considerable face values, were
likely to prove temptation to coun-
terfeiters. For many years no at
tempt has been made to oriminally i'm
itate tho ordinary postage stamps of
the United States, chiefly because it ia
not worth while. Most accurate fac
SMILES of our newspaper AMI period
ical stamps, which run up MS high MS
$50, have been produced abroad for
sale to collectors. The real ones aro
greatly priced for the reason that thoy
nro SO hard to obtain, not being Der
mitted to go out of tho hands Of the
postofiice officials. Postmasters are
not allowed to sell Thorn, and tho only
way to got thom is to steal them. Il
is worth mentioning, by the way, that
Uncle Sam gave away 1860 compieto
sets of the Columbian stamps-worth
sl6.26 set, face vnluo--to foreign
Governments
Ono of tho oldest freaks OF tho
postage stamp business ia ~ DO found
in Now York. An engraving firm in
that city manufactures all tho stemps
issued by Nicaragua, Honduras, Sal.
.vador and Guatemala. It does not
charge those Governments cent for
tho work or material, furnishing ey-
crything free. The only stipulations
made are that fresh series of stamps
shall DO printed for each year and that
the engraving firm shall have MI that
nre loft over unused. The concern ia
Mt liberty to turn out Us many stamps
rs it chooses over and above what nre
required, and thus it is enabled to sell
unlimited quantities of thom to col
lectors. Each year there is com.
plete new set, and those of issues that
are ont of date. c., not of the cur.
rent year-aro mounted by Thousands
! on cards of ten each and offered to
collectors and dealers everywhere. OF
course, they are unused and perfect.
bnt they are sold for fifty cents q card,
though the face value represented by
the ten stamps amounts to 81 or SIS.
Boys buy them mostly, older mem.
bers regarding them MS rather ilshy.
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