The morning call., 1894-05-06

recipient for Els, or nearly SIS. These
stamps are now obsolete and their value is
certainly not less than $780,
The negro republic of Liberia, on the
west coast of Africa, possessing popular
ton OF not much more than million peo-
pie. depends largely for the replenishment
of its treasury on receipts from postage
stamps, which, beautifully engraved in
London. are got up more for sale to COL
Iectors than for postal service. The fact
has already been mentioned IN these COL
umns that Liberia could not afford to give
any ready cash to her commissioners to the
Chicago Fair, and provided him instead
with a large supply of postage-stamps.
which he disposed of in this country 10 pay
his expenses Most of them were pur-
chased by New York dealer.
Another striking example OF tne lssu-
ance of stamps for revenue only is tnaS OF
the Cook Islands. The natives, VINO nu III
Der 10000 or II, ZOO. were formerly canni-
bals, but have been converted to CDrl-
tlanity. AS result of their repeated re-
quests a British protectorate was estaD-
ished over the Islands in 1883, and year
ana half ago they found that the needs
OIL civilization included the use OF postage
stamps. They accordingly got supply
from New Zealand printed on ordinary
sunmed paper, with a neat border, IN
ordinary type. Before long the dealers
pegan to buy up these unpretentious-
iO'tol idu6lSs anu SO great WAS tho
uenand 1or them that they proved more
prontable commodity than even coffee and
copra, the main exports of the groups
ABOUT SIX months ago they issued new
set, nicely engraved instead of being
merely printed, and this created fresh
demand from the dealers. For every
stamp actually used in the islands for
postal purposes hundreds are sent abroad
and never do postal duty. 1t is said the
receipts from this source alone are sufl-
cient to defray all the expenses of govern
ing the islands.
in the experiences of Tonga, many Of the
native States of India, Persia, Portugal
and her colonies. Spain and her colonies,
and even France appears to have caught
the contagiOn. Ii is not long since one set
of stamps was considered sufficient for all
the French colonies, but now every one OF
the eighteen, even including such a place
as Obock, has a complete set of thirteen
denominations OF its own. Some of the
higher values are probably never used IN
the colonies at all. but a collector of
French stamps would not have his cOllec-
tion co nplele unless he had everv stamp
of each colony, that is to say 234 speci-
mems in all. Hence there is steady and
good demand for them all over the world.
While it is beneath the dignity of some
OF the great powers of the earth to descend
10 The deliberate creation OF stamps for
tne DeDent " Oh collectors, they manage,
without STOPPING, to conquer. OF recent
years. and more particularly within the
two past. a regular epidemic of commem-
orative STAINS have been produced. osten-
sibly 10 celebrate some i'm portant historic
event, but, in most cases, really TO cap
ture the philatelic gudgeon. Even our
own Government was not above antici-
pating neat net profit from the sale. OF
Its Columba stamps to collectors. The
amount originally estimated from this
source was 81 ,500 900, and recent develop
ments indicate that it will not fall much
short. No commemorative stamps have
been in such demand as those of the
United States. and their success has led to
many similar issues by other countries.
among the latest being Japan, which has
issued 2-sen and a 5-sen value to cele-
brate the silver wedding of the Emperor
and Empress, and Portugal, which issued
a set of thirteen denOminat tiOns iu commem-
oration of the five hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Prince Henry. the navi-
gator.