The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-27
ISSUED FAULTY STAMPS.
4 Defective Plate Has Caused the
Postal Authorities Much Trouble.

4 DefecttVe Plate Has Caused the
Postal Authorities Much Trouble.
From the San Francisco Call
Through the blunder of a government
engraver the United States has been food
ed with hundreds of thousands of defec-
tive postage stamps of the new 2-cent is
sue. the postoffice department has been
compelled to destroy a plate that cost it
$40 600 and stamp collectors and dealers
who were fortunate enough to learn of
the matter before 1t came to the eyes and
ears of the authorities have reaped a rich
| harvest Stamps that were worth cents
as their face value before the mistake was
discovered are now held at ten times that
amount and the price will enhance as
they grow older and are scattered through
! the thousands of collections In the coun-
try, thus becoming one of the rarities in
which the philatelic enthusiast delights.
A few months ago it became known to
the stamp bureau that the 2-cent stamps
then being Issued We're being counterfeit
ed to a large extent and 1t was decided
to make a new issue containing secret
marks that would render Identification of
the spurious stamps easy. Orders were
given for new plates mat would remedy
She matter and the most expert engravers
in the department were put at work on
them. In addition to the water mark,
the stamps show faint line of perfora-
lions on the gummed side that is not APP
parent to the layman, but to the phtla-
telist Is very plain
Each plate is intended to print 400 per-
feet stamps and each plate Is numbered,
the number showing on the margin of the
printed sheet so that In case of a mis-
take, such as the one in question, the
department can tell just which stamps to
recall.
The new issue had hardly made it's ap-
pearanee and had not yet reached this
coast when philatelists discovered that
two rows of stamps on the left hand
side of plate 40 were defective. The first
row was entirely correct, but two rows
and three, extending from the top of the
sheet to the bottom and containing an
aggregate of forty stamps, were faulty.
In each of the upper corners of the
correctly executed stamp appears a dou-
bic triangle one within the other. The
space within the inside triangle is close
~ filed with fine horizontal lines, as is
the body of the stamp, while the narrow
space between the heavy lines of the tri-
angles shows clearly white.
In the first defective row the inside tri-
angle is missing and the fine red lines
are unbroken, while in the second i'm
perfect row the two triangles are pres
emit but the white space that should be
between them does not appear. These inn
perfections would not be apparent to an
inexperienced eye, but to the expert are
glaring defects, and to the government
they are practically objectionable and the
engraver who made the blunders Will prob
ably soon be looking for another posi-
ton. if he is not already doing so.
Stamp dealers obtained possession of
thousands of specimens before the defects
were made known to the government, and
the collectors of this city made a desper-
ate effort to do so, but the information of
the imperfections reached here ahead OF
the stamps, and very few went into cir
culation.
One collector struck the trail of a guam
titv that had reached sub-Office in the
southern part of the city, and attempted
to buy them but the clerk was posted, and
quietly informed the phlatelist that he
could have them If he was willing to pay
a handsome premium. As such transac-
lions are clearly prohibited by the regu-
Iations of the postotfice department, the
young man was running considerable risk
of losing his position, but there is honor,
sometimes, even among philatelists, and
he was not reported, the collector taking
the matter as rather a good joke that he
should have been outwitted.
The stamps that have not already passed
into the possession of collectors and deal
ers have been recalled by the department.