The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-02
A POSTAL P4wNsHOP
Where the stamp Crank Can Raise
Money on His Collection.

Money on His Collection.
From the New York Recorder.
There is a pawnshop in Park Row, where
the unique business of advancing money
on valuable collections Of postage stamps
is carried on in addition to the regular
trade. 1t is only dire necessity that sends
the collector and his stamps to the pawn
shop, but the broker is always glad to
see him, for he knows that each day in
creases the value of the collection and
that the longer it remains in his possess
sion the less likely is the poverty-stricken
philatelist to redeem it.
/ The collections of postage stamps that
are offered to the paWnbrokers vary from
a small one contained in one album to
collection that fills a dozen volumes.
When one of these customers enters be-
meath the gilded balls he Is asked to take
a seat, the pawnbroker telling him that
he must look over the collection carefully
before giving any estimate of the sum he
is willing to advance. The book or vol
umes are given up by the penurious one
and he waits. A minute or so later tho
| office boy makes his escape by the back
| entrance and hurries to the store Of the
nearest seller of foreign postage stamps.
| who Is requested to put some approximate
value on the collection.
j. W. Scott. of the Scott Stamp and Coin
Company, who is recognized as one of the
| best judges of the value of stamps, not in
| frequently gives up an hour or more of his
| time to fix the value Of a stamp collection
| that is about to go into the safekeeping of
| some pawnbroker. This examination can
not be a cursory one, for the manufacture
! of spurious stamps, especially the more
| valuable, is source of income to quite
| few of the crooked fraternity.
| If Mr.. Scott, in his examination, we're to
! come across a 20-cent blue Baltimore
| stamp he would bring a powerful magni-
| flying glass into use, for this little insig-
Oifipanf Gfann = M
| a stamp collector of 81 400, the price that
| good specimen realized not long ago. If in
| the collection there should be 2-eent Ha
waiian of 1852 the pawnbroker might safe
| ly advance $1,000, as the last specimen Of
! this stamp put up at auction sold for
| $1,000. Among the actual United States
| ISSUES those of the earliest dates, ranging
| from 1851 until the war was over, are of
| great value, sets of these being valued at
| several hundred dollars. In fact, the older
issues and some of those issued during the
| war are valued at several thousand dol
| lars.
A fairly good collection of the stamps is
! sued in the different West India islands
| and the republics and colonies of Central
pledged for a considerable sum of money.
| Early issues of the stamps of almost any
country are nowadays the most valuable
| thing anybody can possess
| The value of the different collections of
| stamps that are known to exist amounts
| to an immense sum. The most valuable
| collection in existence, belonging to the
| Marquis of Galtera, is valued at over 81 000,-
| 600, but this enthusiast has been a collec-
| tor for years, buying up every good stamp
| he can hear Of 1t is not people lk@the
! Marquis Of Galera. howevera who are
! obliged to go to the pawnbroker's with
| their collections. but those who have seen
better days" With many of these their
collection of stamps is the one link that
| still seems to keep them in touch with
| the past and it is the last thing they part
| with. These stamp collectors are verita-
! BILE misers in their way
! For years they have chung to the little,
| oblong, eliptical, triangular or square bits
| of paper, with their strange pictures of
| men and of beasts, and they know every
| stamp by heart, and know its value, too.
/ These stamp misers are as shabbilv dress
| ed and as pinched-looking as the man that
| boards the hard cash, and to part with
! stamp Is as heartrending as the passing of
| a 50 gold piece is with a money hoarder.
| Only direct necessity compels them to
| finally seek the pawnbroker They never
| sell collection. The stamp miser is al
! ways hoping for a better day, and knows
that if he once parts with one of his treas
! ureS he can probably never get 1t back,
while If by chance he should be in position
| to regain 1t at some later day the price
will have gone up considerably.
Owing to the ease with which a stamp
worth $1,000 can be destroyed, exceptional
care is taken to preserve them when they
| once get into the hands of the pawn
| broker, and often the valued collection of
pawnbroker's safe among valuable gems.
A Norridgewock (Me.) farmer enter
tanned 100 friends the other day, the table
! for the collation. being set under a will
| low tree, which has an interesting story.
| The day after President Lincoln was as
| sassinated the farmer CHANGED to be three
miles from home, and, to assist him i'm
his walk across lots, cut willow limb,
| which he used for a cane. As he Climbed
the fence into his yard he stuck the cane"
into the ground, top end down. It took
root and grew as willows often 90. and
| to-day is large tree, covering a space
! hfty-two feet in diameter.