The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-17

take effect. and under it's provision very little could be done in certain lines of business until the war revenue stamps were available.
 The bureau, therefore, had about l4 days in which to supply the 65 collection districts scattered from Maine to Cali fornia with the new stamps of many de- nominations, running from the propri- etary stamp of a fraction of cent to the $10oO documentary stamp. The force employed in the stamp vault, by staying at their posts night and day, eating and sleeping on the premises, met the requirements.
 The biggest stamp issue during the Spanish war was the one selling for $l000 and used in stamping mortgages. They came during the boom period in trust operations and many of them were sold As many as $40,O00 worth were affixed in single transaction.
 The bureau surrounded the selling of these stamps with strict requirements to prevent possibility of fraud. They were not doled out in handfuls, like postage stamps, to anybody with money to buy, but a full history was kept of each stamp sold.
 They were charged to the collectors of internal revenue by identifying num- bers, and the collectors kept records of the name, address, etc., of each pur- chaser. A few persons attempted to use smaller denominations by Wash ing them to remove the canceling marks, but with no great success.
 Only one theft of revenue stamps of importance has been recorded by the bureau. Some years ago a professional thief stole package of beer stamps, while they were going from the treasury building to the post-office. The pack age was worth s1O,OO0 and immediately convertible into cash.
 The theft was mysterious one, baf- fling for long time the special agents of the bureau, who were on the lookout all over the country. The hunt was never abandoned, and a year and a half later some of the stolen stamps were found iii the possession of a sa- i loon-keeper in an eatsern city. and fin ally nearly the entire lot was recovered and the thief run down, arrested and convicted.
 The United States internal revenue stamp is an object that the million and ] one stamp collectors in this country and i Europe have ever looked upon with covetous eyes and pursued with vain endeavor. The adhesive war revenue 1 stamps issued during the civil and the l Spanish wars were, of course, sold to l all corners and the stamp collector load ed up on all of the denominations that came within the limits of his purse.
 But the large S5O00 stamp of the civil
 war and the $10OO issue of recent years 1 were just a trifie too fancy for the i most enthusiastic collector. When the
 war taxes were repealed couple o1 years ago and some 400 tons of sur
 plus stamps were to be called in and < destroyed there was a rush upon the
 bureau by philatelists, who believed i they could get some of the big fellows i at bargain counter prices, but much tc their chagrin they discovered that ever I the day after the Stamps became obso- lete the 5000 stamp was still selling for l $1G00 and could not be bought then ex- cept upon satisfactory proof that it was needed to validate some document which should have been stamped when the 1 law was in force.
 The stamp collector can, of course, get 1 possession of cancelled adhesive stamps and display them along with his other treasures, but your real philatelist all ways wants stamp that has never felt the stab of the canceling machine
 and hence his ceaseless pursuit of the I.geninue article. Still, the canceled stamps of old issues are highly prized by philatelists and many pretty penn, has been turned by shrewd persons who robbed old and worthless documents ol their internal revenue stamps.
 The most valuable collection of ob
 solete stamps in the world hangs in tn,
 corridor in the treasury building, neal
 the office of the commissioner of inter
 nal revenue. These stamps were assem-
 bled in an artistic manner for the gov
 ernment exhibit at the Centennial ex position in 1S76 and comprise all tn,
 obsolete issues then in existence rang
 ing in value from one cent to $5O00.
 The collection is handsomely mount
 ed and is in a gift frame about six b,
 nine feet. It was exhibited at subse
 quent expositions, but permission t
 take the collection to Buffalo was re
 fused and it will probably not be al --.----------------.