The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-16

the uealer palQ the magnlHcenL sum Ol
 SIS. The janitor almost caused the
 dealer heart failure by telling him
 that he had burned a basket full of
 similar stamps the day before he had
 written the letter.
 '"The lucky dealer was careful to lei
 the stamps ont slowly. and 1t was esti- mated that altogether he cleared from
 $25.000 to $35,000 on their sale, this
 being regarded as the biggest find in
 the history of stamp collecting.
 Another nice piece of luck was that which befeil well known collector of Philipsburg, N. J. He was walking down Hilbert street in Philadelphia a couple of years ago, and stopped in front of Woods curio store, at the cor ner of that street and Ninth. Tn the window was an old envelope, post marked Baltimore, with Buchanan's signature on 1t, issued in the forties. to which was attached a card bearing the words price 30 cents
 "The collector didn't know a great deal about stamps at that time. and evidently the owner of the store knew less. He walked inside and offered the dealer a quarter for the envelope. thinking that 1t was at least worth that much as a curiosity, but never for a moment suspecting its true value. The dealer let him have it.
 Upon reaching home and consulting his catalogue the collector found that he had come into the possession of the famous Baltimore the rarest Ameri- can stamp. Shortly afterward he sold 1t for the sum of $2,000 The dealer is still bemoaning his hard luck in let ting, such valuable prize slip through his fingers.
 A Find That Was Worth While.
 "A fine thing in the way of a rare bargain in stamps was Sam Morten- sen's windfall. He is now a stamp and coin dealer In Los Angeles. but at the time speak of lived in Omaha. One day ne said to friend of his, who was Register of Deeds in that city:
 Frank. I'm collecting old stamps now. Have you any old specimens ly- ing around your office that you have no use for?'
 Frank said he thought he had. and that he would gather them by the next time MorIensen called to see him. A few days later Mortensen came around and after a chat started to leave. hav- ing forgotten all about the stamps. Just as he was about to go out of the door the Register called him back, say ing:
 By the way. Sam. here Is a bunch of old stamps that I found. They are old fellows, and have never been used. It seems that they have been mislaid and they are no good now. And he handed Mortensen long. plump envelope. Mortensen thanked him for his kindness. put the envelope In his pocket. gave Frank a couple of cigars he happened to have with him. and went home.
 
 Eelope he almost tainted. It contained several hundred uncanceled Depart nent of Justice stamps of 1873. At hat time the different departments each had their own stamps. There was ! half-sheet containing fifty 90-cent justices, the price for each one of which was $60. The remainder of the stamps were of the smaller denomina- ions-two, three and six cent-and were worth anywhere from $1 to $4 'ach.
 Tn order not to bear the stamp mar ret for 90-cent Justices. Mortenscn had | O proceed cautiously. There had not | 'een one of this variety for sale in | ears. He disposed of ten of them at | catalogue price to Parmelee, the crack | Western shot. and then he came East After selling few more in this cityy | eight I believe-Mortensen went to | london, and from there to Berlin and | old a number of the stamps In each me of those cities
 He managed the sale of his stamns with such skill. however. that he real zed from $50 to $60 on each one. b,Tt s the news of their sale passed from ealer to dealer the suspicion grew hat somebody was unloading a find nd the price dropped steadily until if cached $40. where 1t is at the present Ime. Mortensen made a pretty sum rom the sale of kis bonanza. and even } this day has in his possession a block f four of the 90-cents. all the rest hay- lg been sold.
 The biggest thing that ever cana iy way was some years ago, shortly fter I had started in business. A la. bring mana Swede-came into my tore one day with a book of stamps -hich- had the appearance of having cen exposed to the weather for a time nd in fact the pages were still wet ome of the stamps having become 1 ,osened and at the point of dropping fl.
 T was suspicious at first to see what ppeared to be such a valuable collec- on in the hands of a man who didn't now the first thing about stamps, so
 asked him how he came to have lem. He said that a few days before e and number of others had been fred to clean out an old stable in ,wn. and that in the loft they had ,und a lot of old books and papers