The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-28
CITING
WITH THE STAMP MANI PAY BIG MONEY.

Lined Purse is Big PurchaseF-Ten Per Cent the Erning Value of the stamps.
 Few people outside the ranks of ar dent philatelists have any idea of the enormous growth of the postage stamp collecting craze during recent years. It is a story full of romance, the tinan- cial side of which bristles with figures representing huge fortunes sunk in the inv scraps of paper which speed the , worlds correspondence.
 Both as a hobby and as business stamp collecting has reached propor- tions which give 1t very important place among mundane pursuits. There l are many private collections worth from two thousand to two hundred thousand pounds, and the capital sunk in the stamp traffic is estimated to be l well over one million pounds. The financial importance of the trade is illustrated by Stanley Gibbones' Limited, which, by it's amalgamation last February with the firm of Glen dining, Limited, has capital of over one hundred and seventeen thousand pounds. It was the auctloneering de- partment of this firm which sold MT. Smith Ryland's small private collee- ton few days ago for about twenty i've hundred pounds, a price which was considered to be very good for an auc- ton sale, especially as the. collection offered contained comparatively few great rarities, says the London Ex- press.
 But even here there were one or two prices obtained for particular stamps which at once show the keenness of the collector and the business 'impor- tance of the traffic. For. instance, Saxony stamp of 1851, with an error of paper, realized fifty-six pounds; pen ny red and blue British Central Africa stamp sold for forty-seven pounds, and a penny blue Cape of Good Hope for twenty-eight pounds.
 Very often far higher prices than these are obtained for single stamps though 1t may be long time before stamp realizes anything like &l,4oO, paid by the Prince of Wales last year for a two-penny blue Mauritius, says the London Express.
 The Prince of Wales is well known to be very common enthusiastic philate- list, but it is not common knowledge that he is a specialist, collecting only the stamps of Great Britain and her colonies. His stamps are worth many thousands of pounds. As president of the Philatelic society of London; the prince IS regarded as one of the most cultured mollowers of the science of stamps, and has cleared up several H....l sJgI1 inf a f gathered in his philatelical researches during his colonial tour. Two of his sons-Prlnce Edward and Prince gorge have already caught the stamp fascination. Prince Edward is 4 specially interested in the Prince Ed | %ard Island stamps, of which he owns
 complete set. *
 Recesntly philateIic journal asked its readers their chief reasons for col tecting stamps, offering a prize for the best reply. A large majority gave ''s W an investment as their first answer VI and 1t is, indeed, true that postage # stamps are not only g. safe but also highly profitable investment. M Experts say that British Colonia stamps are the best from the investor point of view, especially those of colo alies which have small populations, ant Therefore print comparatively feV stamps.
 It is stated to be only moderate es' innate that the earning value o stamps is ten per cent. As instance of this earning value may be men tioned the los. Lagow, which was sol & irl 1903 for 12c. 3d.. and is now wortl -four ponuds and the one pound South ern Nigeria, whose market price thre years ago was 25 shillings, but is nov eight pounds.
 w. Hughes. Hughes collection mad during thirty-seven years, at cost al
 together of only sixty-nine pounds was sold for three thousand pounds Another collection that of the late MI
 Pauweis, of Torquay, which original # cost three hundred and sixty pounds
 was sold, after lying on one side fc
 twenty-seven years, for four thousan pounds
 | No collection of valuables occup1e such a, little space as postage stamps The small strong room at one represen
 tative firms headquarters contain more than seventy-five thousan
 pounds worth of stamps pasted int N# stock BOOKS ana nuInpeEeu' ooliAe
 these stock books, of which there al
 one hundred and eighty, are wort
 over two thousand pounds, The Ne
 Foundland stamps alone in this apar
 raent are valued at e1,569 14s. Sd. # There are forty thousand names
 customers in all parts of the world
 the books of the firm, the Prince
 fWales. with a standing order for @ |s new colonial issues. being among u
 most important. For these custome x about twelve thousand catalogues # British and ten thousand of foreig < stamps are prepared annually. III
 stamps sold in year run into million
 and the albums to at least thirty tho
 sand.
 Rare stamps, such as some of u s Sandwich Islands, Mauritius and Au
 tralian issues, valued at about fl
 hundred pounds each, are constant 8 coming into the market, and are nev
 kept for more than week. # AS collectors are increasing annus
 ly, especially in the pubic schools, a & prices and takings are always rfsiT Atratfic eoanaralIv In11st be consider