The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-08-18
THERE rs PROFIT IN MAKING RARITIEs
STILL MORE RARE.

DI1LL NUKE 6A6E.
~ want to tell you little secret, -
said the dealer in postage stamps to
the collector. Maybe it ought not
to get out, but think it will be in
teresting, and I guess it can't do any
harm. It only goes to show the
cleverness of some people, and also
It will explain why certain postage
stamp will rise in price in the cata-
logues next year.
Back in 1851 there were two
types or the one cent stamp printed
in the United States. Both were
from the same plate, but the differ
ence was shown in the printing. In
one type there were little scrolls
showing plainly at the bottom of the
design, but careless printing on the
later stamps failed to bring this part
out. The first type was the rarer
aeds sells nowadays, as you know at
a pretty good figure.
well, these stamps were super
sedei by a perforated species of the
same design letter, and then, at the
time 6 the civil war, the whole lot
were repudiated by the government
and nev stamps made.
All hat there were in existence
were destroyed, but it was well
known that few hundred got away.
The government records showed that
there were something like 1900 un-
accounted for. 1t was generally be-
lieved that they had been stolen in
some way.
''The other day a friend of mine
got hold of an these stamps in exist
ence. Oh, don't get excited till you
hear the story. But instead of there
being only some 1900 there were
nearly 5000, all in uncut sheets and
in perfect condition. They were
beauties that would make the eyes
of the collector pop out of his head.
They represented fortune, enough
to make a man rich for life. How
did the dealer get hold of them ?
Oh, can't tell you that.
Undoubtedly these represented
every one of the unaccounted for
stamps of this issue. There could
be no doubt of it. He had the situa-
tion in his grasp. He could sell the
sheets for big sums. But what do
you suppose he actually did? He
destroyed them.
"Wait. He didn't destroy all of
them, not by any ueans-only just
enough. 1t was this way With
5000 of the rare stamps in existence,
besides those in the collections OF
this country, the value of the stamp
would go down. You can see that,
can't you? But suppose all but
thousand were destroyed and actually
proved to be destroyed. Don't you
see the result? The value of the few
remaining would go UP like a rocket,
but without the rockets tendency to
come down.
"Well, that's what this dealer did.
Twas present when it happened. It
seemed like murder to a collector
and enthusiast like me, but the wis
dom of the business was shown.
Next day the man had an offer for
one of the remaining stamps that was
bigger than he could have got for
hundred of them if he had saved all
OF the 5000.
"I knew of a similar case little
while ago too. This time it was the
autograph of man that was found.
The man was famous all over the
world, but few of his autographs had
been saved, and dealers and collec-
tors everywhere were trying to get
one. A hundred and fifty dollars
had been offered for one of them.
"This reached the ears of some de-
scendants of the great man, and they
bobbed up with more than a hun
dred letters written by him. The
dealer to whom they brought them
grabbed at the material, but after he
had bought it he burned about half
the letters, name and all. Then he
sold the rest for much more than he
could have got for the full number.
Individuality and uniqueness in
any case always pay. So in collect
ing rar;ties, if there are two, neither
is so rare as though the other one
did not exist. But when you de-
stroy one and make the remaining
one urique-ah, then you've got
something worth while. "-Ne0O
Y,k World.