Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-09
Philately, a Sport of Kings

| they are being added to fast, and It is
obvious that no dealer can maintain
anything like complete stock Further,
many are so rare that dealers can
satisfy collectors demands only by
Keeping in touch with one another all
over the world. Hence there has grown
| up an international society of traders
which keeps close tab on the market
and collections, and system Of bourses
held frequently.
The collectors who attend these meet
! ings range from one-stamp rnaniacs
who chase one stamp at time Until
they get 1t, to quantity gamblers, who
will buy unsorted lots OF l 900 TO 100 900
stamps unpicked for postmarks. In the
hope Of finding a nugget in the mine
Sometimes the quantity gamblers pull
OF big thing. But the great days are
gone Stanley Gibbons, who began In
o corner of his fathers chemist shop
at Plymouth, England, and built up the
worlds biggest stamp business, took a
lot of the cream of that milk His most
romantic md happened when two pass
| ing sailors came in and asked him II
he would buy some stamps. They pro-
duced q kit-bag full Of triangular Cape
of Good Hope stamps. They had got
the lot in charity raffle at Cape Town
Gibbons bought them for $25 and resold
Some Lucky Strokes.
| He had some lucky strokes, this Glib
bons. Once he ordered q supply of
stamps from an Australian postmaster
The postmaster apologized for sending
100 two-penny stamps painted in the
color of the six-penny stamps. The
dealer held onto them, and started sell
ing them as errors at $l.25 time.
| Later on he asked $40 and got it. To-
day the market price is around $3.50.
Errors" often mean all the difference
between 81 and 81 900. The Swedish
| three-skilling -banco of 1855 is classic
! instance A Swedish boy found a packet
of letters which his grandmother had
saved All carried three shilling -banco
stamps, He kept one good-looker for
/ dealer for 50 apiece. Counting them
over. the dealer found a yellow three
! skilling-banco of 1855. At first he
! thought it was fake, no yellow stamps
/ of this issue being known. But it turned
| out to be an error-it had been printed
| in yellow instead Of green. That error
gave the dealer profit Of &3,523
| Takers used to cause wild panics in
the stamp game, but they have been
and greatest Of the stamp forgers was
Louis Henri MERCER, who started a
| forged-stamp factory at Geneva so years
| ago, covering his process by patents
| registered in due form at Bern. Mercier
! turned out wholesale foreeries of nearly
every country Most Of his clients
bought his stamps knowing they we're
forgeries and passed them on as au-
thentic.
Fournier succeeded Mercier, and In
! turn was succeeded by one Hirschburger.
When the latter gentleman died the
Union Philatelique 6e Geneve bought
the concern and suppressed the taking
business. But instead of destroying
everything they kept some Of the finest
pieces, Cancelled the stamps indelibly,
and filled 800 albums of 200 pages
each. These are invaluable for COM
parison purposes, and are insurance
against another master forger.
Mutilation by Machine.
Britain, jealous about her state stamp
monopoly, provides her post ONCE on
cials with q perforating instrument to
mutilate high-valus stamps so that they
cannot be sold to collectors after use,
and so far the post ONCE has resisted
all suggestions for Q special department
for dealing with stamp dealers and col
lectors' orders.
The United States, more enterprising,
went into the stamp-dealing business in
! 1921. Irving Glover took her in. being
largely moved thereto by q letter from
an enthusiastic stamp collector who
complained that when he had asked
for a block of four well conferred q
cent stamps the stamp clerk at the
window told him with ire that he had
not time 10 waste on nuts Hubert
Work and VIII Hays, then First AS
sistant Postmaster General, respective
iy, told Glover he was crazy when he
suggested the philatelic agency, but he
persisted and got il established. To
date the agency has sold to collectors
and dealers more than 81 400 900 worth
Of unused United States stamps
AL over the world the rule d followed
that, with the exception Of symbols or
scenery. only national historical per-
sonases, such at presidents or royalties
shaH appear on q country's stamps
But the rule is occasionally broken, as
when the Bulgarians put on o stamp
issue the portrait Of Q London Times
correspondent who had boosted their
cause and the Fflipinos put on an issue
Of 1905 the heads of Admiral Sampson,
victor Of Santiago in 1898, and Of Gen.
Lawton. Again. the rule has been
broken by the faux pas of individuals
Brunswick, for instance. He tactlessly
replaced a portrait Of Queen Victoria
with one of himself on the Scent
stamp. He lost his job, but provided
philatelists with q rarity to night over.
And then there was the sad au-
dacious case of Lord Baden-Powell Of
Boy Scout fame AS a British general
during the South African War he was
besieged in Mafeking, and whiled away
the time having a new issue Of stamps
made on which his owen head ap-
peared. The British sovereign was
furious
But time heals all wounds Queen
Victoria might wish to burn the whole
issue, and King Edward VII might
have been seriously annoyed, but KIM
George v discovered that there were
only seven known specimens Of . re-
versed print Of the Baden-Powell
stamp, and began a hunt which did
not end until he had acquired one for
his collection.