Evening star., 1934-01-07
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/ be one, two or three months, ever
weeks. from now" the editor declares
Under present conditions, except fol
stocks on hand, prices must be ad-
vanced. Just how high they will go !;
useless to predict"
G. A. Henhoeffer, in the Philadelphia
Public Ledger, writes: In the Yule-
tide of 1907 the first Christmas
seal was offered to the public at Will
mington, Del. 1t came as the solution
to the problem of Miss Emily Bissell
who was searching for some way to
raise $4,000 to build a pavilion for
tuberculosis patients of her State. Miss
BisseI declared the idea was not orig
inal with her, but was taken from a
story of Denmark's success in the sale
of decorative stamps for Christmas let
tiers and packages and devoting the
funds to the construction of a chill
dren's tuberculosis hospital in Copen-
hagen. The story she referred to was
written for the outlook by Jacob Riis
BY December, 1908, Miss Bissell had
convinced the American National Red
Cross that the American people would
be more inclined to patronize a Ma
tion-wide sale if it were handled en-
tirely by large charitable organization
of repute. The return of $135, 900 on
the 1908 label proved her judgment
correct. The next year sales went ur
to $250,000 and for a decade there
after sales increased each year. Ir
| 1920 the partnership between the
American Red Cross and the National
tuberculosis Association was dissolved
because of the annual roll call spon-
sored by the Red Cross. This organi-
zation did not want to call on the
public twice year for contributions
The National tuberculosis Association
| was on its own.
Meanwhile nothing of any account ir
the philatelic world had yet tranSpired
as far as collecting seals was con-
cerned. True, there had been some
fans since they first were issued. but
they were few and far between. Almost
overnight Christmas seals sprang into
the limelight and took their place with
other United States specialties.
THE new school of philatelists
learned in most cases the early issues
were not to be found. Thousands OF
them had been sold, but few were pre-
served. Old files and correspondence
boxes were culled over with little or nc
results. New rarities had entered the
realm of stamp collecting.
"Philatelic papers and magazines
were carrying stories about the new
collecting craze. The quest for early
seals spread"
Now, the seals are catalogued, prices
ranging from cents for some issues
to S25 for others. Mr. Henhoeffer de-
clares that the very rare varieties are
"unprocurable at any price"
The 1888 seals were designed by
Hans Axel Walleen, South Norwalk
NJ Y. Four printers were the manu-
facturers Each had an Identification
mark. The Eureka Specially Printing
Co. Joined the rope to the elbow OF
the figure at the left" on the 18th
goth, 91st and Tooth seals of Their
plates; the Strobridge Lithographing
the IS" of Greetings on the Tooth
label; the United States Printing &
Lithographing Co. employed a green
dot under the ''S' of Greetings on the
55th seal, and the Columbia Bank Note
Co. had their mark on the perforated
margin of the 93d seal The Eureka
variety has 12x12 perforation; the
others, 12lax12la.
Don Grieve, writing in the Cleveland
Plain Dealer, says: Collectors are
warned to be on the lookout for fake
Washington bicentennial precancels
Most of the forgeries are on used
stamps, which in itself is enough tc
make the average collector wonder Just
little. There also is quite a bit OF
variation in the type used in making
the forgeries as compared with the
originals"
Stamps says: due largely to the
heavy volume Of American CONNER
cial correspondence and the prog
ressiveness of American business men
in utilizing labor-saving devices, Gov
eminent stamped envelopes, first used
in the United States in 1853, have
since been produced in this country in
larger quantities, more sizes and trims
of paper than in any other country
Of the world. United States stamped
envelopes as a class offer unlimited
opportunity for study, and one promi-
nent collection was offered for sale
at low price Of $4,000"
In Cushing's STORY of Our Post
Office" w. H. Wallace, postmaster at
Hammondsville, Ohio, in 1841, is rep
resented as telling how farmers paid
postage in that period: THE prices
OF produce were 612 cents per pound
for butter, 5 cents per dozen for eggs
To pay postage on 25-cent letter, il
required the amount of the following
articles: pounds butter, S dozen
eggs, 2 bushels oats, 2 bushels potatoes
11s pounds coarse wool, little over
two-thirds bushel wheat, and other
articles in proportion. To illustrate
the expense of correspondence fur
thsr: Suppose farmer and family
communicated with New York cor
respondent and had to receive 80 un-
paid letters, he must sell a good milk
cow to foot the postage bill, for So
would buy a good cow 1t was COM
mon to take produce to pay for the
postage on letters and papers"
THE other day in New York" says
Weekly Philatelic Gossip, "a Brattle'
boro, VT, provisional from the collec-
tion Of the late Arthur Hind sold fol