Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01


however, are often mentioned In
articles on the subject, so let us
rather consider one who may be
considered a typical" American
philatelist.
Today there is a decided tendency
Cor adults with no previous expert
ence in the hobby to become stamp
collectors, but this is an entirely
new development. Until the recent
flood Of American commemorative
created so many new collectors the
usual philatelist had been a collector
from childhood. 1t is one of the
latter class whom we will consider.
Our typical philatelist is Arthur
Van Heuckeroth, 812 Upshur street
NV, by profession a chemist, a
graduate of George Washington
University and employed by a local
industrial research laboratory. He
has been collecting stamps since
1917 when the father of friend
gave his duplicates to a group Of
about Is boys in the neighborhood.
OF this group, only two are still
interested in stamp collecting, as
far as Mr.. Van Heuckeroth knows.
This probably represents the usual
percentage of beginners who remain
philatelistS for any length Of time.
He is member of one stamp club,
the Collectors Club of Washington,
D. c.
Mint Copies
Mr.. Van Heuckeroth specializes
In stamps of the United States and
possessions, and Canada, prefering,
whenever possible, to acquire mint"
copies (Stamps which are unused,
and just as they came from the
postof11ce, are known as mint
stamps.) He also saves those foreign
stamps depicting things relating to
our country and its affairs. This
specialization is usual among phi
latelists, inasmuch as it would be
all but impossible to acquire a COM
plete world collection. Most begin
ners start out in that direction, but
they soon learn the futility of such
Oil CllOl I, dIlu CllOOSC oOlllC lIlOi z
limited field of endeavor.
Interesting items in Mr.. Van
Heuckeroth's collection include a
copy of the first United States
stamp. This was issued in 1847,
and its face value is five cents.
Even today it is not too rare or
expensive to be included in the
albums Of collector Of moderate
means, but 1t has obvious interest.
Most stamps containing errors Of
any sort are quite rare, but there Is
one United States error still within
the reach Of the average collector,
and this one Mr.. Van Heuckeroth
has. 1t is a scent stamp printed
in plate of twos, and of course in
red, like the 2-cent ones around it.
This stamp was issued from 1917 to
1919, and was perforated in two
different ways in that time. (The
perforations, usually called simply
"perfs," are the little holes which
permit you to tear the stamps apart,
and the number of such holes
around stamp Is changed from
time to time. This is an additional
means of identifying certain
stamps0
Five Albums.
Mr.. Van Heuckeroth has copies
of this error stamp in both per-
forations. He also has quite a nice
collection of departmental stamps.
Back in the 1905, Uncle Sam issued
special stamps for the use of his
various governmental departments,
with separate designs for each. Not
so many people bother with them
today, and a nice collection of
them, such as Mr.. Van Heuckeroth
has, is rather unusual All of these
stamps are mounted in five albums.
Mr.. Van Heuckeroth is not en-