The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-13
FDR Beats
Washington
On Stamps
BY GEORGE SCOTT

BY GEORGE SCOTT
WASHINGTON, April 12- P) -
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who be-
came Americas best known
stamp collector while President,
is still a dominant figure in the
stamp collecting fields two years
after his death.
He already has outstripped
George Washington as the favorite
American subject for foreign
stamps. His picture or name APP
pear on some 40 stamps of 10
foreign countries. Eight have pic
tured Washington on their stamps.
Stamps from Roosevelt's per-
sonal collection, sold at auction
last year, are eagerly sought by
collectors. Even stamps that
otherwise would be worthless sell
for as high as a dollar each be-
cause they bear the auctioneer's
certification that they came from
the Roosevelt collection.
At least n firm capitalized on
his popularity by issuing a spe-
cial album to hold only stamps
honoring him.
Prices of Roosevelt stamps is
sued by Turkey, Guatemala and
Brazil before his death have doub-
led or trebled since his death.
Argentina, Greece, Honduras,
Liberia, Nicaragua, Monaco, Haiti
and Colombia already have issued
Roosevelt memorial stamps.
China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecua-
dor, Mexico, the Philippines. Pan
anna, Poland and San Marine
either have announced they will
follow suit or are reported unoffi-
cially to be planning memorial is
sues. r..5.s
Roosevelt stamps" even were
issued by General Wladyslaw An
ders' Polish army, which was sta
toned in Italy for many months
after We Day before it was final
ly disbanded and transported to
England.
Whether the Anders stamps -
which consisted OF the words
Honor the Four Freedoms,
Franklin D. Roosevelt overprint-
ed on five previously issued
stamps-were ever used for post
age has been questioned by col
lectors, however.
Foreign postal tributes to Amer
las wartime President range
from an unattractive Colombian
overprint showing the heads OF
Mr.. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill
and Premier Stain to an elabor-
ate 11-stamp set turned out by
Nicaragua.
The Colombian overprint, issued
to mark We Day, appears in three
different colors, green, red and
blue, so that a complete set con-
sists of three stamps.
Nicaragua's Roosevelt stamps
top the list in more ways than
mere numbers. They are the most
expensive, costing collectors at
current prices some $21 per set,
and the most ambitious in design.
They feature scenes from Mr..
Roosevelt's Atlantic, Casablanca
and Tehran conferences as well
as his signing of the declaration
of war against Japan. Major item
in the price of the II stamps r
five high airmail values which &C.
count for approximately $40 of the
total cost.
The little eight-mile square prin-
cipality of Monaco, on the south
ern coast of France, ranks next
to Nicaragua in the elaborateness
of its Roosevelt stamps. This lit
tie nation used nine stamps, in
GLIDING two of triangular shape,
to pay it's tribute.
Less ostentatious are the
stamps issued by Argentina,
Greece and Haiti, who chose por-
traits of MI. Roosevelt against a
somber, dignified background. A
black border edges Greece's three
stamps. Haiti's two stamps bear
the words "F. D. Roosevelt in
Memoriam." Argentina's single
stamp, issued on the first ami
versary of Mr.. Ro%osevelt's death
is inscribed in Spanish Promoter
of Good Neighborliness and STAN
dard Bearer of a New Social
Order"
His own nation has issued five
stamps in tribute to Mr.. Roose-
welt. Best known are the one, two,
three and five-cent memorial
stamps. These combine his por-
trait with a picture of his Hyde
Park, N. Y. home on the one-cent
stamp; the cottage he occupied at
Warm Springs, Ca, on the two
cent; the White House on the
three-cent, and a world globe in
the five-cent.
His name was added to the five
cent United Nations stamp, is
sued a short time after his death
to mark the opening of the United
Nations conference at San Fran
cisco in April 1915.
In some sections Of the Orient
- e. zs~1 L y~r