Stamp book for collectors free download

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Search the Wayback Machine Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Sign up for free Log in. The beginner’s book of stamp collecting Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write a review. Vector vintage welcome back to school label children education icon knowledge day design concept.

Vintage gold gatsby patterned ornament art print, remix from artworks by samuel jessurun de mesquita.

Law book icon flat sign element from law collection creative law book icon for web design templates infographics and more. Vintage writing stamps set with typing retro globe telephone typewriter books magnifier coffee camera eyeglasses oil lamp isolated.

Projects Flaticon Free customizable icons. Storyset for Figma Illustrations for your Figma projects. Log in Sign up. Go back. No notifications to show yet. Stay tuned! Edit profile. Filters 1. Photos PSD All images stamp book book ribbon book now book club book open. Add to Cart. Renniks Stamps of Australia The Stamp Collector’s Reference Guide 16th Edition 26 Years as The Guide to Australian Stamps. Product Details; Author: Alan B.

The guide shows current values, at date of publication and general information on each issue but not specialised details — perforations, watermarks, method of printing etc.

Stamps of Australia. Renniks Stamps of Australia 16th Edition:The Stamp Collectors Reference Guide Alan B. Renniks Stamps of Australia 16th Edition The Stamp Collectors Reference Guide.

He has been the managing editor of Renniks Stamps of Australia since Renniks Stamps of Australia 16th Edition:The Stamp Collectors Reference Guide. It shows 15th Edition on the spine but it says 16th Edition on the front cover but it is definitely the latest 16th edition.

Every book in the initial View more info. Renniks Stamps of Australia 16th Edition Alan B. Pitt, , available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide.

Contains Postage Stamps in Australia Watermarks, Perforations Colonial Stamps of Australia Buy Stamps of the World: 6 volume set Hugh Jefferies from Boffins Books in Perth, Australia. Boxed Set, published in Stanley Gibbons. Best books online free from Alan B. Pitt Renniks Stamps of Australia 16th Edition : The Stamp Collectors Reference Guide.

 
 

Stamp book for collectors free download –

 

Various badges set for hot news special price last offer book now isolated on white background realistic vector illustration. Vector vintage welcome back to school label children education icon knowledge day design concept. Vintage gold gatsby patterned ornament art print, remix from artworks by samuel jessurun de mesquita. Law book icon flat sign element from law collection creative law book icon for web design templates infographics and more.

Vintage writing stamps set with typing retro globe telephone typewriter books magnifier coffee camera eyeglasses oil lamp isolated. Projects Flaticon Free customizable icons. Storyset for Figma Illustrations for your Figma projects. Log in Sign up. Go back. No notifications to show yet. Stay tuned! Edit profile. Filters 1. Photos PSD All images stamp book book ribbon book now book club book open.

Book Stamp Vectors. Flat design back to school badge collection. Hand drawn back to school badge collection. Beautiful badges painted with watercolors for back to school. Vintage logos of hotel stores restaurant and cafe with design elements. There are collectors throughout South Africa, in Rhodesia, and even in Uganda. Wherever a postage stamp is issued there may be [18] found a collector waiting for a copy for his album.

In no part of the world can an issue of stamps be made that is not at once partially bought up for collectors. If any one of the Antarctic expeditions were to reach the goal of its ambition, and were to celebrate the event there and then by an issue of postage stamps, a collector would be certain to be in attendance, and would probably endeavour to buy up the whole issue on the spot.

The United States teems with collectors, and they have their philatelic societies in the principal cities and their Annual Congress. From Texas to Niagara, and from New York to San Francisco, the millionaire and the more humble citizen vie with each other in friendly rivalry as stamp collectors. Many countries are now making an Official Collection, and there is every probability that some day in the near future most Governments will keep a stamp collection of some sort for reference and exhibition.

Under the rules of the Postal Union, every state that enters the Union is entitled to receive, for reference purposes, a copy of every stamp issued by each country in the Postal Union. Hence every Government receives valuable contributions, which should be utilised in the formation of a National or Official Collection. And some day stamp collectors will be numerous and influential enough to demand that such contributions shall not be buried in useless and forgotten heaps in official drawers, but shall be systematically arranged for public reference and general study.

Not a few countries are every year rescued from absolute bankruptcy by the generosity with which collectors buy up their postal issues; and many other countries would have to levy a very much heavier [19] burden of taxation from their peoples if stamp collecting were to go out of fashion.

So widespread indeed is our hobby that a well-known collector might travel round the world and rely upon a cordial welcome at the hands of fellow-collectors at every stopping-place en route.

International jealousies are forgotten, and even the barriers of race, and creed, and politics, in the pleasant freemasonry of philatelic friendships. They found they were carrying it too far, and were being made the easy prey of a certain class of rapacious dealers.

Now the pendulum is swinging in a more rational direction, and many masters themselves having become enthusiastic collectors, judiciously encourage the boys under their care to collect and study stamps as interesting aids to their general studies. They watch over their collecting, and protect them from wasteful buying.

In some schools the masters have given or arranged lectures on stamps and stamp collecting, and the boys have voted such entertainments as ranking next to a jolly holiday. The up-to-date master, who can associate work and play, study and entertainment, is much more likely to register successes than the frigid dominie who will hear of nothing but a rigid attention to the tasks of the day.

In the one case the lessons are presented in their most repellent form, in the other they are made part and parcel of each day’s pleasant round of interesting study. The genuine success of the Kindergarten system in captivating the little ones lies in its association of play with work.

The same principle holds good even to a much later age. The more pleasant the task can be made, the more ready will be the obedience with which the task will be performed.

The openings for the judicious and helpful admixture of study and entertainment are so few, that one wonders that such a helpful form of play as stamp collecting has not become more popular than it has in our colleges. Take, for example, the study of geography, so important to the boys of a great commercial nation.

The boy who collects stamps will readily separate the great colonising powers, and group and locate their separate colonies. How many other boys, even after they have passed through the last stage of their school life, could do this?

Little-known countries and states are too often a puzzle to the ordinary schoolboy, which are familiar places to the stamp collecting youth. Not many; and the same question might probably be asked of many an adult with even less satisfaction.

The average series of used stamps are now so cheap that a lad may get together a fairly representative collection for what he ordinarily spends at the tuck shop. Some educationists have advocated the making and exhibiting of school collections of stamps as aids to study. Such collections would certainly be much [22] more profitably studied than most of the maps and diagrams that nowadays cover the walls.

With few exceptions, every stamp has the name of the country, or colony, of its issue on its face; and most colonial stamps bear some family likeness to the stamps of the mother country. Our British colonial stamps are distinguished by their Queen’s heads; the stamps of Portugal and its colonies by the portraits of the rulers of Portugal; those of Germany by the German currency; those of France mostly by French heraldic designs; those of Spain by the portraits of the kings and queens of Spain.

So that the postage stamp is a key to much definite, valuable, and practical information. They are finger posts to most of the great events that have made the history of nations during the last fifty years. Here are a few out of many examples which might be quoted. The introduction of adhesive stamps for the prepayment of postage found France a Republic. A provisional government had just been established on the ruins of the monarchy which had been swept out of existence in the revolution of As a consequence, the first postage stamp issued by France, on New Year’s Day of , bore the head of Ceres, emblematic of Liberty.

Three years later Louis Napoleon seized the post of power, and, as President of the Republic, his head figures on a stamp issued in , under the inscription ” repub. In the customary laurel wreath, to indicate the first victories of the reign, [24] won in the war with Austria, was added to the Emperor’s head.

In the Franco-German War resulted in the downfall of the monarchy, and the head of Liberty reappears on a series of postage stamps issued in Paris during its investment by the German army.

The issue of the stamps of Alsace and Lorraine in marks the annexation of the conquered territory. Italy in was a land of many petty states, each more or less a law unto itself, and each, in the fifties, issuing its own separate series of postage stamps. The stamps of the Pontifical States are made familiar by their typical design of a tiara and keys, and pompous King Bomba ordered the best engraver to be found to immortalise him in a portrait for a series of stamps.

In , after the Kingdom of Sardinia had been merged in the Kingdom of Italy, a new series was issued for united Italy. The same king’s portrait appears, but turned to the left. In King Humbert succeeded Victor Emmanuel, and his portrait appeared on an issue in the year of his accession.

The stamps of Germany tell a somewhat similar [25] story. They mark the stages of gradual absorption into a confederation of states, and the ultimate creation of a German Empire. The postal issues of Baden ceased in , when the Grand Duchy was incorporated in the Empire. Bavaria, though also incorporated, holds out in postal matters, and still issues its separate series.

Bergedorf was in placed under the control of the free city of Hamburg, and thereupon ceased issuing stamps. Hanover became a province of Prussia after the war of , and thereupon ceased its separate issue of postage stamps; and Thurn and Taxis followed suit in In the North German Confederation was merged in the German Empire, which issued its first postage stamp with the Imperial eagle in But the Empire is not yet sufficiently united to place a portrait of the Emperor upon its Imperial postal series.

Indian postage stamps, overprinted with the initials ” C. The early provisional issues of Crete of indicate the joint interference of the Great Powers in its affairs, and the later issues, in , bear the portrait of Prince George of Greece as High Commissioner of Crete. The Confederate locals of America, issued, in , by the postmasters of the Southern States when they were cut off by the war from the capital and its supplies of postage stamps, and each town was thrown upon [26] its own resources, proclaim the period of the great American Civil War.

Collectors are all familiar with the long series of portraits of past Presidents of the United States, from Washington to Garfield. But amongst the most interesting of all stamps that may be classed as historical finger posts, none equal in present-day interest the stamps of the Transvaal, for they tell of the struggle for supremacy in South Africa. In the Boers issued their first postage stamp, and a crude piece of workmanship it was, designed and engraved in Germany.

Till they printed their supplies of postage stamps in their own crude way from the same crude plates. Then came the first British Occupation, when the remainders of the stamps of the first South African Republic were overprinted ” V. Then, in , the stamps of the Republic were replaced by our Queen’s Head. In the country was given back to the Boers, when they in turn overprinted our Queen’s Head series in Boer currency, to indicate the restoration of Boer domination.

And now, finally, in we have the second British Occupation, and a second overprinting of South African Republic stamps ” V. The Mafeking stamps are also interesting souvenirs of a gallant stand in the same historical struggle.

The war which Chili some years ago carried into Bolivia and Peru has been marked in a special manner upon the postage stamps of Chili. As in the case of our own troops in South Africa, so the Chilian troops [27] in Bolivia and Peru were allowed to frank their letters home with the stamps of their own country.

So also the Chilians further overprinted the stamps of Peru with the Chilian arms during their occupation of the conquered country in the years Chilian stamps used along the route of the conquering army, and postmarked with the names of the towns occupied, are much sought after by specialists. And so the stamp collector may turn over the pages of his stamp album, and point to stamp after stamp that marks, for him, some development of art, some crisis in a country’s progress, some struggle to be free, or some great upheaval amongst rival powers.

In fact, every stamp issued by a country is, more or less, a page of its history. They mark some official experiment, some curious blunder or accident, some little conceit, some historical event, or some crude and early efforts at stamp production.

What is known as the V. Penny black, English stamp, is said to have been designed as an experiment in providing a special stamp for official use, its official character being denoted by the initials V. Penny black was never issued.

For a long time it was treasured up as a rarity by collectors, but now that its real claims to be regarded as an issued stamp have been finally settled, it is no longer included in our stamp catalogues. It is now relegated to the rank of an interesting souvenir of the experimental stage in the introduction of Penny Postage. Of curious blunders, the Cape of Good Hope errors of colours are amongst the most notable. In the 1d. This was done by engraving imitations of the originals.

Stereos were then taken, and made up into plates for printing. By an oversight a stereo of the penny value was dropped into the fourpenny plate and a fourpenny into the penny plate. Consequently, each sheet printed in the required red ink from the penny plate yielded a fourpenny wrongly printed in red instead of blue, its proper colour; and every sheet of the fourpenny likewise yielded a penny stamp printed in blue instead of red.

At the time, copies were sold by dealers for a few shillings each. Similar errors are known in the stamps of other countries. Now and again the sheets of a particular value have, by some extraordinary oversight, been printed and issued in the wrong colour. In copies of the 1s. In a supply of shilling stamps was sent out to Barbados printed in blue instead of black; but this latter error was, according to Messrs.

Hardy and Bacon, so promptly discovered, that it is doubtful if any of the wrong colour were issued for postal use. In the fastidiously careful firm of De la Rue and Co. Several are said to have been issued to the public before the error had been noticed. Indeed, the firm at home is credited with having first discovered the mistake, and is said [30] to have telegraphed to the colony in time to prevent their issue in any quantity.

Another and much more common error in the early days of stamp production was the careless placing of one stamp on a plate upside down. They have to be collected in pairs to show the error. The early stamps of France furnish many examples of this class of error. They are also to be found on the 6d. Stamps requiring two separate printings— i. A sheet passed through the press upside down after one colour has been printed results in one portion of the design being inverted.

In the issue of the stamps of the United States no less than three of the values had the central portions of their designs printed upside down. The 4d. Even the recently issued Pan-American stamps, printed in the most watchful manner by the United States official Bureau of Engraving and Printing, are known with the central portions of the design inverted, and these errors, despite the most searching examination to which each sheet is several times subjected, escaped detection, and were sold to the public.

When, however, it is remembered that stamps are now printed by the million, it will be wondered that so few mistakes escape into the hands of collectors. As a bit of conceit, the issue of what is known as the Connell stamp is probably unequalled. In loyal [31] Canada, in , Mr.

Charles Connell was Postmaster-General of the little colony of New Brunswick, which in those days had its own government and its own separate issue of stamps. A change of currency from “pence” to “cents” necessitated new postage stamps. It was decided to give the new issue as much variety as possible by having a separate design for each stamp. Two of the series presented the crowned portrait of the Queen, and one that of the Prince of Wales as a lad in Scotch dress.

Connell, apparently ambitious to figure in the royal gallery, gave instructions to the engravers to place his own portrait upon the 5 cents stamp.

His instructions were carried out, and in due time a supply of the 5 cents bearing his portrait was delivered. But before many were issued the news spread like wildfire that Connell had outraged the issue by placing his own portrait upon one of the stamps.

Political opponents are said to have taken up the hue and cry. The matter was immediately brought before the higher authorities, and the unfortunate stamp was promptly suppressed. Half a million had been printed off and delivered for sale, but very few seem to have escaped the outcry that was raised against them, and to-day copies are extremely scarce.

Poor Connell took the matter very much to heart, threw up his appointment, and forthwith retired into private life. But the portrait of the bluff mechanic type of countenance will be handed down from generation to generation in stamp catalogues and costly stamp collections long after the authorities that suppressed him are forgotten.

Some folks question the appearance of the Baden-Powell portrait upon the Mafeking stamps as a similar bit of conceit; but whatever may be said in criticism of Baden-Powell’s stamp, most people will be inclined [32] to accept it as a pleasant souvenir of an historic siege and a determined and gallant stand against great odds. But of all the portraits that have appeared upon postal issues, none probably occasioned so much trouble and fuss as that of the notorious King Bomba of Sicily.

The most eminent engraver of his day—Aloisio—was commissioned to prepare an exact likeness of His Sacred Majesty. After much ministerial tribulation the portrait was approved and engraved, and to this day it is regarded as a superb piece of work. A special cancelling stamp had to be designed and put into use which defaced only the border of the stamp and left the sacred portrait untouched.

During the preliminaries necessary to the production of the sacred effigy the fate of ministers and officials hung in the balance. One official was actually marked for degradation for having submitted a disfigurement which turned out to be a carelessly printed, or rough, proof impression.

Numerous stamps have been designed, especially of late years, to represent some historical event in connection with the country of issue. The United States, in , in the confined space of an unusually small stamp, endeavoured to represent the landing of Columbus, and in another stamp the Declaration of Independence.

In a much more recent series, stamps of an exceptionally large size were adopted to give scope for a Columbus celebration set of historical paintings, including Columbus soliciting aid of Isabella, Columbus welcomed at Barcelona, Columbus restored to favour, Columbus presenting natives, Columbus announcing his discovery, the recall of Columbus, Isabella pledging her jewels, Columbus in chains, and Columbus describing his third voyage.

Greece has given us a set of stamps illustrating the Olympian Games. But collectors look [33] with considerable suspicion upon stamps of this showy class, for too many of them have been produced with the sole object of making a profit out of their sale to collectors, and not to meet any postal requirement.

Crude productions of peculiar interest belong more to the earlier stages of the introduction of postage stamps. Local attempts at engraving in some of our own early colonial settlements were of the crudest possible description, and yet they are, because of their very crudeness, far more interesting than the finished product supplied by firms at home, for the local effort truly represented the country of its issue in the art of stamp production.

The amusingly crude attempts which the engravers of Victoria have made from time to time, during the last fifty years, to give us a passable portrait of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria, have no equal for variety.

The stamps of the first South African Republic, made in Germany, are very appropriate in their roughness of design and execution. For oddity of appearance the palm must be awarded to those of Asiatic origin, such, for instance, as the stamps of Afghanistan, of Kashmir, and most of the local productions of the Native States of India, marking as they do their own independent attempts to work up to European methods of intercommunication. They are the gems of the most costly collections, the possession of the few, and the envy of the multitude.

Nevertheless, they are the gems that give tone and rank to the finest collections. Some of them are even priceless. He contends there can be no intrinsic value in such scraps of paper, and that settles the matter, in his opinion. But is it not so with precious stones and pearls? They are of value merely because they are the fashion. There is no intrinsic value in them. If they were not fashionable they would be of [35] little or no value.

Long-standing fashion, and fashion alone, has given them their value. So it is with stamps; fashion has given them their value, and every decade of continued popularity adds to that value as it has added to the value of precious stones and pearls.

There is no sign that precious stones are likely to become worthless by the withdrawal of popular favour. Fashion changes from one stone to another without affecting the popularity of precious stones in general. So it is with stamps. Fashions change from one line of collecting to another without in the slightest degree affecting the stability or popularity of collecting as a whole.

Precious stones and pearls minister to the pride of the individual, and stamps to his pleasure; and each has its own strong and unshakable hold upon the devotees of fashion and pleasure. There is a fluctuating market in the case of each of these favourites, but I venture to think that there is, and has been for the past forty years, a steadier rise in the value of stamps than in the value of precious stones. British Guiana, , 1 c. These were set up from type in the office of the Official Gazette.

A small illustration of a ship, used for heading the shipping advertisements in the daily papers, was utilised for the central portion of the design. Of the 1 c. Doubts have been expressed as to the [36] genuineness of the copy, but Mr. Bacon, who has had an opportunity of inspecting it, says: “After a most careful inspection I have no hesitation whatever in pronouncing it a thoroughly genuine one cent specimen.

The copy is a poor one, dark magenta in colour, and somewhat rubbed. It is initialled ‘E. This stamp may safely be placed at the head of great rarities. Of its value it is impossible to form any opinion. Mauritius, “Post Office,” 1d. They were designed and engraved by a local watchmaker, and were printed from single dies, and issued in The tedious process of printing numbers of stamps from single dies was soon abandoned, and only copies of each value were struck.

Of those 1, stamps only twenty-two copies are known to exist to-day. There are in the hands of leading collectors two copies of the 1d. These rarities were only in use for a few days, and were mostly used in sending out invitations to a ball at Government House.

Hawaii, , 2 cents, blue. About twelve copies are known to exist. The stamp was in use but a very short time, as the Post Office of Honolulu was burnt down, and the stock of stamps of this first issue was completely destroyed. British Guiana, , 2 cents. A notice in the local Official Gazette, dated February, , announced that “by order of His Excellency the Governor, and upon the request of several of the merchants of Georgetown, it is proposed to establish a delivery of letters twice each day through the principal streets of this city.

It is said that this delivery of letters was discontinued soon after it was started, hence rarity of the stamp. Moldavia, , 81 paras. The values were 27 paras for single letters travelling, and not carried more than about seventy miles, 54 paras for double that distance, 81 paras for heavier letters, and paras for registered letters, all within the limits of Moldavia. The 81 paras is the rarest of the series, as will be seen from the following inventory taken in February, , of the then unsold stock:—.

All these stamps were printed by hand on coloured paper in sheets of thirty-two impressions in four rows of eight stamps. United States, Millbury, , 5 c. The Providence stamp is the commonest example. One of the rarest is the 5 c. There are others reputed to be equally rare. Among the local stamps issued by various unofficial carriers and express agencies, there are many of which very few copies are known, and as they are practically all held by enthusiastic collectors, and never come into the market, there are no data as to their current value.

Cape of Good Hope, Errors of Colour. Consequently each sheet of the 1d. And the sheets of the 4d. These errors are very scarce, especially in an unused condition. The 1d. Tuscany, , 3 lire. For nearly thirty years Great Britain was content with a shilling stamp as its highest value. In the Provisional Government of Tuscany issued a stamp of 3 lire, for which there seems to have been very little use. It represented but two shillings and sixpence of English money, but it is [40] nevertheless one of the great rarities to-day, especially in an unused condition.

Transvaal, Error “Transvral. It was evidently discovered before a second lot was required, as it does not recur in the next printing of 1d. It is a very rare stamp. Ceylon, , 4d. Perkins Bacon and Co. These stamps are amongst the few great rarities that may be entitled to rank as works of art, and every year they are more sought after and more difficult to get in fine condition.

Our publishers’ business, with its world-wide ramifications, was begun by young Gibbons putting a few sheets of stamps in his father’s shop window. The father was a chemist, and it was intended that the lad should follow in his father’s footsteps; but the stamps elbowed the drugs aside, and eventually yielded a fortune which enabled this pioneer of the stamp trade to retire and indulge his globe-trotting propensities to the full. The business was converted into a Limited Liability Company, and the Managing Director may be said to be a product of the original business, for it was a present of a guinea packet of Stanley Gibbons’s stamps that first whetted his appetite for stamp collecting, and eventually for stamp dealing.

Gibbons had for a great many years conducted his business from his private house. The new broom changed all that, and opened out in fine premises in [42] the Strand, W.

In every room busy hands are at work all the day long endeavouring to keep pace with a world-wide business which began with a few sheets in the corner of a chemist’s shop window in the town of Plymouth. And now, looking back on the humdrum days of the beginnings of the stamp trade, what opportunities do they not seem to have missed! Could they but have foreseen the present-day developments, a few unconsidered trifles, valued at a few pence in those days, put away in a bottom drawer, would to-day net a fortune.

Those Errors he disposed of at 2s. And the ordinary Woodblocks, which were so plentifully represented in that sackful, are now catalogued at from 50s. Strange as it may seem, those were the common stamps of those days, and they are the rarities of to-day.

A leading collector once conceived the idea of scouring the little-visited country towns of Spain for rare old Spanish stamps, and a most successful hunt he made of it. He secured most valuable and unsuspected hauls of unused and used blocks and pairs of rare [43] Portuguese; but before returning home he decided to treat himself to a trip to Morocco, and during that ill-fated extension of his tour he lost nearly the whole of his patient garnerings of rare Spanish stamps, for during an inland trip some very unphilatelic Bedouins swooped down on his escort in the desert and carried off the whole of his baggage.

He, being some distance ahead of his escort, escaped, and brought home only a few samples of the grand things he had found and lost. In all forms of collecting the hunt for bargains adds zest to the game, and probably more so in stamps than in any other hobby, not even excepting old china; and, as in other lines of collecting, the bargain hunter must be equipped with the expert knowledge of the specialist if he would sweep into his net at bargain prices the unsuspected gems to be found now and again in the philatelic mart.

Many a keen stamp collector turns his years of wide experience to good account as a bargain hunter, and at least one innocent amateur is credited with netting a revenue which would make many a flourishing merchant green with envy.

Many a match has probably been due to stamp collecting. Not long ago we were told of a young lady who wrote to an official in a distant colony for a few of the current stamps issued from his office. The stamps were forwarded and a correspondence ensued. There was eventually an exchange of photographs, and finally the official applied for leave, returned home, and married his stamp collecting correspondent.

Truly the scope of the stamp collector for pleasure, for profit, and for romance is as wide as the most imaginative could desire. They are associations of stamp collectors for the study of postage stamps, their history, engraving, and printing; the detection and prevention of forgeries and frauds; the preparation and publication of papers and works bearing upon postal issues; the display and exhibition of stamps, and the exchange of duplicates.

The premier society is the Philatelic Society of London, which was founded so long ago as , and has as its acting President H. For over thirty years, without a break, this Society has held regular meetings during the winter months.

Its membership comprises most of the leading collectors in Great Britain and her Colonies and many of the best-known foreign collectors. On the membership roll are three princes, several earls, baronets, judges, barristers, medical men, officers in the Army and Navy, and many well-known merchants.

It publishes an excellently-got-up monthly journal of its own, which now claims shelf-room in the philatelic library for ten stately annual volumes. At its fortnightly meetings, papers are read and discussed on various matters relating to the hobby. Other meetings are held for the friendly exchange of duplicates. In the provinces, the principal societies are those of Manchester and Birmingham. The Birmingham Society possesses a collection of its own, which it keeps up to date, as a work of reference for its members.

Several of the societies hold periodical exhibitions, in which members compete for medals, and in many other ways they lay themselves out to encourage and promote the collection of postage stamps as a popular pastime. The names of the various societies and the addresses of the secretaries are published at the commencement of each winter season in Stanley Gibbons’ Monthly Journal.

Apart from their pleasant sociability, these societies are of immense help to the collector, especially to the beginner. At each meeting papers are read and discussed, in which the most experienced collectors retail, for the benefit of the less experienced, the result of their latest researches, and eminent specialists display their splendid and carefully-arranged collections for the inspection, edification, and enjoyment of their fellow-members.

This continual meeting and com [46] paring of notes, this concentration of study upon the issues of a particular country, gradually ripens even the veriest tyro into an advanced and experienced collector.

Under such conditions difficulties are cleared up, and the way made plain for wise and safe collecting. In too many lines of collecting the specialist carefully guards his knowledge for his own ultimate personal profit.

The Philatelist, on the other hand, is more frequently than not generously and candidly helpful to his less advanced fellow-collector, especially if he happens to be a fellow-member of the same philatelic society. Expensive works have been published on the postal issues of most countries.

Those published in English alone would make a library of some hundreds of volumes. From its foundation, in , the Philatelic Society of London has set itself the task of studying and writing up the postal history of Great Britain and her Colonies. Towards the accomplishment of this great task, it has already presented its members with splendid monographs on the Australian Colonies, the Colonies of North America, of the West Indies, of India and Ceylon, two volumes on the British Colonies of Africa, a separate monograph on Tasmania, and last, and most ambitious of all, a massive and comprehensive history of the postal issues of Great Britain.

All these works are expensively illustrated with a profusion of full-page plates and other illustrations, and they represent years of patient toil, far-reaching investigation, and untiring research. Westoby, and [48] the same author, in collaboration with Judge Philbrick, some twenty years ago published a work on The Postal and Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain. Hardy and E. Bacon, in a work entitled The Stamp Collector , have sketched the general history of postage stamps.

Other works too numerous to mention here have been written from time to time for the edification of the stamp collector, and the list is continually being increased by the addition of even more important works.

One of the most interesting and comprehensive series of philatelic works, still in course of publication, was commenced by Messrs. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd. These handbooks are written by leading philatelic authorities. Each important country, i. There have already been published:— Portuguese India , by Mr. Gilbert Harrison and Lieut. Napier, R. Napier and Mr. Gordon Smith; St. Vincent , by Lieut. Bacon; Shanghai , by Mr.

Thornhill; Barbados , by Mr. Bacon and Lieut. Napier; Reprints and their Characteristics , by Mr. Bacon; and Grenada , by Mr. For the instruction of the beginner, Major Evans, R. Warhurst, designed to simplify the recognition and determination of the colours and shades of stamps—a by no means unimportant matter when the value of a stamp depends upon its shade.

But the most popular of all the philatelic publications are, of course, the monthly periodicals. The first stamp journal is said to have been The Monthly Intelligence , published at Manchester in It had but a short life of ten numbers out of the twelve required to complete Vol.

But other journals followed in rapid succession, with more or less success, from year to year, till in a list of the various ventures in this line totalled up to nearly a couple of hundred. The Stamp Collectors’ Magazine , started in , may be said to survive in Alfred Smith and Son’s Monthly Circular; The Philatelic Record , established in , is now in its twenty-fourth yearly volume; Gibbons’ Monthly Journal is in its twelfth yearly volume; and The London Philatelist is in its eleventh yearly volume; and all may be said to be going strong.

How many ordinary periodicals can boast of equally robust lives? And yet some people are still to be found who speak in all seriousness of stamp collecting as only a passing craze. Properly speaking, tradesmen’s catalogues can scarcely be regarded as literature, and yet it would be very remiss on my part to close this chapter without a reference to the excellent catalogues with which stamp collectors are provided.

What other hobby can boast of such comprehensive and detailed catalogues, giving the actual selling price of almost every item, and regularly revised and brought up to date from year to year? This excellent catalogue is at once guide, philosopher, and friend to the stamp collector. Some people irreverently style it “the Philatelist’s Bible.

Much the same story might be told of the literature of stamp collecting in other countries. In the United States, in France, and in Germany there are numbers of robust periodicals, some stretching back into the early days, and there are scores of volumes of philatelic lore, many of which find a well-deserved place on the shelves of English collectors. The restriction of a postage stamp when viewed alongside a canvas measuring several yards in length and height is probably hopeless enough.

Nevertheless, many a stamp collector who is not devoid of art can find stamps which seem to him to be entitled to rank high even in the art world. In beauty of design, in the exquisite workmanship of the best modern steel engraving, aided by the most delicate machinery, and in unequalled printing, there are many gems within the very limited space of a postage stamp that excite and deserve, and not unfrequently win, the admiration of the most exacting critics.

There are scores of little medallions, mostly on the postage stamps of foreign states, that surely would pass muster with an impartial judge of art. They are not the rarities of the stamp album.

Some are even regarded as weeds in the philatelic garden. They are too often made to serve the revenue-producing necessities of the issuing state, and for that [52] reason probably, more than for any other, they are made as attractive as modern art applied to stamp production can make them.

Great commercial countries, producing their postage stamps by hundreds of millions, are as contemptuous in their consideration of the art possibilities of a postage stamp as the cynical artist whose days and years are devoted to the disfigurement of wall space.

This country has no cause to be proud of the designs or the printing of its postage stamps. The chief consideration seems to be a low contract price for the production of recognisable labels for the indication of the prepayment of postage.

That is the commercial view. And yet there are some foolish people who believe that an artist who could design an effective and acceptable postage stamp for the British Empire would add materially to his own fame and to the art standard of the Empire itself. Brother Jonathan across the sea is not unmindful of art in the production of his postage stamps, despite his commercial inclinations and training.

From the first he has put his patriotism into his postage stamps. The portraits of the Presidents, from George Washington to Lincoln, and from Lincoln to McKinley, who have ruled, wisely and well, the destinies of the great Republic, Jonathan engraves in his best style, in his own official engraving establishment, and proudly places upon his postage stamps for the admiration of all good citizens and the edification and envy of the effete old countries beyond the seas. We, with our richer memories and our stately galleries of great men who have ruled or governed or fought through the centuries, must be content with an Empire postage stamp that is little better, from an art [53] point of view, than an ordinary beer label, and we must be content to be told that it is the penalty of success, of the dire necessity of long numbers, and of a needy Treasury that sorely hungers for still greater profits from the Post Office.

Meanwhile, small struggling states revel in beautiful stamps. The latest trend is in the direction of miniature portraiture. The Argentine Republic and Bolivia have in recent years issued some very fine examples in this direction. A very useful innovation is the addition of the name under the portrait. In this way thousands have been familiarised with the names and faces of men who before were almost unknown beyond their own country. Historic features, such as those of Columbus and Pizarro, have occasionally been added to the growingly interesting gallery of stamp portraits.

The recently issued New Zealand picture series, illustrating most effectively some of the choicest bits of colonial scenery, and some of the rarest birds of the colony, engraved by Messrs. Waterlow and Sons, afforded an interesting and successful experiment in an art direction. As a result it is said that a strong demand has been generated in other colonies for similarly beautiful and localised designs in preference to the stereotyped mediocrity supplied by the ordinary label process.

The ordinary investor in, say, industrial securities is fairly content if he can, with a little risk, secure a steady six or seven per cent. If he launches out into more speculative shares, yielding higher rates of interest, he must be content to face a much greater risk of the capital invested. Now, the severest test of an investment is the yield of interest over a series of years covering periods of depression as well as periods of prosperity.

The stamp collector who has used ordinary discretion in his purchases may confidently submit his investment to this test. Some years ago, when I was writing in defence of stamp collecting as an investment, I received a very indignant letter from a collector who had made a large collection, complaining that he had then recently endeavoured to sell, but could get only a very small percentage of his outlay back, and that the very firms from whom he had bought most of his stamps scouted [55] the idea of paying him anything like what they had cost him.

He therefore ridiculed the idea that stamp collecting could be regarded as a safe investment, as in his case it had been a delusion and a snare. He was quite right, and it is still possible to make big collections—of, say, five thousand, ten thousand, and even larger—of stamps that are never likely to appreciate, and it is possible to buy those stamps at such a price that any attempt to realise even a small percentage of the original outlay must result in a woeful eye-opener.

Let me explain. In the stamp business, as in all other branches of commerce, there are wholesale and retail dealers. The wholesaler buys by the thousand stamps that are printed by the million. I refer, of course, to used stamps. In some cases the price paid per thousand is only a few pence for large quantities that run into millions.

The wholesaler sells to the retail dealer at a small advance per thousand. Those stamps the ordinary dealer makes up into packets at a further profit, but still at a comparatively low price. Good copies he picks out for sale in sets and separately.

Those have to be catalogued. Therefore, the catalogue price of common stamps bought and sold by the million eventually comes before the general collector at “one penny each,” and the man who makes a collection of common stamps of the “one penny each” class can scarcely be expected to realise a fortune out of his stamp collecting. When he offers his gatherings of years to the self-same dealer, and asks, say, only the half of what he paid, he is astounded when the dealer has the audacity to tell him frankly, “I can buy most of those stamps at a few shillings per thousand, and you want an average of a halfpenny each for them!

A pretty thing investing money in stamps! I bought, and can still buy, those stamps wholesale at a few shillings per thousand, some of them at a few pence per thousand; but I have to pay clerks for handling them and sorting them out, other assistants for cataloguing them, and the printers for printing the catalogue, so that in the end I cannot afford to sell them separately for less than about one penny each, but if you want a few thousand of any value I can sell them to you at a price enormously below what you ask for your collection.

It is impossible to get away from the necessity of regarding stamps as an investment. Even the schoolboy cannot afford to put his shilling into stamps unless he can be fairly assured that he may get his money back at critical periods, which will crop up even in school life. Indeed, it may be said that there are few, if any, stamp collectors nowadays who do not put more money into stamps than they could afford to do if there were not some element of investment in view.

In some instances large fortunes are actually invested in stamps, and I was only recently told of a collector who had taken his money out of a very profitable business and put it into stamps, and had netted very much larger profits than he ever realised in his regular business. But to do that sort of thing requires a profound knowledge of stamps and a ready command of a very large banking account. Generally speaking, the best countries from an investment point of view are British Colonials, especially [57] those of the small colonies that have small populations, and therefore very small printings of stamps.

Obviously, countries that put stamps into circulation by the million can never be a very good investment, so far as their common values are concerned. Those who buy with a keen eye on the investment purpose, always buy unused copies of uncommon values. Unused are not likely to depreciate, and they may appreciate. In fact, it may be safely said that, all round, the thing to do in stamps is to buy unused for investment.

When stamps are printed by the million, used supplies will be available for no one knows how long; but in the case of unused, when a new issue is made, the obsolete stamp is on the road to an advance in value. It is true dealers stock large quantities of all stamps, but there are so many countries to be stocked now that no dealer can afford to hoard unused to any great extent, and even if he did, the dead capital would be an item which would compel him to advance the price of unused to protect himself from loss.

It would be a moderate estimate to place the earning power of stamps at 10 per cent. It will, therefore, be obvious that unused stamps must appreciate while used may remain stationary, for the simple reason that the limit of supply has been reached in one case but not in the other.

Taking almost haphazard a few stamps, most of which have been within the reach of all collectors during the last fifteen years, the following table will give some idea of the appreciation in prices which has been steadily going on in good stamps:—. Of foolish investors there will always be a generous supply, who will ever be ready to offer themselves as evidence of the worthlessness of any and every form of investment, forgetful of the fact that the shoe is more often on the other foot.

In stamps, as in every other class of investment, the foolish may buy what is worthless instead of what is valuable. There are stamps specially manufactured and issued to catch such flats, and they are easily hooked by the thousand every year, despite the continual warnings of experienced collectors. But if we turn to the result of experienced collecting we find abundant evidence of the fact that the stamp collector may enjoy his stamps and, when the force of circumstances compels him to abandon them, he may retire without regret for having put so much money into a mere hobby.

Hughes Hughes, B. In a stamp dealer in London, as a novelty and an advertisement, papered his shop windows, walls, and ceiling with unused Ionian Islands stamps, which were then a drug in the market.

The same stamps would now readily sell at 10s. The late Mr. In the International Philatelic Exhibition, held in the [60] Galleries of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in Piccadilly, London, in , one collector marked over each stamp of his exhibit the price which he had paid for it, and the market price of the day.

Shrewd business men are those who frequently invest large sums in stamps. If investment were the Alpha and Omega of stamp collecting, every collector of standing would bemoan lost opportunities.

Many a great rarity of to-day could have been had for a few shillings a few years ago. The Cape errors were sold by Stanley Gibbons at 2s. The “Transvral” error was sold by the same generous firm at 4s. To-day it is the fashion to look back with regret on those lost opportunities, and to nurse the belief that such opportunities are never likely to return. But experience shows that in every decade of stamp collecting the common stamp of to-day may be the rarity of to-morrow.

In many a series of stamps some one of the lot from some cause or another gets scarce, and the price appreciates from year to year till the original price paid for the stamp in pence is represented by pounds. Each individual will differ in taste, in inclination, in method, in time at his disposal, and last, but not least, in the depth of his pocket.

The most that can be done is to outline a general plan, founded upon general experience. Collectors are divided into two classes—the general collector and the specialist. The general collector takes everything that comes in his way, and knows no limitations, no exclusions of this country or that.

The specialist, on the other hand, confines his attention to the stamps of one or more particular groups or divisions, or even to one particular country.

 

Stamp book for collectors free download.Free stamp album pages

 
Collecrors order, however, to further the wishes of those who collect on more elaborate methods, the present edition has been prepared and very considerably enlarged, and for all practical purposes runs parallel with our current Postage Stamp Catalogue.