STAMP-COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT
The collector, the dealer, and the combination—The factor of expense—Natural rise of cost—Past possibilities in British "Collector's Consols," in Barbados, in British Guiana, in Canada, in "Capes"—Modern speculations: Cayman Islands—Further investments: Ceylon, Cyprus, Fiji Times Express, Gambia, India, Labuan, West Indies—The "Post Office" Mauritius—The early Nevis, British North America, Sydney Views, New Zealand—Provisionals: bonâ fide and speculative—Some notable appreciations—"Booms."
If we define the philatelist as a lover of postage-stamps, we may very properly express the view that his affections should be chiefly centred upon their historic and philatelic associations. Stamp-collecting for most of us is a recreation and a respite from the anxieties of the money-market, and many collectors are quite content with the joys of collation and research. At the same time we are not out of sympathy with the individual who,
He represents one of the strongest influences in the collecting world, and is no doubt a tower of strength, imparting stability to the stamp-market. The term "amateur" is little used in connection with our pursuit, and the quibbles which seem inseparable in other pursuits, from the endeavour to draw an imaginary line round the amateur to separate him from the professional, are all but non-existent in philately.
We use the terms "collector" and "dealer," but that one is not the negation of the other is clear from the admission of the compound term "collector-dealer," which combination applies to a very great proportion of the more promiscuous portion of the philatelic world. The mere vending of postage-stamps would not, I think, convert the collector into the collector-dealer, as by the ingenious and widespread system of stamp-exchanges collectors are obliged to put a price upon their duplicates, and cash is the universal medium of exchange.
In a broad sense the collector-dealer class is composed of collectors who are glad to enjoy their hobby, but are under the necessity, or have the desire, to make their hobby pay for itself, and perhaps yield an addition to their regular income.
It is perhaps due to the all-absorbing character of the hunt for rare stamps that collectors and dealers enjoy unrestrained intercourse in most of the societies, though in the Royal Philatelic Society the rules forbid the admission of regular dealers to membership.
Among the best dealers we find some of the most advanced students of philately, who when it comes to research have many a time risen above considerations of commerce. Some of the most valuable contributions to the literature of philately have come from their unaccustomed but painstaking pens, and most of the dealers of repute take a pleasure in assisting the student to unravel a problem. In whatever spirit we form our collections, and with no matter what object in view, it is but human to nourish the hope, even if some shrinking from the admission of pecuniary motives never permits us to express it, that the collection formed with loving care and a considerable expenditure of money shall not, if parted with, result in a loss, or if retained suffer a heavy depreciation. If we desire to interest others we must be prepared for the motif of the primary questions of the uninitiated, "What is it worth?" "What did you give for it?" though one can never hope to satisfy the ingenuous folk who ask the collector of many years' standing "How many stamps have you got?" and "I suppose they ought to be worth pots of money—how much do you think?"
There are several factors in the stamp trade which are worth noting, as they have contributed in no small measure to the prosperity of the business, and they must increase our confidence in the security of our collections as investments. A world-wide market is open to the vendor of rare stamps; it is convenient of access beyond all other markets for bric-à-brac, because the rarest stamp in the world may be safely transmitted anywhere, within an envelope, through the post. The adaptability of the postage-stamp to effective and convenient arrangement is not of more importance to the collector than the portability of his goods, rare or common, is to the dealer. It involves no more trouble to sell a rare stamp in Yokohama than it does over a counter in that thoroughfare of stamp-dealers, the Strand. Nor is there the risk of damage that would attend the transmission of a bulky article of vertu to a customer in a remote country.
It is this same portability which is constantly increasing the demand for good and rare stamps from collectors. For the majority, almost any form of collecting brings with it a serious problem of space, arrangement, and security. We may display our collection of old English porcelain about the house, and beautify our surroundings, but it is at the cost of no little risk from the philistine fingers of the abigail. We may bring together a great array of ornithological specimens, but the cabinet space taken up by a collection of but moderate proportions is out of all comparison to the compact album, which may contain a large and portable collection of stamps. I would not be understood to even cursorily enter upon comparisons of different hobbies, but it is useful to mention the comparative facility with which transactions in rare stamps can be negotiated to indicate the cumulative effect this convenience must have in the value of old stamps.
Another important factor is the comparative standardisation of stamp values. No person of average intelligence need ever be totally in the dark as to the approximate selling value of the majority of old postage-stamps, for in nearly every language, excepting some of the Oriental tongues, there are standard price-lists of the leading dealers which serve as guides to the majority of both buyers and sellers, for these works are accessible both to the dealer and the collector.
When we come to consider the supply of old postage-stamps, we cannot but recognise a further important factor in their security as an investment. The majority of the rare, medium and common postage-stamps have been issued with the Government imprimatur; re-issues and reprintings are known, but they are the exception. Generally speaking, a stamp is no sooner obsolete than it commences to soar in the stamp-dealers' price-lists. In the cases of stamps of the larger countries which have had a long period of currency the rise is slow, but the frequency of the occurrence of unusual circumstances which cut short the life of a stamp on the active postal list has introduced a sporting element into even the collecting of current stamps. But it is inevitable that, with the retirement of a postage-stamp from use, there must come sooner or later a stoppage in the supply at the normal rates prevailing during its period of currency. The older stamps, most of the early issues of all countries, have for fifty years past been gradually absorbed in the great collections, some of them extremely limited in their original use, now withdrawn from the market into the stable repositories of national museums, and the supply is the one serious difficulty with which the dealer has to contend. This difficulty has its value to the collector, for to replenish their stocks the dealers have to buy back from the collector, and they compete keenly for the acquisition of collections formed by private individuals, if they contain the right class of stamps. My endeavour in this chat will be to indicate the character of the stamps which have risen in the philatelic period 1862 to 1911, all of which may be classed as "Collector's Consols," but most of which are at this date and at present prices likely to yield an excellent return in the future.
To take our own country first, for here purchases would have been made at first-hand, that is, at the post-office, there are many stamps, some of comparatively low facial value, that would have formed most desirable investments if one had only been able to prophesy, and prophesy correctly.
The most notable examples amongst British stamps of rapid and great appreciation in value are the Twopence Halfpenny of 1875, with error of lettering, the Two Shillings, orange-brown, the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83, the Five Pounds—both telegraph and postage in the earliest shade—and certain "Officials": there are, of course, others which show an even greater appreciation on their original face-value, but the reason in that case is that small printings were made of certain stamps from a particular plate or on certain paper—"abnormals" to give them their usual name—and such stamps were not obtainable except by accident.
The Twopence Halfpenny error, though not known to the philatelic world until 1893, was present in every sheet printed from Plate 2 of that value, to the number of no less than 35,000, and yet, in mint unused condition, it is a very scarce stamp, probably worth £25. And yet none amongst the thousands who purchased and used one of these errors thought—even if he noticed the fact—that a mistake in one of the corner letters would some day cause a great rise in value.
Another well-known example is the Two Shillings, brown: issued originally in 1867, the first colour of that value was blue; but in 1880, to avoid confusion with other stamps, it was changed to orange-brown. It is said that only 1,000 sheets, or 240,000 stamps, were printed, a large number certainly, but comparatively small when it is remembered that of some stamps many millions were issued; small, too, when it is considered that the minimum charge on telegrams was a shilling, and foreign postal rates were high. An early price in dealers' catalogues was seven shillings and sixpence; now a fine unused copy realises more pounds than it formerly did shillings.
The desiderata of British stamps—ignoring the "abnormal" varieties of plate and paper—are the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83. Few among the great multitude of collectors purchased the two stamps, each on Cross paté paper and each on that watermarked with a Large Anchor, when current. But those few who did, and who kept them through the years when the rise in value was very slight, ultimately realised at the top of the market—say, £175 to £200—towards the end of the 'nineties. The £1 "Anchor" on bluish paper, which one could have bought in 1882 for twenty shillings, is now priced at £80, showing a profit which makes many a collector in these days sigh over lost opportunities.
Five Pounds is a high facial value, but that sum invested in the purchase of the telegraph-stamp, or of the postage-stamp which superseded it, would now be represented approximately by £100; but in the case of the Five Pounds postage-stamp, the paper must be "blued"—"naturally," and not through the medium of the blue-bag—and the colour should be of a vermilion almost merging into orange, and not the scarlet-vermilion in which this stamp finished its career in 1902.
In a somewhat different category are the various Official stamps, but as they were obtainable up to about 1890 by any respectable applicant at Somerset House, the earlier varieties may fairly be included. Sets bought during the 1884-90 period appreciated very little until towards the close of the last century, when they attained high prices, the One Pound "I.R. Official" in brown-violet, on Imperial Crown paper, being the rarest, even rarer than the similar stamp on the Orb paper, which without the Official overprint is rarer than the normal variety.
Of subsequent Official stamps, not obtainable for the asking, special mention should be made of the three high values of the Edwardian issue—Five Shillings, Ten Shillings, and One Pound: in 1903 mint PAIRS of the three stamps were sold for forty guineas, and single sets for £25. Nowadays, pairs—the particular ones above referred to were subsequently severed—would probably fetch a sum running into four figures.
It may be interesting to record a few of the notable rises in value, in the space of a comparatively short period, of stamps issued in one or other of the British colonies, or in some foreign country.
In March, 1878, there was an unexpected shortage in Barbados of the then current One Penny stamp, and the island Post Office authorities supplied the deficiency by means of a provisional: they perforated the large Five Shillings stamp down the centre, surcharging each half "1d." These makeshifts in due course reached England, and orders were duly sent out for a supply for the stamp-market; one dealer's order was actually held back by the Barbados postmaster until the arrival of a further supply of the ordinary One Penny, when a supply of that stamp was sent him. Other dealers and collectors probably fared as badly, and an unused pair, or even a single copy, of this rare stamp supplies an example of unearned increment which would delight a Chancellor of the Exchequer on the look-out for more subjects for taxation. What a nice little nest-egg would a shilling's-worth of those stamps now represent!
Of the circular British Guiana stamps of 1850-51 it is hardly fair to speak, as they were issued and became obsolete before even the oldest philatelist ever thought of collecting; but if any far-seeing individual had then invested the modest sum of thirteenpence in the purchase of an unused copy of each of the four values, and had had them "laid down" until the present year of grace, or even until so comparatively far back as 1890, the sum they would realise in open market would not fall far short of £2,500. So, too, with the very rare large oblong type-set stamps of 1856, one of which—the One Cent, black on magenta—is literally unique.
The smaller stamps of 1862, printed from ordinary type with a frame of fancy ornaments, and issued on a shortage of One, Two, and Four Cents stamps, were for some considerable time fairly common, being obtainable for a few shillings, or sometimes, if one were fortunate, for pence; now a used set of the commonest variety of each value costs nearly £30.
Canada provides a rarity, dating back to 1851. A stamp—and it is a beautiful piece of work—of the apparently peculiar value of Twelve Pence was issued, but for some reason a very small portion of the large supply was sold, the remainder disappearing without a trace, never to be found even to this day: that stamp is now worth two thousand times its original cost. The reason for the value being expressed somewhat quaintly was that, whereas "One Shilling" was a fluctuating amount according to locality, "Twelve Pence" was the same everywhere.
It goes without saying that it is the rarities which have appreciated the most, and therefore a list of the stamps which ought to have been secured as an investment is practically a list of the rare and scarce stamps.
Beautifully engraved, of chaste design, and of quaint shape, the Cape "triangulars" are, and always have been, favourites; but they have been out-distanced, as regards profitable investment records, by the two roughly-executed stamps, of similar design and shape, printed from hurriedly made stereotyped blocks to meet a temporary shortness of the ordinary One Penny and Fourpence.
These provisionals, erroneously called (as they always will be) "wood-blocks," were issued early in 1861, and the ordinary specimens are of considerable scarcity even used, and very difficult of acquisition unpostmarked; much more then are the errors, caused by the unintentional inclusion in the group of stereotypes of each value of one block of the other denomination.
These two stamps—the One Penny in blue, and the Four Pence in red, instead of vice versâ—are well-known rarities used, and there are only three known copies in an unused condition; one of these, obtained by its owner during the period when the wood-blocks were in issue at "face," realised five-and-thirty years later no less than £500. "Prodigious," but true!
Another desirable Cape stamp owes its rarity to having been printed in a small quantity on a paper in use for a short time only—the Five Shillings, orange-yellow, of 1883, on paper watermarked with a Crown and "CA". For some three to four years, 1883-87, these stamps were purchasable unused at the post-office; and now—£100, perhaps.
Cayman Islands, that hotbed of official speculation and jobbery, furnishes a more modern instance—instances would be more correct—of sudden and excessive rise in price, if not in philatelic worth; certain provisionals, made by surcharging higher value stamps to meet the usual, and often avoidable, shortage. Fortunate, indeed, from the investors' point of view, are those who, subscribing to some "new issue" service, managed to obtain even single copies of these scarce labels at a small percentage over face.
Ceylon! The name raises a vision of the gorgeous East, and, to the philatelist, of rare imperforates, issued in the early days before Philately was. Who in the end of the 'fifties would have thought of investing in, say, a block of four of the Fourpence, dull rose, and, having held it for forty years, receiving the handsome return of—what shall I say?—£750? And yet it would be so.
Another Ceylon which has appreciated at a rapid rate is the Two Rupees Fifty Cents issued in 1880; for long it was catalogued and obtainable at 7s. 6d., but on suddenly becoming obsolete (through a change of postal rates) its price began to rise by leaps and bounds, until it is worth about twice as many shillings as it formerly was pence.
A glance at the catalogue prices of the first Cyprus set of Edwardian stamps, which were printed on paper known to philatelists as "Single Crown CA"—i.e., one entire watermark to each stamp—is a mild example of the abnormal rise which took place in nearly all colonial stamps, bearing the head of King Edward and printed on this "single" paper, when the unexpected change was made in 1904 to a "multiple" paper—that is, one in which the watermarks were arranged very closely together, so that each stamp must show parts of three or four of the devices. Stamps sold in 1902 or 1903 at a little over their original cost jumped up and up in price until they fetched, even at auction, 700 or 800 or even 1,000 per cent. over "face": small fortunes were made; but, as has happened, the rise was permanent and still continues.
The quaint "Fiji Times Express" stamps, produced by private enterprise, and which were the forerunners of a most interesting series of stamps, many rare, were issued within the memory of many collectors—One Penny, Three Pence, Six Pence, and One Shilling—and yet that set of four stamps, dating from only 1870, is worth five hundred times "face," a fair return even for a wait of forty years. Certain stamps of a subsequent (1874) issue are now also very scarce; but they are varieties as distinguished from the normal printings, and scarcely come within the category of stamps obtainable by the casual purchaser.
The pretty embossed Gambias, particularly those printed on the old "Crown CC" paper, afford another instance of unearned increment: the set of seven values was, say in 1885, to be bought for 3s. or 4s.—now it is valued at about £6.
The reward of any far-seeing investor who had happened to purchase the Four Annas, red and blue, issued in India in 1854, would have been a rich one had he noticed an inversion of the Queen's head as regards its frame—copies of this rarity are known on the entire original envelope, so evidently they were, even if noticed, regarded merely as the results of carelessness. It would have been a (perhaps fatal) shock to any specialist in Indian stamps who had happened to purchase one of these rare errors still on the original, to find that he, by the irony of fate, had addressed and presumably stamped that very envelope thirty or forty years previously. The stamp bought originally for a few pence would have represented to-day, say, £130 unused, £70 used.
The purchase of a few copies of the Two Cents and Twelve Cents of the first issue of Labuan, in 1879, some years before the advent of the handsome "labels," all happily now obsolete, would not have proved a matter for regret, seeing that the prices have for some years been well over £10 for the two.
At present, the current Five Shillings stamps of Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, &c., are catalogued, unused, at about 25 per cent. over face, as once were the Two Rupees Fifty of Ceylon, the Five Shillings St. Vincent, and the Five Shillings Victoria, blue on yellow; without recommending it as an investment, it is by no means impossible that within twenty years from now a Montserrat Five Shillings may be worth £10 or even £15.
Incomparable as regards romantic interest and actual value, the first two stamps of Mauritius have been, ever since their discovery in the 'sixties, the desiderata of every collector.
Other stamps—and there are several—may be rarer; but, as examples of a genuinely necessary issue, small in quantity, the One Penny and Twopence "Post Office" of sixty-four years ago will always be looked upon as the ultimate, even if seldom attained, goal of the Philatelist.
THE KING'S COPY OF THE TWO PENCE "POST OFFICE" MAURITIUS.
THE MAGNIFICENT UNUSED COPIES OF THE ONE PENNY AND TWO PENCE "POST OFFICE" MAURITIUS STAMPS ACQUIRED BY HENRY J. DUVEEN, ESQ., OUT OF THE COLLECTION FORMED BY THE LATE SIR WILLIAM AVERY, BART.
Originally looked upon as errors of engraving—"POST OFFICE" instead of "POST PAID"—on the sheets of what is now known to be the second issue of Mauritius, it was many years before they took their position as a rare and distinct emission; now something under thirty copies are known, and their status is firmly established.
From philatelic records we learn that the first-known copies changed hands for the merest trifle: to-day they are catalogued at £1,000 and £1,200 respectively, in used condition.
In 1894 a firm of stamp-dealers acquired a well-known collector's unused mint copies of these stamps at what would now be the very low price of £680: they went into the collection of the late Sir William Avery, and have now passed to another famous collector at the record price of £3,500 for the two.
For romance, however, nothing approaches what occurred early in 1904. A collector, visiting a friend resident in the north-west of London, mentioned his hobby to his host, who, remarking that he once collected stamps, brought out his almost-forgotten schoolboy album. Looking casually through the old collection, the guest saw, to his amazement, what proved to be the finest known unused copy of the Twopence "Post Office," purchased by its owner forty years previously for a few pence: this stamp was sold shortly afterwards at auction for £1,450, and now adorns the fine collection of Mauritius stamps owned by King George V.
The quaintly designed stamps of Nevis, printed at first direct from line-engraved plates, and subsequently from lithographic stones, show a wonderful increase in value, from a few shillings each in 1880 to three or four times the same number of pounds at the present time; then, the stamps were only just obsolete, and most collectors were satisfied with one or two single copies; now, the demand is for entire sheets of twelve varieties, or, failing these, from the not very large supplies printed, for plates "made up" from singles, pairs, and blocks, arranged in their respective proper places.
The handsome "pence" issue of New Brunswick, some of the similar stamps of Newfoundland, and the first emission of Nova Scotia, all supplied by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., those unrivalled producers of postage-stamps, were, within the memory of many collectors, obtainable at very low figures; now many of the values, notably the One Shilling, realise, especially when "mint," very high prices indeed. As an instance, it may be mentioned that a young collector of thirty years ago, submitting his stamps to a well-known expert, had a nice unused copy of the One Shilling Nova Scotia valued at 25s., the present valuation of which would be £55.
It is related, on excellent authority, that, long ago, a dealer, learning that there was a small stock of these One Shilling stamps at one of the Nova Scotia post-offices, forwarded a remittance to secure them: he was successful in his desire, but the postmaster had applied to each stamp a fine impression of the local obliterator, possibly as a concession to the then collector's presumed preference for postmarked copies.
"Sydney Views," as the stamps of the first (1850) issue of New South Wales have been, and probably always will be, known to philatelists, afford another instance of unearned increment.
Far back in the 'sixties, the period of unappreciated but now regretted opportunities for wonderful bargains, "Sydney Views" were a few pence a dozen used, and about £1 a copy if unused—whether singles, strips, or blocks did not matter then; now, postmarked copies are worth several times the old price of unused specimens; and for the unused, from £25 to £50, according to condition and absence or presence of the original gum, is not unreasonable. And yet, despite this enormous increase in value, at a recent meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society a total of 2,363 of these now scarce stamps were produced from the collections of fourteen members for purposes of study.
Other stamps there are of New South Wales, showing a great increase in value during recent times, but none to compare in interest or demand with the famous "Sydney Views."
New Zealand has issued many stamps, even in fairly modern times, which have greatly appreciated: a famous collector, who has recently parted with most of his treasures, had sent him years ago a quantity of stamps at one penny each—one of them, on an examination some time afterwards, turned out to be the rare perforated One Penny, brown, of 1872, watermarked "NZ", and now worth some £30 used.
Of provisional issues, limited in quantity, ephemeral of use, and the prey of speculators, there are many instances; but, though the rise in value, from the original cost at the post-office, is often sharp, such stamps can hardly be looked upon as investments one has missed, because they were never obtainable by the public at large, as were the great majority of stamps now rare and much sought after.
An instance of this limited and speculative creation of so-called "provisionals" occurred in the Niger Coast Protectorate, at the end of 1893, when a very few copies of the current One Shilling were surcharged "20/-," one or two (literally) in one colour, three or four in another, and so on. Possibly these proved to be good speculations, but they were not investments open to the man-in-the-street, gifted with the most prophetic of philatelic spirits.
In 1881, a bonâ fide shortage of the Fourpence stamps occurred in St. Vincent, and a small quantity of the current One Shilling was overprinted "4d": for some time the quotation for unused copies was about thirty shillings, but now the price is nearer £20. Other provisionals were issued in St. Vincent about this time, and most of them have similarly appreciated in value; but collectors little realised, even in 1881, that what was then considered a full price—and grumbled at as such—would ever attain to its present day dimensions. The very handsome Five Shillings stamp was priced five-and-twenty years ago at 7s. 6d.: now it costs about £14.
Sierra Leone afforded an instance, in 1897, by issuing Twopence Halfpenny provisionals, made by surcharging certain fiscal stamps of the value of Three Pence, Six Pence, One Shilling and Two Shillings: only fourteen years ago, and yet a sheet of thirty of the "2½d." on Sixpence, costing 6s. 3d., is now catalogued at nearly £9, whilst the set of five varieties surcharged on the Two Shillings stamp, originally costing 1s. 0½d., is now worth £50.
The great rarity of South Australia is the Fourpence, specially printed in blue in 1870-71, to be surcharged "3-PENCE", but from a sheet (or possibly part of a sheet) of which the new value was accidentally omitted. Very few copies are known, and all but two are used: the two being in a "pair."
The first issue of Tasmania, then known as "Van Diemen's Land," affords an instance of a substantial rise during the last thirty years; but, although substantial, it is not abnormal. The Fourpence, blue, of 1870-71, would have proved a satisfactory investment to the purchaser of a moderate quantity at its original cost, for it is now catalogued at £5.
Owing to the greater part of the stock of the Sixpence, stone, 1884, of Tobago, with watermark of Crown "CA", having been used for a provisional surcharged Halfpenny, that stamp rose from its first catalogue price of about 1s. 3d. to its present value of £7 10s. No dealer seems to have obtained more than a small supply of this Sixpence, and the subsequent consignments from London to Tobago were printed in a totally different colour, orange-brown.
Practically all the stamps of the Transvaal have greatly appreciated, and large sums have been made by the fortunate holders of stock acquired at the old 1882 figures. In an old, but well-known catalogue, thirty-five stamps are priced in unused state, varying from 3d. to 10s., the latter being for a One Penny in red, on Sixpence, black, of May, 1879: and sixty-four used, ranging from 6d. to 7s. 6d., and including amongst the intermediate prices those of four of the May, 1879, provisionals. A glance at Gibbons will show, even taking the commonest varieties, a great rise all round, sufficient even to satisfy a greedy investor. Of minor Transvaal varieties there are many, and several of these show an abnormal rise in price: on the other hand, some have appreciated very little. How, therefore, is the would-be speculator-investor to know what to take?
In the old catalogue above referred to, some of the 1881 Turks' Islands provisionals are priced from 6d. to 2s. each unused—presumably the commonest varieties: now these stamps vary from 12s. to £5 for the "1/2", from £3 to £30 for the "21/2", and from 30s. to £7 for the "4". The One Shilling, lilac, of 1873-79, largely used for the above provisionals, has increased some twelve-fold in value since 1882.
If the reverend gentleman who, by the help of a typewriter, evolved the earliest of the 1895 issues of Uganda, had only a few remainders on hand, he should reap a handsome return for his original outlay of two or three hundred cowries: but most probably he did not keep any, consequently the stamps are, and will remain, scarce and expensive.
The Five Shillings, Victoria, blue on yellow, is a striking stamp, and its present value is somewhere about £15 unused: a very famous collection contains several mint copies, which the owner once remarked were "Not bad at 7s. 6d. each."
Mr. Stanley Gibbons's well-known half-sheet of the Twopence, Western Australia, printed in 1879, in mauve, the colour of the Sixpence, affords a fitting close to this cursory list of good investments in British Colonies: acquired at 6d. each, the price to the collector was 5s., then raised to £2, and now it stands at over £20.
Space precludes a similarly long list of foreign stamps which have greatly appreciated; but the following examples, with early prices (as indicated) and those at present asked, may be interesting, showing the rises in many of the medium stamps:—
Egypt—1st issue, set, 6s. 3d. (in 1882), now £6 2s. 6d.
Oldenburg—1st issue, 1/30 thaler, 1s. (in 1882), now £2.
Oldenburg—1859-61 issues (in 1882), from 9d. each; now 4s. is the lowest, 12s. the next, and the highest £11.
Schleswig-Holstein—the pretty little stamps of 1850 were (in 1882) 9d. and 1s. 6d. each: they have now risen to 28s. and 50s.
Holland—1st issue, 9d., 6d., and 1s. respectively for the three values, unused: now 15s., 20s., and 30s.
Of the following, most, if purchased twenty years ago, would now show a very handsome profit, even after allowing 5 per cent. compound interest.
The Swiss Cantonals, first issue Roumania (Moldavia), tête-bêche pairs of France, inverted U.S.A., Paris prints of Greece, early Uruguays, some Brazils, early Japans, middle-period Hawaiian Islands, Italian States, early Spain and Colonies, first Samoas, first Shanghais, &c.
Concerning the inverted U.S.A., it is said—though these stories are often more interesting than true—that a purchaser of a quantity of one of these errors took them back to the post-office and had them exchanged for normally printed stamps. If true, the present feelings of the purchaser (if he survives) on being reminded of his neglected opportunity would be interesting.
Instances might be multiplied almost indefinitely by comparing the prices in old and present catalogues, but the instances given are sufficient to show the great profits which might have been made by the judicious investment of small amounts in the proper stamps: large amounts would probably lower prices.
A purchase in 1882 of twenty £1 "Anchor" would not lower the market if now offered for sale, but £500 worth would probably result in a slump.
However, it is generally a case of Hinc illæ lacrymæ, for the would-be traveller on the royal road to ease and great wealth has either never invested at all or has selected stamps which show a marked depreciation as the years roll on—e.g., the Fourpence Halfpenny of Great Britain, which was going to rise abnormally, but which has been "unloaded" at, or even under, "face." Only a trifling instance, but it serves to show the risks of investment in stamps when current or just obsolete; it is safer to buy those which have during a period of some years shown an inclination to rise steadily—but then investors and speculators are generally impatient and won't wait.
During the late South African War, there was an excessive speculation by the uninitiated among the soldiers and the populace in the provisional stamps overprinted "V.R.I." and "E.R.I."; thousands appeared to think that a few pounds invested during the war would enable them to retire on reaching the Strand with their booty. They all bought to sell, and genuine collectors, finding the supply so excessive, have only required a little patience to benefit their pockets by acquiring at "greatly reduced prices," much under "face," from the would-be get-rich-quicks who wouldn't or couldn't wait. As a rule, however, it is the early bird who catches the worm, and only at such rare seasons of extraordinary national excitement are excessive booms possible; and the early bird must have some solid ground of knowledge and intelligence to guide him to the worm.
FORGERIES, FAKES, AND FANCIES
Early counterfeits and their exposers—The "honest" facsimile—"Album Weeds"—Forgeries classified—Frauds on the British Post Office—Forgeries "paying" postage—The One Rupee, India—Fraudulent alteration of values—The British 10s. and £1 "Anchor"—A too-clever "fake"—Joined pairs—Drastic tests—New South Wales "Views" and "Registered"—The Swiss Cantonals—Government "imitations"—"Bogus" stamps.
Mr. Edward L. Pemberton, whose early writings on Philately will always be regarded as little short of inspired from the marvellous intuition which led him to the precise and the accurate, wrote a booklet on "Forged Stamps, and How to Detect Them" in 1863. Already in the history of this new hobby the forger had been at work catering for collectors; it was, of course, from still earlier times that the unscrupulous had endeavoured to relieve Governments of some portions of their revenues by counterfeiting what is a kind of paper currency. Pemberton was not the first author on this subject, but I turn to him because he was the best of several contemporary writers in this as well as in other directions. Of this superiority he was not entirely unconscious, for in his "Introduction" he says: "We have tested the usefulness of the only English work on the 'Falsification of Postage Stamps,' having gone through it carefully, and after an impartial reading, feel convinced that, from the vagueness of the descriptions, both of the forgeries and genuine stamps, many persons testing stamps from them would select the forgery as genuine, and vice versâ."
To satisfy (in some measure) the curiosity of his readers, our early authority gives some particulars of the forgers. The "first and foremost" in the nefarious practice was a Zurich forger, whose productions—Swiss Cantonals, Modena, Romagna, &c.—had the largest circulation in Mr. Pemberton's time. This gentleman (evidently well known to the author) had an agent for the sale of his wares at Basle, the prices of these latter being quoted at "for most of the Swiss 80 cts. each used, or unused 1 franc; for the Orts Post and Poste Locale 50 cts. each; for Modena and Romagna 80 cts."
The dealer who occupied the second position of dishonour in the estimation of this philatelic Sherlock Holmes was a Brussels individual, whose provisional Parma, Modena, Naples, and Spain sold largely and were well executed.
These two appear to have been the leaders of the counterfeiting of their time, "those indeed who have made almost a trade of it"; but there was also a Brunswick dealer who "tried his hand at the Danish essays," and a few forged stamps were supposed to hail from Leipsic.
A couple of years later John Marmaduke Stourton, in a brochure "How to Detect Forged Stamps," gives evidence of a swarm of forgers cropping up in even our own country at Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, and London, in Hamburg and New York, as well as the Swiss and Belgian forgers who still plied their traffic. The Glasgow productions were of the "facsimile" class, and were possibly manufactured with the well-intentioned but unwise endeavour to provide approximately correct coloured facsimiles of stamps which were too scarce to be readily accessible to all collectors. The "facsimile" has no doubt often been produced with the best of intentions by firms of high repute, but the protecting word "facsimile" or "Falsch," or other sign by which the true nature of the copy may be identified, has so often been removed for fraudulent purposes after it has left honest hands that there is no alternative in these days of later and fuller experience to define "facsimile," so far as it relates to Philately, as, in the words of my glossary, "a euphemism for a forgery."
It is, however, to be borne in mind by the student that in the beginning of Philately there was not entirely the same attitude towards the production of legitimate (if any could so be called) or honest facsimiles, and, indeed, a writer in one of the early journals, in proposing the formation of a philatelic society, suggests that one of the duties such an institution could properly fulfil would be the reproduction of choice editions (copies) of rare stamps for limited circulation! Also in the Stamp Collector's Magazine, whose proprietors and engravers were as free of just reproach as Cæsar's wife, we find the engraver so pleased with the illustration he has produced for that journal of the Nicaragua stamp of 1862 that he announces:—
"Nicaraguan Stamp.—Will be ready in a week. A beautiful proof of the Nicaraguan Stamp (equal to the original) will be sent for 13 postage-stamps. Only 75 proofs of this will be taken; each proof will be numbered, and then the block burnt. An early application is really necessary, 25 copies being already sold. Address...."
These "proofs," rarer, no doubt, than the originals, were endorsed editorially, and collectors unable to procure the original stamp were told they "would do well to provide themselves with one of these facsimiles." The astute Mr. Pemberton, however, took a very different view. "Although he tells every one that they are merely facsimiles and not the real stamps, we cannot but help thinking that he is acting wrongly; for less scrupulous dealers than himself will sell them as genuine.... Again, these imitations are by far the best executed of any we have seen. The regularly forged stamps are wretched in comparison with these, and therefore all the more caution will be required to detect them." So he proceeds to a detailed description of the small differences existing between genuine and imitation.
There is no royal road by which the collector can attain to the accurate and ready discrimination between the right and the wrong copies of stamps. Forgeries have multiplied enormously between 1863 and 1911, so that now the standard handbook by the Rev. R. B. Earée is a masterpiece of detail entitled "Album Weeds," occupying two large volumes containing nearly 1,300 pages of text. It would be idle to pretend that even the expert has every description contained therein "at his fingers' ends." Yet the expert is rarely deceived in a stamp, even when he has not access at the time to Mr. Earée's work or other references. I remember an early instruction, the only one that covers the subject, but I forget whence it comes. It was that if you study your stamps an imperceptible sense will come to you that will enable you at once to acclaim the true and to suspect if not denounce the false.
Beyond this I can only advise the reader that, as a complete novice, he would be unwise to purchase costly rarities and valuable stamps from unknown and irresponsible persons. The novice will remain a novice in these matters, unless he acquires some knowledge of the differences (generally readily distinguishable) between a stamp that is from an engraved plate and a forgery that is, say, lithographed or from a wood-cut. It is important to remember also—at least for the new collector—that strange though it may seem to him, stamps really do fetch what they are considered to be worth by collectors and dealers of experience, and that if rare stamps are offered much below the current quotation by individuals supposed to know their true worth, it may often be, and generally is, that the wares they have for sale are either forgeries or carefully mended copies of damaged originals.
There is little danger of the collector being much at the mercy of the forger if his transactions are confined to the reputable dealers, for these latter have done more to purify the honest trade in stamps than can, I think, be said of the dealers in the objects of other forms of collecting. They have expert knowledge on their staff, and access to highly specialised opinions and advice in the various branches of the subject.
Personally, I do not consider the forgery question nearly so serious an obstacle in Philately as in other crafts. Most active stamp-collectors are companionable with other students of the same subject, and there would be little opportunity for an Affaire Vrain-Lucas, in which during a period of several years a French autograph collector accumulated 27,000 autographs for about £6,000, mostly forgeries, and all from the same source, or for such a string of incidents as was exposed in the recent china case in Great Britain.
Forgeries of stamps are made either for the purpose of defrauding the Government or else for rifling the pockets of the stamp collector; these may be classed in two groups: (1) where a stamp is a forgery either in its entirety or in some added, as distinguished from "altered," material detail; and (2) where a genuine stamp is so altered as to apparently convert it into some other stamp. The first group are generally covered in the term "forgeries," the second being specially distinguished as "fakes." There is another class dubbed "bogus," or sometimes more elegantly timbres de fantasie, which comprises labels which are a pure invention, and never had any genuine existence at all.
THE FAMOUS "STOCK EXCHANGE" FORGERY OF THE ONE SHILLING GREEN STAMP OF GREAT BRITAIN.
One specimen was used on October 31, 1872, and the other on June 13 of the next year. The enlargements betray trifling differences, in the details of the design as compared with the genuine stamp above.
The first attack on the Post Office revenue of which there is any record is the subject of a letter from Downing Street, London, dated September 2, 1840, and addressed to the late Sir (then Mr.) Rowland Hill:—"Mr. Smith has just called and informed me that a forgery of the Penny Label was yesterday detected in his office. The letter bearing the forged stamp has been handed over to the Stamp Office to be dealt with by them ... the forged stamp is a wood-cut...." An entry a few days later in Mr. Hill's diary reads:—"At the Stamp Office I saw the forged label. It is a miserable thing and could not possibly deceive any except the most stupid and ignorant."
The above seems to have been an almost isolated attempt to defraud the revenue, but it is interesting as being the earliest known forgery, appearing, as it did, within four months of the issue of the first postage-stamp.
A far more romantic forgery, and one of almost colossal magnitude, was discovered in 1898. About that time, a large quantity of British One Shilling stamps—those of the 1865 type in green, with large uncoloured letters in the corners—came on the market, though, as they had been used on telegram forms, they ought to have been destroyed: probably the guilty parties relied on this official practice, not always honoured in observance, as offering a security against not merely the tracing of the offence but the discovering of the fraud itself.
Anyhow, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it was found that amongst these one shilling stamps there was a large proportion of forgeries (purporting to be from plate 5), all used on July 23, 1872, at the Stock Exchange Telegraph Office, London, E.C. More recent discoveries show that the fraud was continued for over twelve months,[16] and, as an indication of the precautions taken by the forgers, plate 6 (which came into use in March, 1872) was duly imitated, although the change of the small figures was a detail probably never noticed by members of the general public.
According to calculations, based on the average numbers used on several days, the Post Office must have lost about £50 a day during the period mentioned above. Who were the originators and perpetrators of the fraud will probably never be known: possibly a stock-broker's clerk (or a small "syndicate" of those gentlemen), or, more probably, a clerk in the Post Office itself. It was an ingenious fraud, well planned and cleverly carried out at a minimum of risk, and, but for the market for old stamps, it would never have been discovered.
Amongst foreign countries, Spain has been the greatest sufferer from forgery: her numerous, and until recent times almost yearly, issues were mainly necessitated by the circulation of counterfeits, which appeared on letters within a very short time after each new series of stamps had been put on sale.
Some of the old Italian States, particularly Naples and the Neapolitan Provinces, were defrauded of part of their revenue by numerous forgeries of some of their stamps; and in these cases, as in that of Spain, letters survive on which the postage has been entirely, or in part, "paid" by means of counterfeits.
An ingenious fraud on the Indian Post Office was discovered in 1890, through the care with which collectors frequently examine their stamps. The One Rupee, slate, of the 1882-88 issue, very cleverly imitated, was found to be frequently coming to this country on letters from Bombay, and police inquiries, made on the information of a well-known philatelist, led to the detection of the culprit; he, it seems, engraved a facsimile on box-wood, and printed his stamps, one by one, on paper as similar as possible to the genuine, but without watermark; the perforation he effected by placing the printed label between two plates of thin metal each with holes corresponding to the intended perforations, and then, by the aid of a blunt wire, punching out the small circular pieces of paper!
Other instances have been noted, but those given are the best known, and serve as good examples of frauds against Post Offices, so far as forgery of the entire stamp is concerned; but, of recent years, a new kind of fraud has come into vogue—the alteration of a genuine stamp into one of a much higher denomination, affecting British Colonies only.
The possibility of this has resulted from the desire of the authorities to print the majority of colonial stamps, available for postal or fiscal purposes, in two colours—one being distinctive of the particular value, and the other a purple or green, very susceptible to any attempt to remove an obliteration or cancellation, whether by the Post Office or by a member of the public: by the latter, in writing-ink.
The modus operandi is ingenious—a stamp is selected, of which nearly the whole design is, say, in green, the name and (low) value being in some distinctive colour; the original value and name are removed by chemical means, the name and new (high) value being substituted in a colour applicable to the higher denomination—result, if the work be carefully done, a stamp which would deceive not only the ordinary official (who is seldom of real philatelic inclinations) but even, at first glance, the average collector, unless he is on the look-out for such "fakes," which, as a matter of fact, have been made for his delectation also.
As has been remarked, the number of forgeries made to deceive collectors has been immeasurably greater than of those prepared for defrauding the Revenue; and it has been endeavoured to select some of the most daring, and often successful, attempts to palm off a clever forgery as a genuine—generally rare, but sometimes quite common—postage-stamp.
In 1903, taking our own country first, an attempt was made to place on the market unused copies of the rare Ten Shillings and One Pound stamps of 1878-83, printed on Large Anchor paper, and perforated 14: these were almost at once discovered by Mr. Nissen, the same philatelist who first noticed the One Shilling (plate 5) counterfeits used at the Stock Exchange Post Office, to be exceedingly clever forgeries. They were, save for a slight lack of finish in the finer details, practically of design identical with that of the original stamps; the colours were well matched, and, most deceptive of all, the paper and perforation were undoubtedly genuine. This timely discovery nipped the forgers' schemes in the bud, but, some eight years subsequently, the lower of these two forged stamps came again on the market, this time provided with a neat, though fraudulent, postmark.
So far as can be judged from the examination of specimens of this forgery, the paper used was that on which were printed certain "Inland Revenue" stamps—probably the Threepence, which alone was watermarked and perforated as were the two stamps imitated; but possibly other fiscals also were used—the colour being chemically removed, leaving a blank piece of paper, properly and genuinely watermarked and perforated, all ready to receive the fraudulent imitation. An undoubtedly clever, but almost unsuccessful, fraud on collectors; though rumour has it that a well-known philatelist, usually credited with capability to protect himself, was a victim for a substantial sum, as the price of an unused "Pound Anchor"!
A recently attempted fraud—this time of the kind known as a "fake"—has been, it is hoped, successfully exposed. As is well known, especially to collectors of British stamps, the first Twopence Halfpenny stamp, issued in 1875, shows an error of corner-lettering on plate 2: the twelfth and last stamp in the eighth horizontal row should have been lettered "L.H.—H.L." but, through want of care, actually bore the letters "L.H.—F.L." This error, especially in unused condition, is scarce, and the faker has naturally made an effort to supply the deficiency.
Obviously, the easiest way to manufacture this error is to select a stamp from plate 2 with the lettering of "L.F.—F.L." (the last stamp in the sixth row), and alter the first "F" into "H", with hope of probable success because the collector's criticism would naturally (if wrongly) be concentrated on the incorrect letter in the lower left-hand corner. Unfortunately for the "fake," which was very well executed, its creator, wishing no doubt to enhance its value, had left the "error" in pair with the eleventh stamp in the same row: result, a very nice pair from the sixth row, lettered "K.F.—F.K.", "L.H.—F.L.", showing (as a consequence of being in pair) a mistake—"H" for "F" in the upper right-hand corner. This, of course, condemned the error at once, but the example serves to show how very careful one must be, and how necessary it is to examine and consider every circumstance in connection with the particular stamp under observation.
There are two varieties of stamps, differing from the normal through some slip in the process of manufacture—bicoloured stamps, in which the portion printed in one colour is inverted as regards the remainder of the design, caused by carelessness in "feeding" the partly-printed sheet wrong way up into the press, for the second impression completing the design; and pairs of stamps, which, each quite normal if severed, are when se tenant inverted in respect to each other, a condition philatelically termed tête-bêche.
The fraudulent manipulator has turned his attention to these, generally scarce and frequently very rare, eccentricities, cutting out from the bicoloured stamp the part printed in one colour and replacing it with great care, but upside down; and, as to the tête-bêche pairs, manufacturing them by means of two single copies, a strong adhesive mixture and heavy pressure.
Sometimes, so well have these frauds been made that nothing short of several hours' boiling has sufficed to dissolve the illegal union of the two pieces of paper—a drastic test, and one somewhat detrimental to the value of such copies as are enabled, by their genuineness, to survive the ordeal. The possible result to, say, a mint imperforate Fourpence, Ceylon, suspected of having recently acquired its otherwise desirable "margins," reminds me of the test given (not advocated) by a famous philatelist for the detection of forgeries of early Cashmere stamps, which were printed in water-colour—"Put them in water; if the colour is 'fast' the stamp is a forgery; if it comes off, leaving a blank piece of paper, the stamp is genuine"!
A famous forgery was put on the market some years ago, the stamp imitated being the One Penny value of the well-known first issue of New South Wales, commonly called "Sydney Views." This stamp was issued in sheets of twenty-five, each repetition of the design being separately engraved on the plate and so giving twenty-five minor varieties; and subsequently the entire plate was re-cut, doubling the number of varieties for the specialist. The forger engraved his fraudulent wares and printed the labels, as were the originals, direct from the plate, in a very good imitation of the ink used in 1850 and on similar paper; and these reproductions, often in pairs, were affixed to old envelopes and cancelled with forged postmarks.
So well executed were these forgeries that suspicions as to their character were not raised until an endeavour was made to ascertain the original positions on the sheet of these desirable (?) specimens: then it was found that the details of design did not tally with those of any of the known varieties, and the career of yet another forgery was brought (somewhat tardily) to an untimely end.
Watermarks in the paper were for many years a stumbling-block to the counterfeiter, and practically all the old and generally poorly lithographed forgeries were on plain paper: nowadays, however, the watermark is imitated by actually thinning the paper where necessary, or by impressing it with a die cut to resemble the design, or by painting the "watermark" on the back with an oily composition which renders the paper slightly transparent, and so apparently thinner.
In a comparatively recent forgery of the Registration stamp of New South Wales sent by a correspondent, the counterfeit was produced by the same process (from line-engraved plates) as the original; the watermark showed very distinctly when the label was placed face down, but was not visible at all when held up to the light: it was a "paint" mark in a very faint tint of the ink used for printing that part of the forgery where it appeared.
Occasionally, but it must be admitted not very often, forgeries are so inscribed. A notable instance is the series of large handsome stamps issued by the United States during 1875-95 for payment of the postage on newspapers, singly or in bulk, and ranging from one cent to the high value of one hundred dollars: on each of these particular counterfeits the word "Falsch" was engraved as part of the design, and "Facsimile" was printed across the central portion of the stamp.
Practically the same course was adopted in the native manufacture of forged sets of the early Japanese stamps, the counterfeits (which were produced by the same process as the originals) being marked in the design with two microscopic characters signifying "facsimile": unfortunately for the honest intention of the forger to give due notice of the spuriousness of his productions, the incriminating letters are so small that a carefully applied postmark is apt to completely hide them.
Some stamps have been very extensively forged: for instance, of the 21/2 rappen issued in the Swiss Canton of Basle, in 1845, no less than seventeen distinct counterfeits have been detected. The stamp, of which an embossed dove carrying a letter in its beak is the central part of the design, is tricoloured—pale greenish blue, dull crimson and black—and, in common with most of the other Swiss Cantonals, is becoming rare. Copies have also been faked by thinning down card proofs of the genuine impression and adding gum.
Of the rarest Cantonal stamp, usually known as the "double Geneva," and consisting of two stamps of 5 centimes each, joined at the top by a long label inscribed with the aggregate value of 10 centimes, fifteen (probably more) forgeries are known; and as the entire stamp is priced at £75 unused and £28 used, it is naturally worth the counterfeiter's while to persist in the improvement of his imitations, with little hope, however, of attaining a perfection sufficient to defy discovery.
Individuals, however, are not the only forgers of postage-stamps: Governments, too, in their anxiety to provide so-called "reprints" for sale to dealers and collectors, have not hesitated to supply the necessary dies and plates, replacing those originally used and long since cancelled; and some have sunk so low as to deliberately manufacture counterfeits, and sell them as genuine stamps out of a supposed stock left on hand!
A reprint is an impression from the old original die, plate, or stone, taken after the stamp has become obsolete; but prints from a new die, however faithful a copy it may be, can only be correctly given one name—forgery.
In 1875, the United States Government, desiring to exhibit a complete series of their postage-stamps, and finding that the original dies and plates used for production of the Five and Ten Cents, 1847, were not available, ordered new dies to be cut: impressions from these, though closely approaching the originals, can be distinguished therefrom by certain minute but well-defined differences in the design.
The first issue of Fiji—a series printed from ordinary printers' type at the office of a local newspaper, and known amongst philatelists as the "Fiji Times Express" stamps—has been twice "reprinted" from a special setting-up of similar type; but, as the original printing forme had been "distributed," even a re-setting of the actual type would produce little less than a forgery of a class euphemistically described as "official imitations."
The greatest sinners in this respect were the officials at Jassy, Roumania, who, in response to numerous applications for copies of the four very rare stamps of July, 1858, caused to be made, at different times, no less than three varying types of the 54, 81, and 108 paras—which they sold as genuine. It was only in the late 'seventies that this official fraud was thoroughly exposed.
As I have indicated, it is impossible, within the limits of a single chapter, to do more than touch the fringe of the subject of forgery and "faking," and the dissection of a few skilful imitations would not materially add to the warning which the previous few pages will have conveyed—that the interest taken by the forger in Philately is a purely mercenary one, detrimental to our scientific hobby and damaging to our pockets; the collector must always be on the defensive and on the look-out for pitfalls, not relying too much on a guarantee of genuineness (which only secures reimbursement of money paid) to prevent the admission into his album of a forgery or clever fake.
The prevalence of forgery—and the almost equally reprehensible "reprinting"—should be no insurmountable obstacle to the collector; rather it should be a spur to prick the sides of his intent to intimate study and patient research. By collecting in a thorough and scientific manner, the collector will so impress on his memory the general features of the majority of the world's issues, together with the details of the safeguards afforded by paper, watermark and perforation, that the first glimpse at a forgery or fake will reveal a something which at once rouses suspicion that the particular label is not the legitimate offspring of the Post Office.
The "bogus" stamp, that is, the fraudulent label which has never existed as an original, is not to be feared: standard catalogues of the present day contain a practically accurate list of the designs of all issued stamps, and information as to new issues is so widely disseminated by the philatelic press that the chances of successfully placing a bogus stamp or issue are very small.
There have been frauds of this kind, but they are so few, and their character is so easily ascertained from the perusal of any catalogue deserving of the name, that it will suffice to merely mention two or three countries which have had bogus issues foisted on them.
A place supposed to be named Sedang and said to be ruled by a Frenchman was credited with a set of stamps for its non-existent Post Office; Brunei, in 1895 or thereabouts, was reported to have issued a set of stamps, which eventually turned out to be the private speculation of some European trader; and Cordoba (a province of Argentina) had her two legitimate stamps of 5 and 10 centavos supplemented by four higher values of similar design made for the delectation of collectors.
There are a good many more, including the so-called issues for Clipperton Island, Torres Straits, Principality of Trinidad, Counani (the character of these last named is, I believe, still contested), Spitsbergen; and certain labels purporting to hail from Hayti, Hawaii, German East Africa, and Mozambique.
For the novice it may be well to add that the absence of a variety of a known stamp from the catalogue does not necessarily signify that it must be so rare in that particular form that it is unknown to the cataloguer. It may, of course, be a new discovery, but it is not less likely to be a variety which has been built up by some one interested in beguiling you with a fancy of his own. Forgers have been known to add new denominations to the sets of stamps they have been counterfeiting, that is to say, bearing face values unknown in the genuine series, and sometimes fictitious overprints or surcharges are applied to genuine stamps. The most remarkable instance of the latter I can recall is the "Two Cents" overprint on the 3 cents brown on yellow Sarawak, which even the local authorities had come to believe in as having been applied by an up-country official in need of Two Cents stamps, but which were surcharged in London, where the dies of the surcharge and the very genuine-looking combinations of postmarks were subsequently found during an important cause celèbre.