Evening star. [volume], April 13, 1947, Page 18, Image 111

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
THE BIG STICK-UP IN STAMPS
Continued from page fite
those who bought Zeppelin
stamps.”
Germany herself used stamps for
years to support the Nazis’ favor
ite horse races. The most high
handed merchandising in the
hobby’s history was conducted by
Mussolini’s Fascists, who coined
millions from gay semi-po6tals os
tensibly printed to aid the august
Dante Alighieri Society.
Soviet Russia has gone into the
stamp business in a big way. A
government bureau, the Soviet
Philatelic Association, is the
only agency authorized to deal
in stamps. Russian collectors
can’t even swap stamps with
each other! And if dealers in other
lands wish to import any of the
colorful new Russian stamps now
pouring from the presses, the only
way they can pierce the Paper
Curtain is to buy from the Asso
ciation.
When unused stamps threaten
to flood the market and drive
prices down, the Association often
cancels whole sheets to order —
with the gum still on the backs —
and offers them at a small discount
as “used” copies.
Since 1926 Russia evidently has
resorted to this means to finance
the Communist puppet state of
Tannu Tuva in northwestern Mon
golia, postmarking millions of sets
of triangular, oblong and diamond
shaped stamps for export. New,
gaudy designs appear every few
months. Bulgaria, Liberia, Man
chukuo, Persia, Albania and
Algeria have done the same thing
in recent years on an only slightly
smaller scale.
School Kids Cot Gyppod
“Schoolchildren are the biggest
buyers of trumped-up issues,” one
collector told me. "Bright pictures
and blatant colors lure them into
wasting their precious pennies on
stamps that aren’t worth the paper
they’re printed on. Serious collec
tors avoid them like the plague;
.but the legend that stamps are
always a good investment still
helps deceive millions, both young
and old.”
1 he best time to invest in stamps
was about 85 years ago. In 1860 an
Englishman in Brussels supplied a
Paris dealer with a number of
three-lire Tuscany stamps for 10
cents each. He retailed them at 16
cents each, a nice profit — but
now they bring $1,000 apiece.
Today, such spectacular price rises
appear unlikely.
Although right now the hobby is
enjoying the biggest boom in its
history, many experts fear that in
time trickery will take its toll.
i
“There will be fewer collectors," a
New York dealer confided to me.
“At the present rate of output,
new stamps, especially commer
cialized issues, may soon glut the
market. Already, so many have
been produced that collecting
more than a few countries at one
time is financially impossible for
most people.”
In wartime Europe, many peo
ple bought the mass-produced,
oversold Nazi and Fascist war
issues as a hedge against inflation.
“I’ve had more than a hundred
desperate offers to sell German
war stamps from France alone in
the past year," another dealer told
me. “There’s little market for
them. Now, I’m beginning to get
quotations on postwar issues — a
great many of them quite obvi
ously ‘rigged.’ ’’
"Don't Wait!"
In January, in a well-known
stamp magazine, there appeared
an ad for a new foreign colonial
air-mail issue which illustrates how
slick operators still foist stamps on
collectors. Giving just a name and
a New York address, it proclaimed
boldly: “This very scarce issue
comprises 295 sets.. . The entire
stock has been sent to me for sale.”
The price was $37.50, with the
admonition: “Don’t wait!
They’ll go quickly.” It’s any
one’s guess how many manipula
tors in other countries got an
“exclusive” lot of 295 sets. too.
Among South American coun
tries. the most common fraud is
the stamp which a government,
with the connivance of racketeers,
issues as a great “rarity” right
from the sta- Mthough printed
for use in th ’,s, these varieties
appear in such re _ tncted quantities
that Scott’s refuses to recognize
them. Of a 1915 issue of 16 Mexi
can stamps, only five could be
bought at the post office — the
rest went to insiders at a mark-up.
Bolivia has printed a mere 25 of a
single stamp!
Artificial Rarities
Procedure currently is more
subtle. Mexico recently went in
for wholesaling, offering a few cop
ies of each issue at post offices,
then allowing them to be bought
only from government officials or
their agents — at 350 per cent or
more over face value. President
Miguel Ale min aims to stamp out
this practice.
In some instances, * rare” items
are made to order for special occa
sions. Scott's dismisses the 1935
Mexican air-mail stamps printed
on the face, “ Vuelo de Amelia
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