Generally speaking, the best countries from an investment point of view are British Colonials, especially 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. Let us say a stamp becomes obsolete this year, and a dealer buys £100 worth. It would be a moderate estimate to place the earning power of stamps at 10 per cent. In seven years that £100 hoard would, reckoning compound interest, represent £200, or double face. Of course, no dealer would hoard up £100 worth of a common stamp, but from the day that it becomes obsolete it must be hoarded up by someone, and interest must be accruing on the investment which will have to be added to the value of the stamp, unless someone is to stand the loss. 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:—

1875188018861890189318971902
s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.s. d.
Bremen, 1867, 5 sgr., green, unused1 01 62 64 05 025 017 6
Bechuanaland, 1886, 1s., used.———2 62 66 630 0
" 1888-9, 4d., unused———1 02 02 03 0
British Guiana, 1860, 1 c, brown. perf., used3 64 012 630 032 680 080 0
Cape of Good Hope, 1d., ∆ unused0 40 61 62 04 08 015 0
Cape of Good Hope, 1d., ∆ Woodblock, used2 63 615 025 045 090 095 0
Cyprus, 1880, 6d., unused——1 67 612 030 025 0
" " 1s., unused——2 610 015 040 055 0
Danish West Indies, 1872, 4 c., blue, unused.0 60 61 63 65 017 625 0
Danish West Indies, 1873, 14 c., unused1 01 02 63 65 624 032 0
Egypt, 1866, 5 piastres, unused2 02 05 08 616 022 625 0
" " 10 "2 61 66 012 020 026 027 6
Gambia, 4d., imperf., unused0 80 82 65 06 020 032 0
Gibraltar, 1886, 1s.——1 93 67 670 075 0
Hayti, 1881, 20 c., unused——2 02 02 67 620 0
Hungary, 1871, 3 k., litho., used0 20 21 63 66 630 040 0
Newfoundland, 1866, 5 c., brown, used.1 02 63 67 612 628 025 0
New South Wales, 1d., Sydney Views, used.2 64 017 630 035 040 040 0
Orange River Colony, 1877, 4 on 6d., unused—1 01 03 03 05 030 0
Tonga, 1892, 8d.————2 05 010 0
" " 1s.————3 04 015 0
Transvaal, 1878-9, 4d., unused—0 81 01 00 91 620 0
" " 1s. "—1 92 02 04 615 040 0
Trinidad, 1896, 10s.—————14 070 0
Turks Islands, 1879, 1s., blue, unused—1 92 63 05 020 025 0
Zululand, 1888, 9d.———1 61 612 017 6

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.

Mr. W. Hughes Hughes, B.L., started his collection in 1859, and kept a strict account of all his expenditure on his hobby, and in 1896 he sold to our publishers for close on £3,000 what had cost him only £69.

In 1870 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. per set of three; in other words, the materials of that wall-paper would now be worth at least £5,000.

The late Mr. Pauwels, of Torquay, made a collection which cost him £360 up to 1871, when it was put on one side and left untouched until 1898. It was then purchased by our publishers for the sum of £4,000, and yielded them a very fair return on their investment.