In the next issue of the Round Table we shall begin a series of descriptive articles on swimming and diving, which will run from rime to time in this Department, as the articles on track athletics were printed last year. The descriptions will be illustrated from instantaneous photographs taken of one of the most expert swimmers in the country, and it will be the object of the papers to so describe the science of swimming and diving that any boy who does not know how, but who has a pond near his home, may go out and soon learn the necessary strokes.
"TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL."—Illustrated.—8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
The Graduate.
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.
The discovery of a misspelled word on the new $1 silver certificate (tranquility instead of tranquillity) has led thousands of persons to believe that the government will call in all the bills, with the consequence that those remaining in the hands of the public will command a premium from "collectors." Nothing can be more erroneous.
The marvellous growth in value of rare stamps has led to a widespread idea that there is an immense number of "collectors" in every department, that these "collectors" are waiting with money in their hands anxious to pay fancy prices for anything which is old or odd. As a matter of fact neither age nor scarcity makes a thing valuable. It is entirely a question of demand and supply. For instance, any book printed by Caxton (1474 to 1492) would be worth $5000 at least, and some of his books would bring $15,000 or more, each. Many other older books printed previous to these dates can be bought for $10 each. Why the difference? Simply this: Caxton was the first English printer, and his books are eagerly sought for in England by the great libraries and by English bibliophiles. The demand is great, the supply exceeding small, hence the continuous growth in values. On the other hand, thousands of big folio volumes of sermons and theological disquisitions in the Latin language, printed in Germany and elsewhere, at the same time as the Caxtons, or earlier, are in the market. The supply is immense, the demand very small, hence the very small prices, despite the fact that some of these books are quite as scarce as some of the Caxtons, and just as old.
The same remarks apply to coins and other objects. Every week I receive requests to price old silver and copper coins, and when I reply that the U.S. coins are worth their face, and that the foreign coins are usually worth their weight as old silver, I do so convinced that my correspondents will feel disappointed. Previous to 1834 most of the silver money used in the U.S. was Spanish. Millions of these coins are still in existence, and to-day they are not current in any country, and are bought up by coin-dealers at about forty-five per cent. of their face value, and are melted into bullion.