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 as far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.
In the Round Table for January 21, 1895, I mentioned the fact that Ecuador had cancelled the contract for "Seebeck" stamps, as unworthy the dignity of a great nation, etc. It seems that the only change that has been made is one of name only. Another decree announces the issue of a commemorative set, for use ten days only, "part of the sum accruing from the sale to be devoted to the assistance of the families of soldiers fallen in defence of their country." No collectors of any importance will touch these stamps, nor will they be catalogued, or space reserved in any of the albums.
The Post-Office Department will not sell the Periodical stamps either used or unused, and yet they seem to be easy to get. One dealer in New York offers a complete set of all the stamps from 1c. to $100, unused, for $250, and offers to give the source from which he obtained the stamps. Probably these sets are the complimentary copies sent by the U.S. government to the P.O. Dept. of the various countries in the Postal Union throughout the world. There are 175 countries in the Postal Union, and each of these is entitled to five complete sets of all stamps issued by each country.
The auction season is in full blast, not only in New York, but also in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, etc. Hardly a day without an auction somewhere. And as auctions multiply, the quality of the stamps offered improves. Cheap and common stamps are worth as little to-day as they were ten or twenty years ago, and it does not pay to sell these in the auction-rooms. But scarce or rare stamps continue to increase in value, as demonstrated at each sale. At one sale last week every lot sold consisted of one stamp only. At another sale two evenings were given up to the sale of U. S. stamps only. They brought nearly $7000, and probably had not cost their owner, an old collector, one-third of the amount.
R. A. Hunt.—With a few exceptions (Russia, etc.), the way dealers take off stamps is simply to soak them in cold water a short time.
A. T. D.—An "error" is a stamp made by mistake in the color of another stamp of the same issue. Any daily newspaper is printed on "wove" paper. Most fine writing paper is "laid."
Kersky G. Williams.—The 3c. 1851 U.S., with extra lines on the right or left hand side of the stamps, are those from the tenth and eleventh vertical rows of the entire sheet. The stamps were printed in sheets of 200. These sheets were cut apart into half-sheets of 100. As a guide to the cutter, the division between the halves was made prominent by two extra lines. The 1870-3 varieties of the U.S. stamps were illustrated in the Round Table, September 10, 1895.
Philatus.