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.
Some of the most advanced collectors are now mounting the stamps in their albums by affixing the hinge at the left side. First quality of hinges are used, and as small a portion of the stamp covered by the hinge as possible. This method has many advantages over the old plan of hinging at the top.
A philatelic button has been put on the market, and is finding quite a large sale. It is circular in form, bearing a suggestion of the common 2c. red stamp in the centre, with the motto in a circle, "Philatelia's Followers." The price is fifteen cents.
A gentleman has just disposed of his collection as a whole for $11,000. This collection was made during the fifteen years 1860-1875, when stamps were low in price, owing to the fact that study and observation had not yet determined the relative scarcity of the stamps then known. The collector kept a record of what his stamps cost, which was about $350 in all. The gem of the collection was an unused Cape of Good Hope, black 4d, error in red, which has since been sold for $2500. Many other rarities are in the collection, and the purchaser has already sold enough to pay the first cost, and has many valuable stamps left as a profit.
One of the leading philatelists of England has published an article claiming to have discovered the secret mark on the 30c. 1873 U. S. It turns out to be the regular faint centring mark, which shows on almost every U. S. stamp until the plate has been worn down by printing.
Nearly two years ago the Boston post-master had a cancelling die made in the form of the U. S. flag. His example has been widely followed throughout the Union, and now other countries are using a similar device. In Canada they use the "union-jack," and it makes a very neat cancellation. This is a very commendable practice from the point of view of philatelists. How often have we not been obliged to put a stamp in our albums which was cancelled with a dauber. The most advanced philatelists make it a point to get cancelled stamps bearing a date-mark wherever possible. Of course, in the case of very rare stamps they are glad to take whatever they can get.