G. H. W. Bates, Boston, Mass.
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.
Collectors are warned against so-called Cuban Republic stamps. They are fraudulent in every respect, even to the inscription which the makers supposed to be in the Spanish language.
The Indian government is about to issue 2, 3, and 5 rupee stamps in two colors. They will bear Queen Victoria's portrait painted lately by Angeli.
Some time ago I warned my readers that the $1 stamp would probably be withdrawn. Not only the $1, but the $2 and $5 have been withdrawn and the new printing is on water-marked paper. Some of these stamps are still to be found at some post-offices, and advanced philatelists are buying up all they can find on unwater-marked paper.
The auction season is about to be opened by J. W. Scott, whose catalogues are now out for a sale late in October, at the rooms of the Philatelic Society, New York. Albrecht & Co. have a sale at the same place October 29th and 30th.
Beware of so-called Korean stamps. A firm in Washington is putting them on the market for credulous collectors. Stanley Gibbons catalogues and presumably sells a number of the Chinese locals which are not collected by wise philatelists.