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.
How many of us know where Ipswich, England, is? An exhibition of stamps has just been opened there which must be fine, as English collectors value the stamps exhibited at over $100,000. A few years ago the New York collectors made an exhibit at the Eden Musee on Twenty-third Street, which probably called the attention of thousands to the "old postage-stamp craze," and led to the making of hundreds of new recruits in this absorbing hobby. Perhaps the same collectors may make another exhibit. If they obtain the assistance of some of the New England collectors the exhibit would be one of the finest ever seen. One gentleman in Maine has a collection valued at over $200,000, consisting chiefly of the great rarities.
A. T. D.—A surcharged stamp is one which has had a new value or some inscription printed on the face of the stamp. As a rule stamps of a high value are surcharged with a lower value. For instance, Ceylon, in 1885, surcharged the 16, 24, 36, 48, and 64 cents and other stamps "Five Cents." These surcharged stamps were then good for five cents only. Provisional stamps are those which are issued in an emergency, and usually are surcharged stamps.
H. H. C.—The coin dealers ask $3 each for the commonest dates of the quarter-eagle U.S. The scarce dates are worth much more. You do not give the date of your coin.