CHAPTER VI

Chapter 161,900 wordsPublic domain

ON LIMITING A COLLECTION

The difficulties of a general collection--The unconscious trend to specialism--Technical limitations: Modes of production; Printers--Geographical groupings: Europe and divisions--Suggested groupings of British Colonies--United States, Protectorates and Spheres of Influence--Islands of the Pacific--The financial side of the "great" philatelic countries.

To the child in stamp-collecting the boundless world is small; he will seek to bring into his net stamps from everywhere, postage and fiscal, exhibition labels, trading stamps, and all that has the shape or semblance of what he conceives to be subjects for his collecting. The collector of fuller experience knows that he must make a lesser world of his own. To attempt the whole wide world, even in what I may term "ordinary" postage-stamps, is a task which can scarcely attain even approximately to completion in these days, and the collector on such a scale would lose much of the advantage that comes of specialisation in particular directions. He would know little of the world's postage-stamps except in a superficial way, that would never bring him a bargain, and would probably make him a frequent victim of the unscrupulous.

It is well enough that the beginner should first flounder in a sea of stamps, to learn the first rudiments of the study. The specialist needs a general education as a groundwork in stamp-collecting, just as he does in any other pursuit. But it is almost unavoidable that the tendency must come to the advancing collector to reserve his strength in the direction which most attracts him, or for which he enjoys special advantages.

It is in the defining of these limitations that many collectors are constantly seeking for guidance. "Can you tell me a good country in which to specialise?" is an ever-recurring query. The answer should, of course, be extracted from the experience of the individual who sets the question. It may be laid down as a maxim that the general collector is not yet ripe for specialism until his general experience has turned his inclinations to some well-defined speciality. The trend of one's inclinations may be clearly reflected in the general collection, where it is seen that one country has been by some--possibly unconscious--bias developed beyond all others. Every stamp-lover knows that there are some stamps which exert over him personally a peculiar fascination. It may be due to some interest in the country of their issue, or to some special attractions in their style of production, and indeed to a variety of other causes.

It was a solitary--rather bilious-looking--stamp that first obsessed me, a good many years ago now. It was the 3 cents Sarawak, 1869, printed in brown on yellow paper, which was in the collection of my schooldays, and I had always wanted to make it the nucleus of a special collection. But, before the opportunity came for realising this ambition, a different interest had arisen in that adventure-story republic of Hayti, which led me first to try to specialise its stamps, which having done, after my notions of specialising at that period, the next start was made with my early friend the peculiar yellow-brown label which a Scottish firm lithographed for the Rajah of Sarawak. I suppose the spice of adventure suggested by both Hayti and Sarawak, and subsequently China and Abyssinia, was responsible for turning one's specialistic tendencies into definite channels.

But whatever the influence may be with some, the question is so constantly being put that it may be useful to outline some skeleton plans, which are all capable of providing good scope for the exercise of philatelic talent.

The close study of detail, and particularly the increasing interest taken by collectors in the manner of production, has led some students to devote themselves to the stamps produced by a particular firm of manufacturers. The finest collection on these lines would be that dealing with the stamps produced by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. during the period of, say, 1840-80. This would include the low-value English stamps of the line-engraved series, the early imperforate and perforated Ceylons, which in themselves afford ample scope for a big collection, those old favourites the triangular Capes, the majority of the stamps of the West Indian Islands, a few from Mauritius and Natal, the most interesting of the issues for New Zealand, and several of the Australian States, some of our North American possessions, with many others, not forgetting Chili's early issues. The stamps in such a collection would all be line-engraved.

Messrs. De La Rue & Co., the greatest stamp-printers in the world, would also provide an interesting sphere for special study, embracing line-engraved stamps from the old Perkins-Bacon plates, printed in a superb series of pigments, distinctive from those of the earlier printers, and also the long range of surface-printed stamps for which this firm has been noted.

There are other printers whose work could be dealt with by the collector in a like manner, and the would-be specialist on these lines has an opportunity of choosing a very small field or a very large one, the two I have expressly mentioned being capable of treatment on a very large scale indeed.

A more general limitation begins with political or geographical grouping. "Europeans" are in constant demand, as there are many collectors who confine themselves to the stamps of the European States as a group. It is, however, a very large group, and few could hope to successfully cope with the whole of it on anything approaching specialist lines. The Castle-Mann collection, sold in 1906 for nearly £30,000, was limited to European stamps. But Europe for the collector naturally subdivides into lesser groups, _e.g._, the German States, Italian States, Balkan States, &c., and these in their turn yield single countries, many of which will provide in themselves an abundance of work and study for the enthusiast.

The fashion which has for many years kept the stamps of the British Empire in constantly increasing demand is rather curious, in that what may be attributed--at least partly--to patriotism at home has yet prevailed in foreign countries, where British Colonials are collected even more than the national products. In the United States, for example, the collector has until quite lately somewhat neglected the grand series of beautifully engraved stamps of the Republic and has followed the crowd of collectors of British Colonials. This may be explained in some measure by the shrewdness of the American investor, whose confidence in the security of his money in good old British Colonial stamps is still unbounded. At the same time philatelic experience is that every country is gradually being taken by the students and getting its turn, so that as the United States has a growing family of its own, it is not unlikely that in due course we shall find more United States collectors working out their philatelic salvation on their own lines on a national, or American, basis. The American field is a particularly fine one and offers the most virgin philatelic soil. Nearly every other group has been pretty well collected and studied, though not exhaustively. The United States itself has had much attention, but Mexico and South and Central America, Cuba, Hayti, the Dominican Republic are comparatively fresh soil, and the student can invest at present prices with a good assurance that, as United States expansion and influence become more overwhelming in the Western Hemisphere, all these countries will enjoy increased popularity with the stamp-collector.

THE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.

National African Company, Ltd. (No stamps) | Royal Niger Company (Charter of July 10, 1886) | 1892-1893 | Sierra Gold Oil Rivers Protectorate Leone, Gambia, Coast, (Africa Order in Council, 1889) 1860 1869 1875 | | | | | -+- -+- -+- Niger Coast Protectorate, 1893 | +----------+---------+ | | Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, Lagos, 1900 1901 1874 | | +--------+-------+ | Southern Nigeria, Feb. 16, 1906

THE LEEWARD ISLANDS.

Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher, Virgin Islands, 1862 1874 1876 1861 1870 1866 ----------------------------------+---------------------------------------- | Leeward Islands General Issues,[14] 1890

Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, Virgin Islands, 1903 1903 1903 1903 1899

The foregoing British Empire groups are given as examples of how this great division may be sub-divided.

Of the stamps of the great English-speaking Republic and the countries now or lately under her protection or looking to her for financial help groups may be formed:--

UNITED STATES: THE GENERAL ISSUES:--

(a) _With or without_--

The Postmasters' stamps. The Carrier's stamps. Confederate States, General issues. Confederate States, Postmasters' stamps.

(b) _With or without_--

Cuba (since 1899). Guam (since 1899). Hawaii (since 1898). Panama Canal Zone (since 1904). Philippine Islands (since 1899). Porto Rico (since 1898).

Dominican Republic. Haytian Republic.

(d) _With or without_--

Liberia.

Other suggested groupings may be taken from:--

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

(a) _British._

Aitutaki. British Solomon Islands. Cook Islands. Fiji (after Sept., 1874). Gilbert and Ellice Islands New Hebrides (Condominium). Niue. Papua. Penrhyn. Tonga.

(b) _French._

New Caledonia. New Hebrides (Condominium). Oceanic Settlements.[15] Tahiti.

Caroline Islands. German New Guinea. Marianne Islands Marshall Islands. Samoa (since 1899).

(d) _United States._

Guam. Hawaii (since July, 1898). Philippine Islands (since 1899).

Each of these, and the numerous other groupings, political, geographical, &c., which they will readily suggest to the reader, is capable of subdivision down to single countries or colonies, or into periods, just as others are capable of expansion if larger groups be desired.

In making his choice the collector will do well to give free scope to his tastes and inclinations, but he should not be disregardful of the financial side of the question, which is apt to confine the limitations of a speciality rather more closely than would his inclinations. It is well to realise from the start that some capital will be required to tackle a large group, and if the collector wants to specialise in the first issues of British Guiana, the "Missionaries" of Hawaii, the "Post Offices" and "Post Paids" of Mauritius, the "Gold Diggings" of New South Wales, the "circular" Moldavias, he will have to loosen wide the strings of a bounteously filled purse. Happily for the stamp collector, the interest and charm of his hobby is its broad adaptability to all requirements, and it cannot be gainsaid that the joys of the hunt for stamps are more real and stimulating to the collector of modest means, who personally knows and loves his stamps, than to the magnate who deputes the "collecting" to a secretary. In many instances, of course, the secretary is a _desideratum_; the vast collections of modern times practically necessitate an expert assistant, especially where the owner is a busy man; but in the really great collections of postage-stamps it is good to see the evidences of the personal attention and study of the owner. Philately is indeed fortunate in the number of wealthy stamp-lovers who build up monumental collections, at great personal labour and expense, and are ever ready to show portions of them at exhibitions and societies' meetings, and, indeed, to publish the results of their researches for the benefit of their fellow-students.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] The supersession of the stamps of the different islands lasted from October, 1890, to 1899 in Virgin Islands and 1903 in the other groups, when separate stamps were again issued by the five Presidencies (St. Christopher and Nevis being in one Presidency) of the Leeward Islands, the general and separate issues being in concurrent circulation.

[15] The Oceanic Settlements comprise the more easterly French islands, administered by a Governor, with Privy and Administrative Councils, &c., the seat of government being at Papeete, in Tahiti.

VII

STAMP-COLLECTING AS AN INVESTMENT