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Show Rich Stamp Collection Envied by Philatelists The most freakish and one of the most valuable stamp collections In France is pasted on the walls of the cottage of a priest In the Savoy Alps. Collectors who. have found the stamps have bid fabulous prices for the right to steam the collections from the walls, but since church property belongs to the French government, gov-ernment, the stamps must remain pasted up until they are spoiled by time. The collection was started half a century ago by a young priest who had no other distraction In the mountain moun-tain village. The community Is an hour's walk and cllmh from the nearest near-est road. But the priest received a great quantity of mall, and friends' sent him stamps to add to 'his collection. col-lection. lie started pasting stamps on the bare walls In place of wall paper. And then, as the collection grew, he pasted more on top, making freak designs out of the Issues of varinns countries. There are nearly 2H0.OO0 old postage stamps on the four walls of the salon, many of them now rare Issues much sought after by collectors. collec-tors. The French collection Is particularly particu-larly rich, with copies even of the famous balloon stamps Issued for air mall by gasbag, when Purls was being be-ing hesieeed by the Germans In the war of 1S70. There is a triangular stamp from the Cape of Good Hope, some Vatican Vat-ican stamps of the first issue before Italy took over the pontifiolal territory, terri-tory, war stamps from 1ST0 from Alsace and Lorraine, the first Issues of Norway, the famous Greek Mercury Mer-cury series and countless others. |
