Show ERROR ADDS VALUE TO FRENCH STAMP issue to be destroyed but some will escape paris france philatelists will have another minor variation which makes all the difference between an ordinary stamp and a rarity to hunt bunt if any of the several seve ral thousand original version descartes stamps escape from the incinerator of the french postoffice post office although the issue is to be destroyed because of an imperfection it is virtually a certainty that some will slip into collections for tor france b ranee as a nation is is avid ranee as a is about postage stamps and someone in the printing office has acquired samples of the new stamps that will never go into circulation the stamp issued in celebration of the anniversary of the appearance pe arance of rene descartes discourse on method bears his picture surrounded by books on one of which can be read the title dis cours sur la methode unfortunately by general agreement descartes book is known in academic circles as discourse Di scours de la methode hence a 90 centime red stamp bearing descartes picture with the sur stir will identify the issue the curious thin thing about the suppression of the stamp of which several thousand examples already exist is that there is no evidence that descartes wrote de or for that matter that he wrote sur or that he gave his book a title at all in those days such things as titles were likely to be left to the printer doth both mean the same but adde de has a rather more archaic flavor fla vori yet on the famous portrait of descartes by franz hals the title appears as discourse Di scours sur la methode in the first edition of lan sons history of french lite literature ra it is sur stir in braziers Gra dictionary it is sur in larousse it is de to the french postoffice post office even a single letter is a matter of concern to say nothing of two or 7 three of them so despite plenty of authority for sur the purists will get their ode de and the philatelists with luck another rare stamp |