Show not inot selling aarre rare stamps jl stamp enthusiasts do not understand der stand niia N venture of post office department HANDLES ONLY REGENT RECENT ISSUES victory stamps pilgrim tercentenary issues and airplane stamps among varieties that are arc for se le washington stamp enthusiasts till nil over the country are responding with to postmaster eneval ene ial hays that the post ot of nee nce department lias has established a stump stamp agency and has certain stamps for sale hale nearly letters a day are being received from collectors inho liu wish to buy sta stamps nips but a surprising number indicate that hint the governments new venture ture is not altogether understood some think that tile the go eminent is selling obsolete and rare stamps they ask casually for such valuable old issues its as those of tile the tsou S As a matter of fact the government agency Is selling at present only the fol follow loNNIng ing three cent victory stamps till all denominations ot of the pilgrim tercentenary Is bucs airplane stamps a small quantity of special delivery stamps with a pink back and the ordinary current issues the only place from indich the government erni nent stamp agency can call get its stock to sell to collectors Is from the post offices of the country in ili the past any one alio ho arote rote to the post office department to buy stamps tor for a collection was referred to ills post office and told that if his local postmaster did not have the particular kind desired perhaps some soine other oilier postil postmaster laster would now the post office department Is getting stamps such as the pilgrim tercentenary issues fiant the post offices and will sell them direct to stamp collectors another point of misunderstanding Is that the post office department Is setting up a commercial stamp agency one man wrote to know it if lie he could represent the department in philadelphia to buy and sell stamps for it there does not buy stamps the fat fact Is the department is not buying stamps at all and it is selling them only at their face value it Is written into tile the postal regulations that no employee in the he postal service may buy or sell stamps at more than their original sale price other people have thought that the government goi eminent philatelic agency would lie be disposing of freak issues such as the airplane sheet that dint was printed with the design upside down or the famous issue of 2 cent stamps with several fives on the sheet these are great rarities and bring prices which only a stamp collector can understand the 24 2 1 cont cent al airplanes have a border of red and the airplane in tile the center of blue by a mistake which will probably always remain a mystery on one single sheet of stamps the airplane design was put in upside down the bureau of engraving was itself turned upside down don do n in vain attempts to find out how low tills this catastrophe occurred philatelists however rejoiced one congressman who has three of these stamps recently refused 1500 apiece for them it Is because such accidents are rare almost unheard of that the mis printed stamps are so highly valued by collectors the post office department t says emphatically that it has none of these rarities for sale one collector suggested that the tit department part parti ment nent might render it a service it if it would get some of the shanghai overprinted stamps the conference on limitation of plans to abolish the post offices which tile he U algood states and sonic some other countries have it in china the stamps of our office tit nt shanghai will probably rise lit in value in fit the collectors collector s estimation through ihl j move 0 since file no 0 more hlll tc be printed when the post ollice office Is closed the chinese stamps these shanghai stamps are ordinary cited U states stamps except that over each cadi one is ghaI china anil and tile the price in local currency which lit in each case Is double the face value vain the post office department deparini ent has been directing collectors who nho desired to buy these stamps to send a domestic money order to the united slates postal agent shanghai ile he concerts con coriN erts tile orter order into local currency and ami makes the purchase e to sell these stamps slumps in tile the united states would need nee a special order of some sort and none Is contemplated plated d nt at present ConsIder considering inz till all the things it Is not established to do people who naho have never collected stamps might not see sec how the government stamp agency Is doing the collectors a special service by selling them ordinary current stamps and a ery cry few recent issues the important point is that 13 not at nil all 2 cent stamps look alike to the expert the stamp with perforation running into tile the pink de design igal may bo be nil all right to put on a letter but it a cal collectors lec tors ideal st stump beauty iio wants jants a stamp that lint ilaa a neat margin of white around it when it Is 13 torn off the sheet |