Week (Brisbane), Friday 22 January
1926, page 32
POSTAGE STAMPS
Where
should one look but at the G.P.O. for the finest collection of postage stamps
in Queensland? Carefully classified and guarded, stamps of all nations and all
times are stored away in albums there. There are tens of thousands of them, some
of them of immense value.
The
"Week" reporter chanced upon the wonderful collection through an
inquiry of the Deputy P.M.G., Mr. A. J. Christie, last week. A report was brought
under Mr. Christie's notice of a sale of stamps in London, at which a sheet of
220 Queensland 1d. 1862-3, orange vermilion (which when complete, contained
240, the 11 missing being from the top), fetched £450. At the same sale,
"a very fine mint block of 106 of the same date and issue, 2d. blue,
forming nearly a complete lower half sheet." brought £325.
Mr.
Christie was very busy with the correspondence of his office, and, with a
smile, he informed the reporter that he was more concerned with the sale of the
most recent issue of Commonwealth stamps than with those of the early days.
The
reporter was insistent and the Deputy P.M.G. tolerant.
"Alright,"
said Mr. Christie. "I'll see if we can't look up those stamps for
you." and he pressed a bell, and told the answering official what was required.
"You might as well bring a few albums in." added the chief.
"Do
you keep specimens, of all stamps issued in Queensland?." asked the
re-porter.
"Yes,"
said Mr. Christie, "from the postal year one. We have them in vermilion,
blue, green, and varicoloured; all shapes and sizes; all dates and values.
Stamps! We'll show you some stamps!"
A
PHILATELIST'S PARADISE
Then the
deputy's room became a philatelist's paradise. Albums were unfolded with the
rarest and oldest of Queensland stamps and those from other States. As the
leaves were turned over there were revealed platoons, companies, and battalions
of stamps from every nation in the world.
All the
Queensland issues stood to attention in orderly array, the classification being
neat and imposing. This applied throughout the albums. Besides postage stamps
for the different Australian States before Federation. There were revenue and
other stamps some for great amounts. There were reproductions of seals and chiller
bag stamps.
WHEN
QUEENSLAND WAS IN N. S. W.
"Here,"
said Mr. Christie, producing the reproductions of obliterating stamps and seals
of the early days. "Here is a facsimile of stamps used when Queensland was
in N. S. W." The stamps showed:—
GLADSTONE
1857
N.S.W.
Another
one, also an obliterating stamp, showed:—
IPSWICH FE 21
1861
N.S.W.
The
reporter pointed out that the 1859 separation was accomplished so that in1861
Ipswich was in Queensland and not in New South Wales.
"Well,
there is the stamp," said Mr. Christie. "I can't tell you why it was not
altered."
A
WONDERFUL COLLECTION.
Attention
again centred upon the wonderful collection of stamps in the albums—tens of
thousands of rare issues.
"I
am afraid," ventured the reporter. "that an ardent collector would be
tempted by these."
The
Deputy retorted that cupidity was understood, even in the G.P.O., but special
precautions were taken to guard the collections. He went on to explain that
sometimes, an accident lent value to a stamp—a peculiarity in perforation, or a
mistake in spelling. Thus one Queensland issue be-came famous because of the
fact that "Queensland" was spelt "Qoeensland."
It was
very interesting to trace the development in the production of the stamps, from
the earliest woodcuts to the reproductions of scenes. Many of the later
Tasmanian stamps, some of them very big, were very artistic in their pictures
of island scenes. The engraving on all the stamp however was all of the very
highest class, similar to that of bank-notes. Special precautions were taken in
the printing of the issues.
MODERN
ISSUES.
In recent
years, explained Mr. Christie, the Berne Postal Union had made the
supplementing of the G.P.O. collections an easier task. Several copies of all
new issues from every country in the Postal Union were sent to Berne, and the
union headquarters there sent complete collections out periodically to all the
subscribing nations. Thus Queensland was kept supplied with the official issues
of all the newly constituted Balkan and Russian States and other countries, new
and old.
Continually
additions were being made to the wonderful collection in the albums at the
G.P.O. To the unskilled eye, many of the issues seemed identical, but there
were differences in watermarks and in other ways that caught the eye of the
expert philatelist.
Turning
over the leaves of the albums, the reporter's eye was arrested by the
ever-changing colours of the stamps from all the countries of the world. Even
Nauru and lesser known islands in the remoter seas had their own stamps and
their own places in the books. Pictures of emperors, kings, and presidents
looked out from the gaily-coloured oblongs. Some of the kings and presidents
have died, and others have been deposed. Some of the countries even have disappeared
in the upheaval and rebuilding of the world war.
But the
stamps remain in the albums at the G.P.O., if only to reveal the power that was
broken and the tyrant who fell.
