"A subscriber at Djibouti informs us that the current issue is about to be surcharged with a control mark. It appears there have been serious leaks and that the stamps sold in Europe for

issue will include a series of four postage due stamps of the value of 4, 10, 20 and 50 centimes. These will bear a representation of the Fortress of Scutari (Rozafat). The stamps may be expected to make an early appearance."

We have received im

perforate copies of the new 15, 20, 30, 40 and 80 heller postage due stamps.

they think it horrible (they have taste at Dire-Daoua) and that, to get rid of it as quickly as possible, the higher values will be surcharged with smaller denominations."

ALBANIA: The Philatelic Magazine

has received the following information from a correspondent in Albania:

"The Postal Administration of Albania, has, so far, only issued such stamps as have been strictly necessary

for the needs of the postal service. But,

seeing that numerous dealers and foreign collectors have visited Albania for the express purpose of buying the postage stamps of that country, and also that a considerable portion of the inhabitants collect their country's stamps, the Administration, wishing to satisfy all demands which have been received from many quarters, has decided to create a new and permanent issue. This issue was ordered two months ago from the State Printing Office of the French Republic.

"The series will include six values, 2, 5, 10, 25 and 50 centimes and 1 franc. Each value represents the double-headed eagle (the national emblem of Albania). In the center will be the effigy of Scanderbeg (or Georges Castrioti), the last king of Albania, assassinated by the Turks in 1467, when the country fell under the Ottoman domination. Besides the six values above mentioned, the new

writes us that new postage due stamps of 2c. and 4c. were issued in December last. They are surcharged in red. The words "Canal Zone" are about The the same as on the 1915 issue. figure "2" is different. He had not seen the new 4c., so could not describe it. As nothing was said we assume the designs remain the same as before. There were 50,000 of each denomination printed.

ECUADOR:

Letters recently arriv

ing from Ecuador have borne stamps overprinted "Casa de Correos," which we translate "House of Postage" or "Post Office." We have seen the overprint on numerous copies of the 1c. orange of 1915-17 and on a large upright stamp, printed in blue and red, with the national arms in the center, and inscribed "Republica del Ecuador, Timbre Patriotico, un centavo." We are at a loss to know just what a patriotic stamp may be but, at any rate, the "Post Office" overprint would appear to make it a postage stamp. But we fail to see any reason for applying this overprint to a stamp that is already inscribed "correos." If any of our readers can offer an explanation of the overprint it will be appreciated.

"About 70,000 complete sets of the Bolshevist stamps originally surcharged 'Magyar Tanacskoztarsasag' have had same obliterated by another surcharge consisting of a sheaf of wheat or wheat heads and the date 1919. So far well and good, but practically the entire crop was sold to the Agrarian Bank, which wholesaled it out to dealers at an unknown price, on condition that the sets be retailed at 250 krona or about ten times face value."

AAR: This is a new name for the

SAAR:

stamp catalogues. In our chronicle we list some provisional stamps, made by overprinting German stamps of 190619, with the word "Sarre" and a bar over "Deutches Reich." Concerning this territory we quote from the Statesman's Year Book for 1919 the following digest of a part of the treaty of peace with Germany:

"The Saar.-Germany cedes to France the full ownership of the coal mines of the Saar Basin. The basin extends from the frontier of Lorraine, as re-annexed to France, north as far as St. Wendel, including on the west of the valley of the Saar as far as Saarholzbach and on the east the town of Homburg. The territory will be governed by a Commission appointed by the League of Nations, and consisting of five members, one French, one a native inhabitant of the Saar, and three representing three different countries other than France and Germany. The Commission will have all powers of government formerly belonging to the German Empire, Prussia and Bavaria. There will be no military service, but only a local gendarmerie to maintain order. The people will preserve their local assemblies, religious liberties, schools and language, but may vote only for local assemblies. After fifteen years a plebiscite will be held by communes to ascertain the desires of the population as to continuance of the existing regime under the League of Nations, union with France, or union with Germany."

3

UPPER SILESIA: We are indebted

to Mr. J. B. Leavy for a copy of the following letter referring to stamps of the Upper Silesia plebiscite which we chronicle in this number:

"International Office of the Universal Postal Union.

"Berne, January 21, 1920. "SIR: I have the honor to forward you herewith, under the head of information, copy of a note which the French Embassy at Berne has addressed to the Swiss Political Department and which comes to me through that Department:

66

'Conforming with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles of June 28, 1919, an International Commission will shortly take over the administration of the territories of Upper Silesia, subject to a plebiscite as designated in article 88 of the Treaty. So long as this Administration shall last, the postage stamps of Germany will not be valid in this territory; in accordance with the German authorities, they will be replaced by the stamps issued by the International Commission. These new stamps, the only ones admitted for private correspondence within the country in question, will serve in consequence for the prepayment of all sendings whatsoever emanating from this country (Article II of the Universal Postal Convention).

""The French Embassy has the honor to transmit herewith to the Political Department 250 copies of each of the following new postage stamp values: 22 pfennings, 3 pf.; 5 pf.; 10 pf.; 15 pf.; 20 pf.; 50 pf.; 1 mark and 5 marks. It would please them very much to have you sent these values to the International Office of the Postal Union so that the latter may at once make the necessary communications to the countries of the Union."

"The French Embassy takes this occasion to renew to the Political Department,' etc.

"I have likewise the honor to transmit to you herewith 2 specimens of each of the postage stamps mentioned in this note.

"I have requested the Swiss Political Department to furnish me, if possible, 133 more examples of the values in question, in order that I may complete the distribution in conformance to article XXXIX, section 2, No. 2, of the rules of execution of the principal Convention.

"Will you agree with me. Sir, in assurances of my highest consideration. "THE DIRECTOR, "DECOPPET."

WH

HEN the postal rate was returned to two cents it was estimated that there remained on hand, in the various postal agencies throughout the country, 169,000,000 of the 3 cent stamped envelope. The paper alone used in the manufacture of these envelopes represented an outlay of over $200,000, so that it can readily be seen that, with the cost of manufacture added, this vast quantity of 3 cent stamped envelopes represented too great a sum for them to be returned for destruction and their total cost charged as a loss to the Post Office Department. Therefore the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the various agencies and large post offices throughout the country, where stocks of the 3 cent stamped envelope rested, were requested to furnish estimates to the Post Office Department regarding the cost of supplying these envelopes with a printed surcharge reducing them to the 2 cent rate. These estimates were so excessive as to prove the printed surcharge to be unfeasible. It was then suggested that dies could be cut for the cancelling machines and the surplus 3 cent stamped envelopes run through the machines and cancelled with a 2 cent surcharge. This proved feasible, as the only additional cost to the Post Office Department was the actual cost of the cancelling dies, the work of supplying the surcharge from the cancelling machines being done by the post office clerks in the usual performance of their daily duties, merely crowding some extra work upon the clerks and making sure that for a while there would be no slack hours.

Some dies were cut and work of an experimental nature was started in the Washington, D. C., office at the beginning of the year. The experimental work proved so satisfactory that the following circular was issued to post

masters over the signature of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General:

1. CHANGE OF DENOMINATIONThe department is authorizing postmasters to change the denomination of their unsold 3 cent stamped envelopes to 2 cent, by running them through cancelling machines equipped with special dies, bearing the numeral "2" in place of the regular postmarking-cancelling dies.

2. PURPOSES The principal purposes are, first, to conserve, during the prevailing condition of short paper production throughout the .country, large quantities of paper which would otherwise be wasted; secondly, to save to the Government the cost of manufacture of the many millions of outstanding 3 cent envelopes, which must otherwise be destroyed and become a total loss; and, thirdly, to provide the public with stamped envelopes during he existing shortage, which is due to the unprecedented sale that has followed the restoration of the 2 cent rate of letter postage.

3. DESCRIPTION-The dies which are being provided print upon the 3 cent stamped envelopes a large, double-line numeral "2," with either horizontal or vertical lines beneath it to cancel the two original numerals "3." Some of the 3 cent envelopes, however, are overprinted "2 cents," the large figure "2" appearing at the left of the 3 cent stamp and the word "CENTS” running through it. The overprinting is done with either black or red ink.

4. AUTHORIZATION—As 2 cent dies are obtained from the die makers the department will send them to postmasters with authorization to overprint their stocks of 3 cent envelopes and full instructions for doing the work. They will also be instructed as to securing credit for 1 cent each on the envelopes so overprinted. Postmasters are quested not to apply to the department for authorization to overprint their envelopes: The authorizations will be issued to them as 2 cent dies become available, in the order of quantities of 3 cent envelopes reported on hand in response to the instructions published in notice No. 27, January Postal Guide.

re

5. VALUE-Three- cent

over

envelopes printed "2" shall be sold to the public by postmasters at the current prices of 2 cent envelopes listed on pages 35 and 36, 1919 Postal Guide, and on price schedule Form 3200. The postage value of such overprinted envelopes shall be 2 cents.

The above circular was reprinted in the Postal Bulletin of January 31, 1920. There are two types of cancelling machines in use at various large post offices throughout the country, some offices being equipped with the Universal machine and other offices with the International machine. These machines being of different construction the cancelling dies made for them are not interchangeable; therefore, as a matter of easy distinction, it was decided to adopt somewhat different designs in the surcharge for each type of cancelling machine.

Meanwhile the dies which printed a large figure "2" at the left of the stamp and the word "CENTS" running through the stamp were not considered satisfactory, and dies of different design were ordered. As less than 500 envelopes had been surcharged from the die supplied for the Universal machine they were turned in to the redemption office and ultimately destroyed, none being delivered to the Washington office nor placed on sale to the public. Twenty thousand envelopes had, however, been surcharged by the die supplied for the International machine, and as this was too large a quantity to be destroyed, with economy the watchword in the Department, they were ordered placed on sale at the Washington, D. C., office. To avoid speculation their sale was limited to 100 envelopes to a customer.

It was originally the intention to have the surcharging done entirely in red ink, red being the color of the twocent denomination to which value the envelopes were being reduced. When, however, approximately thirty thousand had been surcharged in red, from the accepted die for the Universal machine, it was found that the ink clogged on

the die and caused blurred and blobby surcharges, not running so freely and smoothly as the black ink; also that red ink was not available in the offices outside of Washington and would have to be especially supplied. It was then decided to do all surcharging in black ink only.

Universal Machine Accepted Die

Double line figure "2," with curved tail, figure measuring 9 by 82 mm., and placed 2 mm. above the center of three thin horizontal lines, each 30 mm. long and spaced 2 mm. apart. Total measurements of surcharge 30 by 14

mm.

International Machine Accepted Die

Double line figure "2," with straight tail, figure measuring 6 by 7 mm.; while 134 mm. beneath, and 1 mm. to right and left of the figure, are four thin vertical lines, each 52 mm. high and spaced 2 mm. apart. Total measurements of surcharge 26 by 142 mm.

International Machine Rejected Die Large double line figure "2," with curved tail, figure measuring 82 by 132 mm.; while 2 mm. to the right center of the figure appears the word "CENTS" in sans-serif capitals 5 mm. high, the word measuring 182 by 5 mm. Total measurement of surcharge 19 by 132 mm.

The first of these surcharged envelopes went on sale at the Washington, D. C., office on January 28, 1920. They bore the surcharge cancellation of the Universal machine accepted die, in black, and the envelope was white paper, size 13. The 3 cent stamp being my listing die B (Bartels' Die A). On February 11, 1920, the red surcharge was placed on sale at the Washington, D. C., office, being also of the Universal machine accepted die type, and the envelope white paper, designated size 8, but in reality special size II, according to Bartels' catalogue. The 3 cent stamp being my listing Die B (Bartels' Die A) and Die F.

On March 13, 1920, the International (Concluded on Page 7)