Editor's Note: Just as we go to press we are informed that the bill referred to has passed and is now a Ιαν.

Full particulars will be given in the April issue of the Monthly Journal.

March 3, 1923

This law will prove a boon to humanity. Anything that tends to make more interesting a clean, instructive, fascinating hobby, or assist in facilitating the extension of such a popular pastime as stamp collecting, is conferring a blessing on a group estimated by some to be as large as a million persons in this country.

While this act amends the penal code in the direction indicated, yet it is a moot question at the present time whether the laws now existing were intended to cover the illustrations which would make clearer to the mind's eye spaces in a stamp album or to visualize from the description in the text of catalogues. These crude black and defaced illustrations which have been used ever since stamp collecting started, some three-quarters of a century ago, are merely pathfinders for the correct places where the genuine specimen should be placed and in no sense can they be considered as a substitute for the original article. If there is anything that the true collector abhors, it is a counterfeit or a repaired or imperfect specimen.

Besides bringing to the coffers of the United States Treasury a sum exceeding $100,000 per annum of net revenue, through the sales of stamps at the Philatelic Agency of Post Office Department, and in addition thereto defraying all the expense of making the new dies and plates, the Government secures at all times the collateral interest by having this million pair of eyes throughout the country actively engaged in looking out for anything that rogues might do in

their efforts to foist upon the public counterfeit stamps or securities. It can be readily seen that the educational effect of encouraging this clean, upbuilding, instructive hobby has a worth far greater than is perceptible at first.

All classes and ages, from the lowliest and youngest to the most influential and the oldest, and also both sexes, become devotees of this fascinating pursuit which has no deleterious effects and which, if pursued along proper lines, is not only a source of pleasure but may become a means of substantial profit, in the event that the hobby for any reason is abandoned. Governments could not do better than to assist in such meritorious pursuit as this one and it is hoped that this action of Congress will be a forerunner of more consideration on behalf of public officials in the future than has been manifested in the past for the ubiquitous stamp collector.

An article in Ewen's Weekly Stamp News recently published, gives the number of collectors on the globe at 2,930,000 and the number of collectors annually buying one or more catalogues at 250,000.

Another authority gives the number of collectors in the respective countries as follows:

lately which has far outstripped that of numismatics which, for centuries, has been looked upon as well worthy of high consideration not only by all civilized governments but by the most distinguished savants and literatii. Our own Government at the Smithsonian Institution maintains a curator and publishes a list of the stamps of the United States issued up to 1920 and by reason of this legislation the pages of the catalogues may, in the future, be embellished with illustrations thus increasing its usefulness to the average collector.

The long line of literature which has been issued touching upon philately in

M°

later years has been added to by the issuance of a "Who's Who" wherein may be found the names of celebrities from the rulers of the greatest nations, princes of royal blood, statesmen, admirals, actors, foresters, singers and philosophers in all parts of the Globe. All these classes have recognized the intellectual value of this hobby. Its farreaching educational value is accompanied by a charm of persistence which grips the enthusiast by a devotion that never can be totally eliminated. The collectors of the country are grateful to Congress for having enacted this legislation.

1922 In Review

ORE than 2,000 varieties of postage stamps issued during the year 1922 have thus far been officially listed by Mr. John N. Luff in his monthly "Chronicle of New Issues" in Scott's Journal, not including those set down in the current March number.

This indicates that 1922 is destined to rank second among the philatelic years. The record is held by 1920, when 2,806 varieties appeared, according to Mr. Luff's reckoning. Second place is held at present by the year 1921, when 2,207 varieties were issued.

In comparing the 2,025 different stamps thus far chronicled for 1922 with the 2,207 varieties of 1921 it should be kept in mind that the 1922 figure includes only the January and February listings in the 1923 Journals for those two months. In other words, there are ten 1923 Journals to come, including the current March number.

In the final ten Journals of 1922 more than 475 varieties for 1921 were chronicled. If only half that number are chronicled for 1922 in the Journals from March to December, 1923, inclusive, this will mean that the 1921 figure-2,207 varieties-will be exceeded and that 1922 then must be ranked second to 1920 in the number of different stamps chronicled.

Thus far there have been chronicled for 1922 (still not including those set down in the current March number of the Journal)

the philatelic offerings of 161 stamp-issuing republics, empires, kingdoms, states, dependencies, colonies and other governmental and political units.

Eleven of these have each issued more than 35 varieties as chronicled by Mr. Luff. Austria heads the list, with 74 different. Memel takes second place, with 70. Russia ranks third with 62. The other eight are Germany with 61, Italy with 60, Armenia with 49, Danzig with 44, Ireland with 42, Indo-China with 40, and Far Eastern Republic and Hungary tied with 36 each. Egypt, Siberia, Turkey and Guatemala fall just short of the 35-variety-mark. One stamp each has been chronicled for Afghanistan, Bermuda, Costa Rica, China, Dominica, French Soudan, Gibraltar, Honduras, Netherlands. New Caledonia, Niger Territory, North Borneo, Samoa, Spain, Togo and Venezuela.

The average number of varieties for the 161 governments is a fraction more than 122.

For the United States, with the Philippines' two stamps not included, 18 varieties have been listed. These include several of the new series which appeared late in 1922. This compares with 26 varieties in 1920 and 12 varieties in 1921.

Of the 2,025 varieties thus far chronicled for 1922, 832 varieties, or more than 41 per cent, are surcharged stamps. This compares with about 72 per cent in the record year of 1920 and about 50 per cent in 1921. These declines-22 per cent the

new

year before last and 9 per cent last yearmay be interpreted as being indicative of approaching normalcy in international conditions. The nations of the world certainly lacked stability during 1920, with nations endeavoring to adjust themselves to the scheme of affairs, and that accounted for the appearance of more surcharged postage stamps than had ever before appeared within any twelve months' time. The year 1922 witnessed fewer than half as many surcharges as appeared during 1920.

Based on Mr. Luff's listings in Scott's current standard American catalogue and on his chroniclings which have since appeared in Scott's Journal up to and including the February, 1923, issue, it is possible to work out the following comparative table:

Of the 832 surcharged stamps chronicled for 1922, the creating of new values by overprinting was responsible for 396, or nearly one-half. The other surcharges were provided to convert ordinary stamps into occupation, official, postage due, charity, airplane and other types of adhesives.

Studying the foregoing table it is possible to discover other tendencies toward normalcy. Note the small number of occupation stamps, 19 in 1922, as compared with more than five times that number during the previous year and nearly 300 in 1920. Observe the absence of plebiscite issues as compared with 1920.

There was a sharp drop in commemorative in 1922, which may be attributed in part to the circumstance that the years 1920 and 1921 marked the centenaries of historical events in a number of the Central and South American countries.

On the other hand the development of the airplane as an agency for mail-carrying is indicated in the figures of the tablea jump of about 60 per cent in 1922 as compared with 1920.

It should be kept in mind, of course, that the foregoing figures and percentages

will be subject to change as other new varieties for 1922 are chronicled by Mr. Luff during the coming months, the current March number of the Journal inclusive. The comparisons here presented are offered solely to indicate the philatelic trend of the times.

W

Scandinavian Airposts

WATCH for new airmail adhesives in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. By an agreement which became effective on Jan. I air traffic was established between Sweden and Denmark taking in leading cities in both countries, and hydro-airplane service touching various cities.

In Washington the official announcement was made recently that a similar agreement would be made public shortly by the Swedish Royal Board of Trade showing that airposts were being established between Sweden and Norway, both airplanes and hydro-airplanes to be employed.

Sweden issued airplane stamps in 1918 and 1920, the latter year's offerings ranking among the most valuable of adhesives of this class. The foregoing developments in Scandinavia foreshadow airpost labels for Norway and Denmark.

These adhesives are the current ones of Palestine--the I. E. F. stamps-overprinted, in violet, in Arabic, and in two lines:

HEKOMET SHARK EL ARABI

Translated, this surcharge means "Arab Government of the East," according to Stamp Collecting, which adds that Transjordania "is under the provisional government of the Emir Abdullah (brother of the Emir Feisal, King of Iraq), assisted by British advisers; it has been excluded by Proclamation (September 1st, 1922) from the application of the Palestine Order in Council, 1922."

created that emergency by announcing in the January Journal that in return for a

"Rubleized Marks"

and exhausted in Scott's stock room, we would give 100 varieties of stamps which would include at least a few which would prove worth while.

The January Journal went into the mails and very shortly thereafter we began to receive November Journals from all parts of the land. Approximately one hundred copies arrived.

Examine the result from our personal viewpoint, please. One hundred times one hundred is ten thousand. This meant that we were obligated to mail out 10,000 stamps from among our personally-owned dupli

cates.

The November Journals were sent us in good faith and it was up to us to follow the Golden Rule.

Unfortunately we didn't have any 10,000 duplicates except mostly comparatively common ones which had been cluttering albums and desk drawers. We had expected to get only five or six November Journals at the most and were prepared to give complete satisfaction in return for that many.

By the time we got around to the twentieth lot our resources were getting low. We bought some mixed lots and kept on sending them out trusting that we might get by with it.

Satire, sarcasm and vituperation! Irony, scorn and contempt! TNT and pyrotechnics! The Federal postal authorities would never have allowed a few of those missives to reach us had they known the contents. Would that they had.

To those readers who thus protested, we returned their Journals and to each went a meek and lowly letter of explanation and apology, and it is our hope that our eloquence therein was so persuasive that we have won their friendliness toward us.

To those other readers who were tempted to protest but who did not do so, may we now ask contritely that they not think too harshly of us in view of the foregoing explanation of what we were up against.

To all who sent us November Journals, our thanks in most sincere measure. If any persons were not satisfied with the stamps they received, they may have their Journals back, as long as the supply lasts, by returning the stamps.

the postal rates there go up, and high value stamps are resulting, so that the situation should soon be as philatelically pitiful as it is in Soviet Russia.

Germany recently jumped the domestic and foreign postal taxes 100 per cent. The obvious outcome was the appearance of 1,000 and 2,000 mark values, in gray and blue respectively, with announcement that 5,000 and 10,000 mark denominations might be expected soon, these perhaps to be followed by stamps with even higher values. All this is leading to a rearrangement of the designs of the "lower higher" values, which will appear in the posthorn type instead of the oblong numeral type as at present.

A draft recently received by a New York banking institution contained German revenue stamps to the value of 280,000 marks. Had there been in existence 10,000-mark revenue stamps, only 28 stamps would have been necessary on the draft. As it was, lower values had to be used and the stamps utilized took up space II feet 8 inches in length, so that the draft was really attached to the stamps and not the stamps to the draft. The stamps were revenues and of course are not of philatelic interest in this country, but the incident is indicative of the confusing stamp situation in Germany as a result of the depreciation of the mark.

The same conditions are reflected by recent stamps emanating from Danzig, where denominations as high as 500 and 1,000 marks have appeared.

And in Hungary, 500 and 1,000 kr. denominations have been issued.

Poland seems to be lagging a bit behind, having ascended thus far to 200 marks only. Philatelists will not long countenance such conservatism!