The Straits Settlements 4c. changes from red to purple, and the IOC. reverts to its old colours of purple on yellow.

"A new design, showing a panoramic view of Brunei Town, is employed for supplementary duties of 6c. and 12c. on order for that Protectorate, to be printed by the copper-plate process in black and blue respectively.

"Future printings of 'official' stamps for Iraq will have the inscription 'On State Service,' rendered in both English and Arabic."

THE

Germany's Plight

'HE information published in a recent issue of the Journal to the effect that Germany had ceased issuing postage stamps was based on an announcement given to newspaper correspondents in Washington by the United States Post Office Department that it had been informed by the Teuton Government that stamps were no longer being printed.

Subsequently Germany has gone on issuing adhesives, as evidenced by the fact that higher and higher marks values have appeared-recently as high as fifty billion marks as the denomination of a single stamp.

Information received by Scott's from Germany is to the effect that the suspension of stamp-issuing was a temporary measure, and that either the U. S. Post Office Department or the Washington correspondents were misinformed. The suspension, it is learned, was because the stamp printing presses were overwhelmed and could not keep up with the demand due to the necessity of turning out stocks of new values required because of the constant depreciation of the mark. As soon as this exigency partially readjusted itself, printing of stamps was resumed merrily.

Meanwhile recent despatches from Germany describe the introduction there of a new monetary unit-the gold pfennig. This has already made its impress on philately. Such stabilization of the stamp situation was not surprising, similar to the one which has gone into effect in Danzig. In this Free State the golden florin, or gulden, was introduced early in November, the gul

den being divided into 100 pfennigs and being equivalent to ten English pence. Already Danzig stamps have appeared expressed in the terms of the new currency, some of the lower mark values, long obsolete, having been surcharged with pfennig the values, as Journal's "Chronicle of

New Issues" shows.

Something regarding the printing of the recent high values of Germany subsequent to the deluge of surcharges appears in the London Times. It reads in part:

"Early in October the printing of definitive stamps in 'millionen' denominations from a general key-plate began. The main feature of these stamps is a reticulated circle and a plain tablet beneath, whereon the requisite value is imposed at a second printing in a contrasting shade of color."

When, earlier, surcharging was resorted to, impressions were taken from existing plates in new colors, the Times explains, and the face values raised to "tausends" and "millionen" marks by means of bold overprints in figures and words. To quote further:

"Upwards of 40 different varieties of these emergency stamps were produced during September and October, the majority being already obsolete owing to the continued rise in the rates of postage. In some cases the supply of provisional stamps was insufficient to meet the public demands, and for a time letters were dispatched under a 'post paid' frank. Plain type-set labels locally printed on colored papers were also employed by certain post offices, in the absence of regular stamps, bearing the inscription 'Gebuhr bezahlt, Taxe percue' and varying values in thousands of marks."

Austrian Shilling

ANOTHER new coin which may leave

its impress on philately is the Austrian shilling, if it materializes. An Associated Press despatch from Vienna states that the minister of finance has informed the National Assembly that, subject to its approval, he would introduce a silver shilling coinage, this monetary unit to be equivalent to 10,000 of Austria's presentday kronen, and with other new coins to be equivalent to 5,000 and 20,000 kronen.

Airposts

WASHINGTON has been officially ad

vised from London that an agreement has been reached on the plan of the British Air Ministry for the organization of a new air service company which will absorb all of the principal companies now operating in England. A board of directors has been selected consisting of two representatives of the Air Ministry, two representatives of the banking interests concerned, and one representative of each of four airway lines. Consolidation of the four lines is expected to be completed by March 31, and the new company will operate the following routes: LondonParis-Zurich; London-Brussels-Copenhagen-Prague ; Manchester-London-Amsterdam-Hamburg-Berlin. Later it is planned to extend the British airways to the principal points in central Europe and to establish the much-discussed London-Constantinople-India service.

In the Colombian Republic, the Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aeros, generally known as the "Scadta," and which has been responsible for some of the semi-official issues of airpost adhesives, is planning additional facilities for the Girardot-Branquilla portion of its system, and the Department of Commerce at

Washington has been advised that the anmail charges will be reduced. The company has been operattng for about three

years.

Dates

HE pictorial series of Iraq is being utilized by the Association of Date Importers, New York, to get some free publicity for the Association of Date Importers. Values, designs and colors are set down in a broadcast news story which states that the stamps were issued "to commemorate the freedom of the Land of the Date, which is now free after centuries of foreign rule." It is a good publicity stunt, but the story carries the misinformation that "so far as is known these are the first stamps ever to be designed by women." It contains also this paragraph:

"Some denominations are already out of print. The issue of 12 annas has been exhausted, while of the 2 rupees only a few are left."

Other trade and industrial associations could, effectively, borrow on stamp designs for the preparation of publicity "copy" for the newspapers. The field is virtually unlimited and the Association of Date Importers is one of the first organizations to undertake to cultivate it.

Vol 4. No. 12

Issue No. 48

U

A

USTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH: According to the Australian stamp journals the recent alteration of the 1⁄2d stamp from green to orange is to be followed by color changes in other values of the current series. The Australian Philatelist says:

"As we are going to press we learnfrom an official source-of a re-shuffle of stamp colors :-1⁄2d will remain the new color, orange; ld will be green; 11⁄2d will be red; 2d will be warm plum; 3d will be dark blue and the "Kangaroo" design changed to King's Head, like the 2d, 1d, 11⁄2d, 2d, and 4d; 4d will be bistre; 6d will be brown; 2sh will be madder; 20sh will be gray. There will be no change for the present in the 9d, 1sh, 1sh 4d, 5sh, 10sh, and 40sh. The 21⁄2d and 5d will no longer be printed. There will be a new value, 41⁄2d violet, and this will also be embossed on registration envelopes.

"Although the matter has not yet been decided, it is likely that the 'Kangaroo' stamps will be replaced by the King's Head. It has, however, been decided that the new color stamps will not be available until the stock of the current ones is exhausted."

BULGARIA: In the summer of 1921

this country issued a handsome set of pictorial stamps, which included 50s orange, 75s violet and 1 1 carmine. Very shortly after the stamps appeared there were rumors of impending changes in colors. Early in 1922 the 1 1 appeared in blue, to be followed, in a very short time, by the 50s in the same color. Certain European journals announced the 75s in that color also. It is possible that the stamp was printed in blue at that time but it did not reach the stamp trade until quite recently. Now we have the unusual condition of three stamps in an issue being printed in the same color and in practically the same shade. It would be interesting to know why this has been done. It must be troublesome for the clerks in the post offices.

CHIN

HINA: We have, at last, obtained some copies of the dollar values of the current postal issue and find, as we expected, that the design has been re-engraved. We will point out a few changes by which the stamps of the altered design may readily be distinguished from their predecessors. The curved line under the Chinese inscription at the top is single instead of double. At each side of the picture are four vertical lines; the inner one is thick, then a pair of thinner lines, and, lastly, the outer frame line. In the preceding issue these lines formed groups; three medium, four thin, and the thick frame line. At each side and slightly in front of the temple is a tree with bare branches. These trees formerly stood further back, were smaller and had foliage. These features will serve to distinguish the new stamps, but the designs have been altered in many other particulars. The

FAR

of our contemporaries report an issue of four stamps surcharged with an aeroplane, "Vladivostok" (in Russian), "1923" and "20 kop." The stamps thus surcharged are the 15, 20 and 50 kopeks of Russia, the particular issue not being stated, and the 35k on 2k green of Siberia, 1919, (No. 1).

These stamps are not intended for or restricted to the air post service but may be used to pay postage on ordinary letters at their original value. The 20 kopeks surtax is intended to form a fund for the construction of a fleet of aeroplanes. It is not stated that these aeroplanes are for use in the postal service and we doubt that such is the intent. The surtax is not for charity but merely to raise money and, to some extent, for advertising. The stamps add nothing to the postal facilities of the country. They present a conspicuous example of an issue that is useless and unnecessary. We feel that catalogue space may well be saved by its omission. It is true that these stamps pay postage but only to the amounts originally indicated on them. The surcharge does not in the least affect their postal value or use. We cannot see any reason for their being collected by those who are interested in postage stamps. It might be said that the surcharge is in a class with the "slogan" cancellations, except that the surcharge has to be paid for and the cancellations do not.

GERMANY; In the last few months we

have listed very many German stamps surcharged with new values and others of the so-called "permanent" type. Many of

OC

these have been of fantastic denominations. We regret that some errors curred in our December chronicle, where we reported, among others, six surcharges on stamps of type A 26, giving the original values of the stamps as in marks, whereas they were in pfennigs. We also reported a surcharge of 100,000 m on 300 m bluish green, instead of on 400 m. We regret these blunders but think they will not have caused trouble to our readers, since none of the stamps could have been mistaken for anything else, and collectors who had them would readily recognize where we had gone astray.

We have notes of about fifteen provisionals that have been chronicled in European stamp journals but which we have not seen and have refrained from listing because we are doubtful that they exist. Two or three of them may be of private origin; the others are probably due to errors in description.

Shortly before the stamps with value in gold pfennigs were issued, the postal rates were suddenly quadrupled and the stamps then in the post offices were sold at four times their face values. These changes were made over night and without warning, in order to prevent spceulation and conserve the stocks of stamps. By this change the rate for a domestic letter became 80 billion marks and for a foreign letter 320 billion marks. The different journals assign various dates to this change but we believe it was made on November 26th.

The new gold currency is based on the dollar, which the German government decrees is worth 420 gold pfennigs or 4,200,000,000,000 paper marks but, at latest reports, a dollar would purchase about 8 trillion paper marks on the "black bourse" or abroad. It will be noticed (see illustration in the chronicle) that the new rentenpfennig stamps bear a large numeral but no words indicating the value. This has been the rule in Germany from 1900 to the present time.

HONG KONG: Some months ago it

was announced that a set of Postage Due stamps was being prepared for this British colony. If our memory is not at fault, the design was described as representing a letter being weighed in a scale.

Specimen copies have now reached the Bureau of the Universal Postal Union at Berne, though we do not understand that the stamps are yet in use at Hong Kong. The stamps are said to have a picture of a mail wagon. They are printed on paper with the Script watermark and the values and colors are given as: 1c brown, 2c green, 4c red, 6c yellow and 10c ultramarine. We shall make a formal chronicle when we know that the stamps are actually in use.

ITALY: The issue in commemoration of

the fiftieth anniversary of the death (May 22nd, 1873) of the Italian poet and novelist Manzoni is expected to appear at

wreath enclosing a rising sun. In the angles of the cross are the letters "L.K. I.S.", the initials of "Latwijas Kars Invalidu Savieniba", or Latvian Society of War Invalids. This is the membership badge of the Society, which was founded in 1917 and has about 4,500 members. Below the cross are "Kara-Invalidien— S 10 S" i. e., War Invalids, 10 santimi. Each stamp is sold for its face value plus 10 santimi. The original value is available for postage and the 10 santimi goes to the charitable society. The stamps were issued on November 10th and 200,000 sets have been printed. Their currency is limited to one year.

will have a portrait of Manzoni; the 2 lire will show his home at Milan; and the other values will depict scenes in his celebrated novel I Promessi Sposi.

L'Echo de la Timbrologie is informed that official stamps are soon to be issued for the use of government departments and certain societies that have been granted the postal franchise.

As there is little use for the 85 centesimi stamp it is to be surcharged 71⁄2c, a value that will be needed for a book post rate that is to go into effect on January 1st. Among the Italian stamps overprinted for use in Corfu was a 60c blue, a stamp not known among Italian postal issues. This stamp was printed some time ago for use on foreign letters but a change in the postal tariff made it unnecessary and it was never put in issue. It is now proposed to utilize the large stock of this stamp by surcharging it with some other value.

UGO SLAVIA: We chronicle a new charity stamp, made by overprinting

chronicle stamps of the regular and official series of 1918-20 which have not the Turkish word "Reshad" at the right of the Toughra. It will be remembered that the Turkish stamps of 1913 were printed by Messrs. Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. of London. In 1920 that firm prepared a new issue from the designs of 1913, most of which had been slightly altered. Nearly all of them were printed in new colors.

The Mesopotamian issue of 1918-10 was made by surcharging the Turkish stamps of 1913 "“Iraq-in British-Occupation" and new values. At a later date a new supply of the 1 rupee on 10 piastres red brown was requisitioned and for that printing the plate for the Turkish stamp of 1920 was used. We do not know if this was done by accident or intent but, at any rate, it is responsible for the varieties which we now chronicle. An interesting note about the Turkish stamps of 1913-20 will be found under the heading "Turkey" in this number.

[AURU: When the stamps for this British colony appeared in 1916 the values from 1⁄2 penny to 1 shilling had the overprint "NAURU" at the foot of the stamps and measuring 1234 mm. wide. A few months ago the 11⁄2d red brown was added to the series and it was then remarked that the overprint was placed higher, so that it was almost at the middle of the stamp, and was slightly wider, measuring 13 mm. Subsequently the 2d, 1d and 2d appeared with the new overprint. Of course, we chronicled the 11⁄2d, as that was a new demonstration among the pos