Published Monthly by SCOTT STAMP & COIN Co., 33 West 44th St., New York City, N. Y. KENT B. STILES, Associate Editor HUGH M. CLARK, Manager

JOHN N. LUFF, Editor

Vol. 5. No. 1

NEW YORK, MARCH. 1924

Issue No. 49

The issue number with which your subscription will expire is shown at left of address on envelope

B

The Month

By John N. Luff

ELGIUM: Le Philateliste Belge reports the discovery of a copy of the 10 centimes of the Olympic Games issue of 1920, which had been surcharged for regular postage in 1921, but on this copy the surcharge "20c x 20c" had been printed on the back instead of the face of the stamp. The stamp was cancelled at Namur in May, 1921. It was found by a collector in a lot of stamps of no value.

at home-they are going to. Each province
has a Head Post Office, with a Commis-
sioner in charge, and these surcharges are
made at such Head Offices. Banditry is
so general in most parts of China at
present that this is used as a method for
protecting the higher values of stamps.
They are only good in the office for which
surcharged. There's a chance for a new
collecting fad. It would take quite a
number of dollars to get a complete set.
There are eight or ten, or
'hsiens' in this province alone."

more such

From this it would appear that the overprinted Chinese stamps are akin to the early stamps of Mexico overprinted with district names, which are SO much esteemed by specialists. One reason for the Mexican overprints was to render stolen stamps valueless, since they could be used only at the offices for which they were overprinted and there would be no buyers for them elsewhere.

been applied, also where and how the DANZIG: We have received a used

stamps are to be used.

"Before mailing this letter it occurs to me to mention some information I got from the Postal Commissioner here some time ago.

"I remember seeing in some issue of your Monthly Journal during the past year that someone had discovered some of the higher values of the present issue of Chinese stamps somewhere in the northern provinces, with local surcharges.

I asked the Commissioner here about it, and he tells me that such is the rule in almost all provinces. The higher values which are sent out to the small cities and towns in each district are all locally surcharged with the name of whatever 'hsien' --which means about the same as township

copy of the 10 pfennig stamp of the promised permanent issue. In the centre is a shield bearing two Greek crosses surmounted by a crown. This is surrounded by a broad circular band inscribed "Freie Stadt-Danzig" in Old English text. All this is enclosed in a rectangle of solid color with the value in colorless numerals

in each corner. We anticipate that other values will appear at an early date and hope to give an illustrated chronicle next

month.

A curious error has been found in the latest issue of air post stamps. We have evidence that four values were prepared for this series and it is probable that it was originally intended to include others. Before the date of issue, changes in the