Stamp mill

“ Copeland, "your sister is right, in a sense, as under this act the Post-office Department will buy its stamps wholesale from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, at a nominal price per thousand, without reference to their face value. I think you also are mistaken, Parson, as the public will doubtless be as free to inspect the manufacture of stamps as they now are to see the process of bank-note-making. When the stamp-printing plant is established, there should be a great deal in it to interest you youngsters. ”

“ Sir Charles truly observed that with this new plan all the old dies, old presses, and old workmen could be employed. Among the other advantages it presented to the Government, it did not fail to strike Sir Charles that no Superintendent of Stamps would now be necessary,—a recommendation which the perforated die did not possess. The Stamp Office therefore abandoned the ingenuous and ingenious inventor. The old stamps were called in, and the new ones issued in a few weeks; the revenue from stamps grew enormously, and forged or feloniously used stamps are now almost unheard of. ”

“ This form of collecting was "hobbyhorsical" in the extreme; it recognised no other objects than the attainment of numbers, or the production of a new form of wall-paper, using the old stamps as the tesseræ of a mosaic. At these times collecting was probably considered a test of the bona fides of philanthropic appellants, for we trace to the earliest decade of stamp issuing the popular notion that the accumulated treasure of a million of old stamps will provide an "open sesame" for an orphan into a home, or that in old age one may find a haven of rest in an asylum. ”

“ Lithography, it should be added, is only suitable in cases where comparatively few copies are needed, or where a temporary issue must be printed expeditiously. It is a process which demands but little capital outlay, a fact which has made it a favourite means of stamp-producing among the poorer republics of South America. With forgers, too, it has gained favour in their work of imitating genuine stamps.
Engraving, known variously under the name of copper-plate printing, engraving in taille-douce, and line-engraving, produces the finest stamps figuring in our collections. ”

“ Looking the other day in the advertisement pages of a monthly magazine, we counted no fewer than sixty different dealers in postage-stamps there advertising their wares. Twelve months ago, there was no regular mart in London at which foreign stamps might be bought; now there are a dozen regular dealers in the metropolis, who are doing a profitable trade. About a year ago, we witnessed the establishment of a monthly organ [Pg 266] for the trade in the Stamp-collector's Magazine; at this present moment there are no less than ten such publications in existence in the United Kingdom. ”

“ The wholesaler sells to the retail dealer at a small advance per thousand. Those stamps the ordinary dealer makes up into packets at a further profit, but still at a comparatively low price. Good copies he picks out for sale in sets and separately. Those have to be catalogued. Therefore, the catalogue price of common stamps bought and sold by the million eventually comes before the general collector at "one penny each," and the man who makes a collection of common stamps of the "one penny each" class can scarcely be expected to realise a fortune out of his stamp collecting. ”

“ EXTRACT FROM SECOND REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND REVENUE, ON THE INLAND REVENUE. (Dated 12th of May, 1858.)
Under the head “Stamp Duties.”
“The efficiency of our stamping department continues to be maintained, and to keep pace with the demands of the public, through the watchfulness and inventive ingenuity of Mr. Edwin Hill. [540] His most recent addition to our machinery, a contrivance for fixing the blue paper and metal guard on parchment, is a substitute for two operations in different departments, and the labour of three men. This small improvement effects a saving of £300 a-year.” ”

“ A thought has just occurred to me, however. While you promise that no other hardware man shall have the Garter stamps, can you promise that no other trading stamp concern will offer stamps to any other hardware man in Farmdale? ”

“ In the case at hand, we find the demand for stamps so deep-seated and secure that it literally stretches from the cradle to the grave. From the business transacted by government agencies and the multitude of dealers in philatelic merchandise, authorities have estimated that five out of every hundred people, both here and abroad, are stamp collectors. Such a computation means, that in the United States alone, well over 5,000,000 people pursue this hobby. ”

“ Up to this day, after over forty years of public service, and notwithstanding the improvements in the production of impressed and embossed stamps, the adhesive stamp remains indispensable to our postal, inland revenue, telegraphic, and parcel-post systems—"Eighteen hundred millions are issued yearly from the office of the Controller of stamps. These range in value from a halfpenny to twenty pounds, covering postage and inland revenue from a halfpenny to two shillings and sixpence; postage proper from five shillings to five pounds ”

“ In those mills making the finest grades of paper, much of the process of thrashing, beating, dusting, and cleaning necessary in the ordinary mill is omitted. The cleanliness and brightness which are reached only at the "washer" and "beater" engines in the process of manufacturing the lower grades of paper from cheaper rags, prevail at every step in these higher grade mills. ”

“ Individuals, however, are not the only forgers of postage-stamps: Governments, too, in their anxiety to provide so-called "reprints" for sale to dealers and collectors, have not hesitated to supply the necessary dies and plates, replacing those originally used and long since cancelled; and some have sunk so low as to deliberately manufacture counterfeits, and sell them as genuine stamps out of a supposed stock left on hand!
A reprint is an impression from the old original die, plate, or stone, taken after the stamp has become{257} obsolete ”

“ Whether it would be advisable for our own post-office to go into the [pg 040] manufacture of envelopes, may be doubtful. Probably it will be judged that the Label Stamps would afford all needed convenience, so far as the government is concerned, and the rest would be left to private enterprise. From the returns of the actual expense of manufacturing envelopes, £359 per million—about a mill and three quarters apiece, it will be seen that there is yet room for individual competition among us, to bring down the current price to the rate of only a reasonable profit. ”

“ In this way stamps could be used a second and third time; and by thus utilizing the expensive stamps on old deeds of partnerships that were dissolved, or leases that were expired, the public revenue lost thousands of pounds every year. Sir Charles Persley, of the Stamp Office, told Sir Henry Bessemer that the Government were probably defrauded of £100,000 per annum in that way. The young inventor at once set to work, for the express purpose of devising a stamp that could not be used twice. ”

“ The possibility of this has resulted from the desire of the authorities to print the majority of colonial stamps, available for postal or fiscal purposes, in two colours—one being distinctive of the particular value, and the other a purple or green, very susceptible to any attempt to remove an obliteration or cancellation, whether by the Post Office or by a member of the public: by the latter, in writing-ink.
The modus operandi is ingenious—a stamp is selected, of which nearly the whole design is, say, in green, the name and (low) value being in some distinctive colour ”

“ When stamps are printed by the million, used supplies will be available for no one knows how long; but in the case of unused, when a new issue is made, the obsolete stamp is on the road to an advance in value. It is true dealers stock large quantities of all stamps, but there are so many countries to be stocked now that no dealer can afford to hoard unused to any great extent, and even if he did, the dead capital would be an item which would compel him to advance the price of unused to protect himself from loss. Let us say a stamp becomes obsolete this year, and a dealer buys £100 worth. ”

“ But here is an issue from fifty to sixty years old; the stamps were regularly used in increasing numbers during their years of issue; they have always been popular and eagerly collected, so that the stock in existence has been pretty well handled and pretty well distributed. Under these conditions the catalog prices should by this time reflect fairly accurately the relative rarity of the main varieties of each stamp at least; and it is this relative rarity that we are after in order to approximate the original supplies of the main varieties. ”

“ The "mania" in the 'sixties—Some wonderful early collections—The first auction sale—Judge Philbrick and his collection—The Image collection—Lord Crawford's "United States" and "Great Britain"—Other great modern collections—M. la Rénotière's "legions of stamps"—Synopsis of sales of collections.
To fail to emphasise the broadly democratic character of the world of stamp collectors would be to overlook an important aspect of the popularity of this science, or, as it is to the majority, the "hobby" of stamps. ”

“ Among the various modes of disposing of postage-stamps, they are sometimes made the object of a raffle. A number of individuals will subscribe, say a shilling each, for the chance of obtaining possession of a collection of stamps of two or more hundreds in extent. Stamp merchants keep their depots all over the country; many of them entirely subsisting by this novel traffic. In London alone there exist at least a dozen regular dealers in stamps ”

“ The competition between merchants has extended to their methods of sampling, and no important dealer today is without a well arranged Catalog and price list, giving complete data as to the standard sizes, weights, and grades, etc., and also substantial sample cabinets, which are distributed to paper buyers.
A comparatively recent development in the paper business, is the exploitation of “mill brands.” That is to say, a mill manufactures and stocks in the most merchantable sizes, a grade of paper. ”

“ Our youth were reminded of the wise saws and sayings of "Poor Richard" and it taught them that if they learned to save the cents, the dollars were more likely to take care of themselves. But now think of the miserable, confused looking thing, with its wretched printing, that the Post Office has given us for the present three cent stamp. It is neither historical, national, beautiful, nor anything but a paltry evidence of the fact, that some engraver has got paid or will get paid for a job that ought never to have been done. Can our authorities not let well enough alone? ”

“ To this day a successful forger has to employ a skilful [Pg 267] die-sinker to make a good imitation in steel of the document he wishes to forge; but if such a method as that discovered and described by Sir Henry Bessemer were known, what a prospect it would open up! Appalled at the effect which the communication of such a process would have had upon the business of the Stamp Office, he carefully kept the knowledge of it to himself; and to this day it remains a profound secret. ”

“ No, for well over a half-century has gone into its making.
¶ This hobby was almost as firmly established before the dawn of the gas-lit nineties as it is today. Its vast army of adherents prove that stamp collecting is no fad, no fleeting joy-of-the-moment, but that it can be rightfully called the universal hobby.
¶ Placed squarely against the problem of demand is the question of supply. It is, of course, simple economics to understand that when the demand for something is greater than the supply, the value rises accordingly. ”

“ We cannot encourage 'exchanging foreign stamps,' for we do not see the smallest good resulting from it. This foreign stamp-collecting has been a mania, which is at length dying out. Were the stamps works of art, then the collecting them might be justified. Were they, in short, anything but bits of defaced printing, totally worthless, we would try to say something in their favour. ”

“ Nevertheless, many a stamp collector who is not devoid of art can find stamps which seem to him to be entitled to rank high even in the art world. In beauty of design, in the exquisite workmanship of the best modern steel engraving, aided by the most delicate machinery, and in unequalled printing, there are many gems within the very limited space of a postage stamp that excite and deserve, and not unfrequently win, the admiration of the most exacting critics. ”

“ Stamps, while they do duty for coin, are used almost exclusively for small transactions, and generally among people well known to each other. Other precautions are nevertheless very necessary; and besides the initial letters on each stamp—different in every one of the two hundred and forty in the sheet—which are regarded as so many checks on the forger, this pest to society would have to engrave his own die, and cast his own blocks, and find a drilling-machine, perhaps the most difficult undertaking of all. ”

“ In Boston there are above thirty millions of newspapers printed yearly. The stamps on all these, if paid in advance by the publisher, would come to $150,000. I do not suppose the Post-office Department realizes from all the Boston papers one hundred thousand dollars. The cost of stamping, even in the British mode, would be less than a quarter of a mill per sheet. And Yankee ingenuity would soon devise some labor-saving plan, to reduce the cost of stamping to ten cents per thousand, or one-tenth of a mill per sheet. ”