Stamps - The Printers Victim

( Originally Published 1893 )

SURCHARGES seem to have been fully discussed of late in our philatelic journals. Some uphold them—the whole business—for what, I cannot say. It requires an expert to distinguish the genuine from a counterfeit, with enough of a degree of surety to feel confident enough to place it in his album. Few ordinary collectors are able to do this, though one writer says that any collector can tell enough to rely upon. We tell counterfeits by comparison with 'originals. What originals have we with which to compare the overprints except those which to begin with are very uncertain themselves ? And when it is in a very few cases possible to do so, and they do not compare, how many times is the varying specimen called a new " variety," and hailed with delight by the surcharge fiend ?

Another writer upholds them and considers all points excepting the point—the one -which is to blame for it all. I refer to the speculative issues, especially of the French colonies.

The similarity borne by a collection of surcharged stamps to a type-founder's catalogue is appalling.

And then remember the Peruvian eyesores---those geometrical demonstrations on stamps.