Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1911 — HAWAIIAN STAMP AT $5,000 [ARTICLE]

HAWAIIAN STAMP AT $5,000

Boston Enthusiast Claims Increased Interest Among Philatelists— Trip Well Spent. Boston.—A trip to Hawaii for the express purpose of studying the postage stamps of the island, with the consequent purchase of two of the rarest stamps of that sort in existence has Just been completed by Warren H. Colson of Boston, who, with the true collector’s enthusiasm, considers the trip well spent by the single acquisition of the two bits of crudely printed blue paper that sold half a century ago for five cents each and that are now valued at $1,200 apiece: That stamp collecting is to receive a great impetus in popularity among grown men once more is the belief of Mr. Colson, who points out the fact that King George V. Is a devoted philatelist aud gave up his position as president of the Royal Philatelic Society of London only when his accession to the throne made this procedure necessary. Mr. Colson has himself become one of the best-known collectors and connoisseurs in the world of philatelists, and so he is averse to the impression that his trip to Hawaii for atudy In hia chosen field should be confused by nonphilatellsta with the stamp collecting that every schoolboy Indulges in at one time or another. \ For example, he has gathered material during his four months’ journey for a monograph on Hawaiian stamp# from the time pf the earliest missionaries through the provisional government to the present day. As for the two rare stamps he acquired, they are known among philatelists as "the Hawaii flve<ceat blue, 1861-62 " of the missionary issue. They were printed by Henry M. Whitney, the firm postmaster at Honolulu, and the son of Samuel Whitney, one of the early missionaries sent out by the board of American missions in 1819. To the average person these stamps look like ordinarily poor examples of Printing, though their association with

the early days of Irregular mails by the first missionary families and occasional whalers give added interest. Still, to the philatelist their very crudity in printing and spacing makes them more precious. Each one of the first sets has been identified and its minute differences from its fellows ticketed as in the case of early books and prints. If the difference between the original five-cent value of this stamp and the present-day valuation of $1,200 seems startling to the nonphilatelist, there is another sort of Hawaiian stamp that presents an even greater rise. This stamp, which was seen by Ibv Colson In studying the exhibits at the Bishop museum in Hawaii, Is of only a two-cent denomination, but It brings today about $5,000.