Tonga "Should Learn A Lesson"

By a Staff Correspondent

As a private stamp collector I too had heard nothing of Tonga’s r to release its overprinted stamps until I read in a Sydney newspaper London report of the overprint error several days after the event, once I knew the stamps were released I soon obtained a set for •If —through the simple expedient of answering an advertisement in I’s” classified section.

March issue carried an ad rtisement from August Hettig, lofa photographer and trader, g that he had sets for sale. are a long-established, much ed firm, and a wire to them t a set to my desk at a price igher than the face value of mps. I was very pleased with rchase, but I know now I was loned in Sydney Mr. Hunter , managing director of stamp leers H. R. Harmer (Aust.) nd asked him if he felt the for the Tongan overprint sets en cornered. , I don’t,” he said. “There not enough stamps printed, all. Some sets got through to lia and sets certainly got h to English dealers, because I heady received advertisements .xmdon offering sets for about erling. Dealers rushed the issue e it was in such short supply ey knew this would make the scarce and therefore more le.”

Not Worth 50/- Mcßae said Australian prices likely to fluctuate, but he t Australian dealers would ly offer 60/- Australian for mint condition, and retail buy ice would probably be about The stamps certainly weren’t 50/- each. ther leading stamp authority, E a collector of Tongan stamps, 2 had been unable to obtain a it he “had hopes”, tiga should learn from this,” he ‘lB,OOO sets were a drop in the , There is such a huge demand )ngan stamps that the Tongan

Government could have printed millions. Tonga is one of the few countries which doesn’t seem in terested in cashing in on philatelic interest. But it should look at the philatelic business more closely. It’s losing a good income by ignoring it.

The Kingdom gets no thanks for short issues.”

Both authorities said it was not un usual for a country to give short ad vance notice of new stamp issues.

Tongan stamps weren’t the only Islands stamps fetching big prices in March.

A heavily-postmarked West Samoan stamp of 1914 sold for a world record price of £525 at a Sydney stamp auction. It was the highest price paid in Australia for a single stamp.

The Samoan stamp has a carmine background and a picture of the Kaiser’s yacht. It was printed by the Germans when the Territory was their’s. When the NZ forces took possession in 1914 the stamp was overprinted for British use with the words “G.R.I. 1 shilling”. It was postmarked September 23, 1914, in Apia.

The stamp that fetched the record price was at one time owned by an Australian who got it from a German sea captain in Samoa in 1914.

According to Mr. Hunter Mcßae, whose firm auctioned the stamp, its interest was in the fact that the over print said “shilling” instead of “shillings”. Several denominations had been overprinted, but only the one sheet was known to use the word “shilling”.

Mr. Mcßae estimated that the more common stamps bearing the correct overprint are worth about £AIOO each in top condition.