Stamp Department

In the preceding section we have had much to sayabout the stamp dealer. Now let us understand the stampdepartment of a great department store. Of course these,too, are stamp dealers and are just as much a part andparcel of the hobby as the stamp dealers we have beendiscussing. But under the able leadership of a man ofamazing insight the stamp department of a departmentstore fulfills its own special place in the world ofPhilately.

As we have seen, the hobby traces its origin back tothe period shortly after stamps were first issued to theadvertisement of the English lady who desired to accu-mulate enough "penny blacks" to paper her room. Ofcourse this was hardly stamp collecting as it is knowntoday. But within a few years after this inauspicious be-ginning the great stamp firm of Stanley Gibbons wasfounded in London and certainly by the 1870's the lateJohn W. Scott had established in this country the firm