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It is not always necessary to issue special stamps toraise substantial funds. Very small countries, where theuse of the mail is negligible, have found that, by issuingattractive and numerous postage stamps, a very largesum of money will accrue to the treasury through saleto stamp collectors. Thus the Republic of San Marinohas for many years found one of its principal exportsto be postage stamps for collectors. Other nations havefound this to be a very lucrative source of revenue.
Many British colonies also benefit substantially fromthe sale of attractive postage stamps, a particular examplebeing Pitcairn Island. The 177 people living on this tinyisland possession of Great Britain did very well withoutpostage stamps until 1940. But suddenly the world be-came acutely conscious of this island through the bookand the moving picture Mutiny on the Bounty. The pos-sibilities of this situation were too good to be overlookedso a very attractive set of postage stamps were issuedpicturing Fletcher Christian, Captain Bligh, the "Bounty"and other characters who had captured the imagina-tion of the world. This set of stamps has found a placein millions of stamp albums and continues to be oftop-ranking popularity among collectors. No figures arereleased by the British Crown Agents on the amountsrealized from the sale of postage stamps, but we may |
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