Treasure Trove

The classic stories of the fabulous stamps of philatelyhave been told so many times that to recount them herewould be repetitious and boring. The Post Office "Mauri-tius," the Hawaiian "Missionaries," the "24-cent invertedairmail," the "Hawker," the "Pinedo" and all of theothers have become legendary and are as much a part ofstamp collecting as are stamps themselves. The storiesof the creation or discovery of these great rarities arefascinating but to our present generation they are rather"corny." All of them occurred many years ago and, whileit is true that they could happen again, such a possibilityis rather farfetched. Surely every stamp collector shouldknow about such stamps; in fact he will have difficulty innot hearing these classics extolled. But if we pin ourhopes on finding the greatest treasures only, we will al-most certainly be courting disappointment.