National Collections.—The great collections founded by early collectors are all dispersed, except the important one which was the late T. K. Tapling's bequest to the British Museum. It is nearly complete up to 1890 in adhesive stamps and postal sta tionery. Only the adhesives are fully exhibited in the king's library at the museum, in cases with glazed, vertical slides, protected against deterioration from light and dust. Among the greatest rarities are : the full set and duplicates (12 in all) of the Ha waiian islands, Oct. 1, 1851, including the two types of the 2 cent ones, the second type being one of three copies known; British Guiana, 1851, 2 cent on rose used, 1856, 4 cent on dark blue (four copies) ; Mauritius, 1847, so-called post-office stamps, id. orange-red used on the original letter, 2d. blue unused, and an original document, being the engraver's esti mate for making these stamps ; Canada, i2d. black, an unused pair, and single copies, one used, one unused; Cape of Good Hope, id. and 2d., "wood-block" errors of colour; Ceylon, 4d. rose, imperforate; Moldavia, 17 copies of the first issue, including four of the 81 paroles; Nevis, 1867, Is. green on laid paper; India, 4 annas inverted frame ; Western Australia, 4d. inverted swan. Great Britain occupies 55 slides of 220 large cards; the United States, 40 slides, including postmasters' stamps of Baltimore, Brattle boro, New Haven, St. Louis (io copies), New York, and in the general issues all three values of the inverted centres of 1869 issue.
The Berlin postal museum contains an extensive collection with many rare items, including first issues of Mauritius, Hawaii and other celebrated rarities, but is especially strong in stamps, and documents relating thereto, of the old German States. Among its greatest rarities is one of three known copies of the 9 kreut zer Baden printed in black on green, instead of rose-coloured, paper. The Swedish Postal museum at Stockholm has an impor tant collection, greatly extended by the generosity of Hans Lager loef of New York, who in 1927 added the two denominations of the "post-office" Mauritius. A great collection of Dutch stamps forms the basis of a postal museum collection at The Hague. The U.S. national stamp collection, in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, contains a fine historical collection of U.S. stamps, and representative collections of stamps of all countries. The New York public library acquired in 1924 a very complete collection of U.S. stamps collected by B. K. Miller, of Milwaukee. Other important public collections are installed at Dublin (Science and Art museum), Manchester (Whitworth Institute), Calcutta (Vic toria Memorial Hall) Sydney, N.S.W. (Mitchell library), etc.
marine and Li green, and "Board of Education" is. green and carmine, in singles and in pairs. Of every colony the royal col lection is practically complete; Mauritius, with the two "post office" stamps, id. used, and 2d. unused (the latter the finest copy known), is especially rich in rarities; British Guiana lacks only the 2 cents, 1850, and the I cent, 1856. The Barbados, Nevis, Hong Kong, Grenada, Bermuda, Trinidad, Turks islands and other portions of the King's collections have been shown at exhi bitions or meetings.
The greatest private collection ever formed was that of Philippe la Renotiere von Ferrari, who died at Lausanne in 1917. The greater part of his collection was in Paris and was sequestrated by the French Government, and sold by auction in 1922-25. In 14 sales, covering 39 days, the stamps realized 26,482,964 francs or 402,965, calculated at the rate of exchange prevailing at the different periods of the sales. Many record prices were obtained for great rarities, among them :—British Guiana, 1856, I cent (unique), 17,343 ; 185o, 2 cents, pair £5,250; Hawaiian islands, 1851, 2 cents, £3,900; Mauritius, 1847, 2d., £2,338, id., £2,090; Baden, 9 kreutzer green (error) £1,816; France, 1849, 15 cents, tete-beche pair £837, I franc (Vervelle) tete-beche in a block of four, £2,706; United States postmasters' stamps : Boscawen, 1846, 5 cent (unique), £2,625, Lockport, 1846, 5 cent (unique), £1,875.
The most valuable collection of modern times was that of Ar thur Hind of Utica, N.Y., who acquired a large proportion of the famous gems from the Ferrari sales, and has made extensive purchases in other directions ; e.g., Duveen collection of Mauritius. Griebert collection of Spain. He was the owner of the most cele brated stamps of which only single specimens are known ; viz., British Guiana, 1 cent magenta, the Boscawen and Lockport postmasters' stamps; and in addition to two perfect unused "post office" Mauritius (Duveen collection) he paid the record sum of LI I ,000 for an envelope on which the id. and 2d. "post-office stamps" had been used together to prepay a 3d. rate of postage.
Organizations.—Philatelic societies are to be found in the chief cities of most countries. The Royal Philatelic Society, Lon don, founded in 1869, was granted the prefix "Royal" by Edward VII. in 1906. The Junior Philatelic Society, founded in 1899, in augurated a widespread movement which has extended through out the world, assisting the beginner and medium collector; it organized the international philatelic exhibitions of London in 1912 and 1923. Between 7o and 8o societies in Britain and the colonies are affiliated in the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, which meets annually. America has its similar institutions headed by the Collectors' club (New York), with flourishing societies in cities from Boston to San Francisco. The American Philatelic Society is a national body holding an annual convention ; the As sociation for Stamp Exhibitions, Inc., organized the New York international exhibitions of 1913 and 1926.