Stolen Stamp Collection
(Big Reward)

Dealer Alert:
Stamp Collection Reported Stolen

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Like most stamp dealers, I'm busy with not enough hours in the day. So when the message was left on my answer phone, I hesitated calling back. I thought, "Should I pay to hear someone long-distance tell me about their stolen stamps?" The answer was no, but things were a little slow just then, and the message was intriguing to say the least.

"Call me, there's been a stamp robbery, and there is a $25 million reward." Now that message got my attention! It would be interesting to know about a collection whose reward alone placed it at the Ishikawa, Weill, and Royal collection levels. Wow, what a wonderful collection it must be!

So, I returned the call (I said it was slow just then) to Arizona. You might have been able to see a small smile on my face while I dialed. "Hello, I'm returning your call about the stolen stamps... can you give me some details?"

'Arizona' proceeded to tell me that he was 84 years old, a lawyer by trade, and from Canada. He lived on Vancouver Island, and his house had been broken into and his stamps were stolen. They were good stamps, he said, coming from his father who was a postmaster in Chicago, and his great grandfather, a postmaster in New Haven, Connecticut.

I don't know why it came out this way, but my first question was, "Who is paying the reward?" He hesitated and then said it was the insurance company. I asked for their name (so I could collect the reward if I caught the thieves) and was told that they had requested that their name, "remain confidential for the time being." 'Arizona' seemed a little uneasy with this line of questioning, so I asked about the stolen stamps.

Sheets of Columbians were missing. All of them, Scott #230-245, one cent to $5. Obviously, the Philatelic Foundation will have to update their records now that the existence of the $5 sheet is known. Up to this time the PF thought the Rosenthal block of 14 was the largest multiple. Then there are sheets of the $4, the $3, etc. to consider.

[ Missing text to be added soon - 6/17/99 ]
... be stolen. But, there's more. It can now be noted that, yes, there is a #706A, because now a plate block of this number is missing. Before I could ask any questions, I was startled to hear that this gentleman had lost another philatelic treasure: the unique Hamilton, Scott #1053, plate block with the bottom two stamps missing the $5 denomination. It is gone (we hope not lost forever).

At this point I couldn't stand it any longer, so I made the observation that, "Wasn't the 1053 a flat plate engraved stamp?" I guess I misunderstood the printing process for Hamiltons, because the response was that, "there were only two known." Oh.

We ended the conversation, with 'Arizona' promising to fax over the complete list so I could see the extent of his damages. I was left thinking that perhaps the hot Arizona sun had already affected the visitor from the northern climes, and observed that perhaps he had smoked some of those hot peppers rather than ate them.

As luck would have it, two days later it got quiet again, so I decided to find out what had happened to the faxed list of stolen stamps I was promised. I called again.

(For those of you who might wonder at this point about my sanity, I only pay 9¢ a minute for phone time 24 hours a day nationwide, and I thought there might be an interesting story here.)

The second time, the phone was answered by 'Junior.' He informed me that he was 60 years old, and that he didn't know anything about stamps. His father had just left for Mexico City on the corporate jet because his private investigator had said that some stamps had surfaced there.

'Junior' read out to me a very impressive list of stolen stamps so I could keep my eyes open for them. He said that his father had been a postal inspector in the army during World War I (I figured out that he was 4 years old at that time, so he must have been used to inspect the insides of mail bags). Junior also said that a couple of days earlier someone had called his father to talk about the stamps, and had questioned the veracity of his father's story. Junior said that he had heard it all, as he was on the extension phone. His father was very upset by this, I was informed.

I know you are waiting anxiously, so here it is. Please consider this to be an official DEALER ALERT. The following items are missing - $25 million reward:

Junior asked me to pass the word to the trade, and have us contact the authorities if we saw this material.

I said I would.

(Special Note: This article is quoted practically verbatim from what I heard!)


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