The Case of the One-Penny Orange: A Masao Masuto Mystery (Book Two) by Howard Fast Page B

dollars for a Rolls-Royce? To have what few others have. Now I do not denigrate the collector. He is the lifeblood of our business. But there it is. And secondly — well, a stamp accumulates a mythology, thieves who try to steal it, kings and oil barons who vie for it, murderers who kill for it.”
    â€œMurderers?”
    â€œI thought that would interest you, Sergeant. There’s a whole history of murders to gain possession of stamps, but I am afraid I don’t have time to go into that today. Tell me — why does this One-Penny Mauritius interest you?
    â€œI have my reasons. Could you tell me something about it?”
    â€œWell, just off the top of my head without going to the books: orange, you know, color of the ink. Shows the head of the young Queen Victoria. Engraved copper by J. Barnard — rather a skilled engraver for such an out-of-the-way place. He was a watchmaker. This was his first attempt at stamps. You know, Mauritius is a bit of an island in the Indian Ocean. Curiously, it was the first British colony to print its own stamps. It was engraved and printed in Port Louis, largest town in Mauritius, and when Barnard engraved it he made a bit of an error. Errors — they make stamps valuable, indeed they do. Instead of putting post paid in his engraving, Barnard put post office there. Corrected it the following year, but the deed was done. Imperforate, as I said. They had no perforating machine on the island then, so the stamp had to be cut by hand. And lo, it was born — the One-Penny Orange 1847 Mauritius.”
    â€œDo you have one that I could look at?” Masuto asked.
    â€œDo I have one? My dear Sergeant, if I had one — if I had one — well, I wouldn’t have it. There are only fourteen recorded copies of the One-Penny Orange in the whole world. I’d sell it to Clevendon down in Texas for a king’s ransom.”
    â€œClevendon?”
    â€œA very wealthy Texan who is one of the great collectors.”
    â€œTell me, Mr. Holmbey, how many of these stamps are there?”
    â€œIn the world?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œRecorded — fourteen. Unrecorded — who knows? Every now and then, one of them turns up. I suppose that originally they printed several hundred at least. I would have to look that up. I do know that the original plate still exists. You know, it wasn’t until May 6, 1840, that Great Britain printed its first stamps. With us, it was even later, and it was not until twenty years later that anyone ever dreamed of collecting stamps in an album. What a pity, so much was destroyed and discarded. But one happy thing did come about. It almost immediately became quite fashionable to paper walls, screens, candy boxes with canceled stamps, and this did save many valuable issues.”
    â€œMay I ask you who owns the One-Penny Orange?”
    â€œAh, indeed you may. In the world — well, I can name eight collectors who have it. Undoubtedly, there are others I do not know about.”
    â€œAnd in the United States?”
    â€œTwo. The Weill brothers in New Orleans own a cover with two penny stamps on it.”
    â€œAnd if you had it, what would you charge for it?”
    â€œThat depends. The last time I looked at the price in Gibbons — that’s the British catalog — well, it was some years ago. It might have been the 1972 catalog. They had it for twenty-two thousand pounds. What was the pound then — two-sixty? Something of the sort. Well, I might put it up at auction with a base price of sixty thousand.”
    â€œYou said …” Masuto began.
    â€œAh, you want it simple. It is not simple. You see, it depends on the stamp. If the stamp is on an original cover — well, then the sky is the limit. I think only five exist.”
    â€œCover?”
    â€œEnvelope, in your terms. But in those days, Sergeant Masuto, they had no envelopes. They folded a sheet of paper and sealed it with wax.