ubject on which you would like to have information? Shall we talk about
the United States stamps? Or about the great rarities which are so
eagerly sought by the advanced collectors that they are willing to pay
from $100 to $2500 each for these interesting little bits of paper? Or
about the different stamps issued in the Confederate States during the
great civil war? Or about the different water-marks, perforations,
papers, etc., which will make two stamps which "look just alike" worth
in the one case two cents and in the other $50? Or about auctions of
rare stamps? Or any other subject? Let us hear from you, boys and girls.
This is your column, and it shall be made as interesting as possible. Do
you keep the back numbers, so that you can refer to them? If you do, it
will be possible to answer fully some questions which are asked
frequently by simply referring to some other number in the current
volume.

Several collectors ask how to distinguish the provisional stamps used in
Peru during the war in 1881-83 between Chili and Peru. Counting all the
different types of each stamp, there are over one hundred in all, and
their enumeration in the standard stamp catalogues covers three or four
pages. Collectors who make a specialty of Peruvian stamps make the
number much larger. In general, these stamps are simply the regular
Peruvian issue of 1874-79 with different surcharges. The victorious
Chilians printed their coat of arms on these stamps--sometimes alone,
and at other times the arms and a band in a horseshoe frame, with the
words "Union Postal Universal--Peru." The Peruvians used the same
horseshoe band as a surcharge, but without the Chilian arms. Another
Peruvian surcharge is the triangle with the word "Peru," and above it a
character intended to represent the sun. As almost all these surcharges
were printed by a hand-stamp, they are easily counterfeited, and
collectors should be careful to buy these stamps from responsible
dealers only.

GILBERT JACKSON.--There are five varieties of the $5 United States
Internal Revenue stamps first issue. The perforated ones are worth
from two cents to thirty-five cents each. There are eleven $1
stamps of the same issue, worth from one cent to $2.50 each.
Twelve varieties of the fifty-cent stamp, worth from one cent to
$1 each.

J. R. P.--The 1875 reprints of 1869 are on very white paper. The
2c. of this issue is worth $3. Many of the 1869 iss