National Library News March/April 1999 Vol. 31, no. 3-4

From the Rare Book Collection...

S. Allan Taylor (1838-1913) The Stamp Collector's Record. Montreal: S.A. Taylor. issue no.1 (February 15, 1864).

Ever since the first postage stamp was issued in Britain in 1840, philately has been one of the most popular hobbies in the world. In British North America, several provinces took over the post offices in their territories in 1851. The first postage stamps in the country were produced that year in the Province of Canada, in New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia. Newfoundland issued its first stamp in 1857, British Columbia and Vancouver Island in 1860, and Prince Edward Island in 1861. From its beginning, stamp collecting was a mania; over 75 philatelic journals and magazines were published in Canada during the 19th century, four of them before Confederation.

Forged Stamp Featuring Image of S. Allan Taylor.

The very first of these publications, not only in Canada but also in North America, was The Stamp Collector's Record by Daniel Rose printed in Montreal in 1864 for S. Allan Taylor. This first issue printed in Canada — a reported second issue has never been found — contains only four pages, consisting primarily of advertisements. The publication is extremely rare. The National Library holds one copy and the only other copy in Canada is located at the Canadian Postal Museum. It contains two short notes dealing with a fictitious newspaper wrapper stamp and a fraud that had occurred in the United States. It is ironic that these forgeries and frauds are found in Taylor's publication since he was to become one of the best known philatelic forgers of his time.

Born in Scotland in 1838, S. Allan Taylor was sent to New York by his foster parents in 1850. He came to Montreal in 1861, where he held a number of odd jobs and sold stamps, some of which were fantasy local stamps (stamps said to have been issued by organizations which had, in fact, never existed). Some of these even bore his portrait! In the summer of 1864, he moved to Albany (New York). That December, he began a new series of the Stamp Collector's Record, the first philatelic journal in the U.S. It was to appear irregularly until 1876.

In September 1865, another move sent him to Boston, where producing and selling philatelic forgeries became his main activity. He maintained a loose association with a group of scoundrels, known by some as "the Boston Gang". The gang specialized in bogus stamps, such as fictitious first issues of South American countries, backed by official documents supposedly emanating from these countries, which, of course, were also fake.

Canadian collectors associate Taylor's name with the 1872 fictitious 10-cent issue of Prince Edward Island (no such denomination ever appeared). The lack of specialized information, slow international communications, and a very strong demand for unusual stamps from the ever-growing population of collectors, made stamp forgery a profitable, if somewhat hazardous, occupation. Throughout his life, Taylor played hide-and-seek with collectors and dealers, advertising his own forgeries in the Stamp Collector's Record while exposing those of competitors in the pages of his journal. Formal accusations of counterfeiting plagued Taylor's activities in the early 1890s and forced him to abandon his "career". He later took on a number of odd jobs in the Boston area and died in 1913.

The National Library of Canada holds numerous 19th-century Canadian philatelic publications, including journals, magazines, and official publications. It is pleased to make them available to researchers interested in the history of our postal system.

Kindler J. — " ‘Caveat Emptor’. The Life and Works of S. Allan Taylor". — Philatelic Literature Review. — Vol.15, no. 2 (1966). — P. 59-77, 80-89.

Tyler Varro E. — Philatelic Forgers. Their Lives and Works. — Sidney (Ohio) : Linn's Stamp News, 1991. — 165 p.