A place supposed to be named Sedang and said to be ruled by a Frenchman was credited with a set of stamps for its non-existent Post Office; Brunei, in 1895 or thereabouts, was reported to have issued a set of stamps, which eventually turned out to be the private speculation of some European trader; and Cordoba (a province of Argentina) had her two legitimate stamps of 5 and 10 centavos supplemented by four higher values of similar design made for the delectation of collectors. There are a good many more, including the so-called issues for Clipperton Island, Torres Straits, Principality of Trinidad, Counani (the character of these last named is, I believe, still contested), Spitsbergen; and certain labels purporting to hail from Hayti, Hawaii, German East Africa, and Mozambique. For the novice it may be well to add that the absence of a variety of a known stamp from the catalogue does not necessarily signify that it must be so rare in that particular form that it is unknown to the cataloguer. It may, of course, be a new discovery, but it is not less likely to be a variety which has been built up by some one interested in beguiling you with a fancy of his own. Forgers have been known to add new denominations to the sets of stamps they have been counterfeiting, that is to say, bearing face values unknown in the genuine series, and sometimes fictitious overprints or surcharges are applied to genuine stamps. The most remarkable instance of the latter I can recall is the "Two Cents" overprint on the 3 cents brown on yellow Sarawak, which even the local authorities had come to believe in as having been applied by an up-country official in need of Two Cents stamps, but which were surcharged in London, where the dies of the surcharge and the very genuine-looking combinations of postmarks were subsequently found during an important _cause celèbre_. FOOTNOTES: [16] See _The Postage Stamp_, vi. 153. IX FAMOUS COLLECTIONS CHAPTER IX FAMOUS COLLECTIONS The "mania" in the 'sixties--Some wonderful early collections--The first auction sale--Judge Philbrick and his collection--The Image collection--Lord Crawford's "United States" and "Great Britain"--Other great modern collections--M. la Rénotière's "legions of stamps"--Synopsis of sales of collections.