The Fiery Era of Siheyuan

Chapter 47, Stamps

Li Weiguo was very happy after receiving this pile of letters. There were almost more than 100 letters, and he immediately read them enthusiastically.

Zhou Bo at the side saw that Li Weiguo was tinkering with old envelopes, so he came over and said, "Brother Weiguo, do you like this? There are too many old envelopes and stamps in our compound, and the used ones are worthless. I’ll get you some if you want.”

Li Weiguo asked doubtfully: "Can you really get it?"

Zhou Bo nodded, and said: "Really, can we lose old stamps in the post/policy/compound? We usually play casually."

That's right, how could the post/government/compound be short of these? These half-grown kids don't even know how much they have.

After thinking about it for a while, Li Weiguo immediately said to Zhou Bo: "Then, you help me collect these old stamps, and I'll exchange them with candy. Ten old envelopes with stamps are exchanged for one candy, as many as you have, and it's over." How about I give you a pound of fruit candy?"

There are about 100 hard candies per catty, and one candy costs about two cents. The actual face value of many stamps is only two cents. One candy can be exchanged for 10 old stamps. This price is not low, and it is the conscience of the industry.

"Really, that's fine, I'll tell them, and I'll be back later."

Zhou Bo became energetic and immediately ran out to find someone.

Even if Zhou Bo's family is well-off, Uncle Zhou and Aunt Zhou wouldn't buy him so much candy, a catty of candy, no child can resist this temptation.

Just as Zhou Can wanted to stop Zhou Bo, he ran away, and he couldn't help complaining: "If you want it, I'll let Xiao Bo go and get some for you. Why don't you give him something? You're so unreasonable."

"What a big deal, just take it as a reward and leave it alone." Li Weiguo waved his hand.

About ten minutes passed.

Zhou Bo rushed back and called Li Weiguo: "Brother Weiguo, everyone has been notified, come with me quickly, they have already gone home to get the old envelope."

"Okay, let's go." Li Weiguo immediately followed him.

After going downstairs, in the courtyard downstairs, a dozen children were already waiting there.

As soon as the people arrived, Zhou Bo said to them: "This is my Weiguo brother. He likes old postage stamps. If you have some, you can go back and exchange them for sugar. I have already brought them. I didn't lie to you."

One of the children, who was about the same age as Zhou Bo, asked Li Weiguo: "Is it really ten old envelopes with stamps in exchange for one candy?"

Li Weiguo nodded and said: "Well, you just go back and look for it. I will buy you sugar now, and exchange as much as you have."

"Okay, let's go back and find it for you."

The child immediately called his companions to go home to find something, and after a while, more than a dozen children ran home.

After all the children ran home, Li Weiguo asked Zhou Bo to stay and help collect the tickets, while he rode his bike to the supply and marketing agency to buy candies.

Ten minutes later, I rode back with three kilograms of fruit candies in my hand.

At this moment, the children are already waiting in the yard.

Li Weiguo carried the candies to the stone table in the yard, put the candies on the table, unwrapped them for everyone to see, and asked them to exchange them one by one.

"I'll come first, I'll come first."

The kid who was about the same age as Zhou Bo came over first to change.

He took out a large pile of old envelopes from his pocket, all with stamps.

Li Weiguo took it and checked it carefully to see if it was old.

It would be funny if it was new and someone didn't have time to send it out.

There are postmarks on the stamps, which are confirmed to be used, and there are almost hundreds of them.

Li Weiguo also found a 5-cent silver stamp with a big dragon and a broad border.

Among China's rare stamps, the first one is the Dalong wide-border yellow 5-cent silver. It is a treasure among the Dalong stamps issued for the first time in China.

In 1878 (the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), the Qing government launched a trial postal service at the customs.

The first set of stamps was issued, a complete set of 3 stamps, with face values ​​calculated in silver taels: 1 cent of silver (green), 3 cents of silver (red), and 5 cents of silver (orange).

The stamp pattern is a dragon, lined with clouds and water waves, commonly known as "big dragon stamps".

Dalong stamps have been issued 3 times, first issued in August 1878. The paper is made of rigid translucent thin paper. The distance between the two stamps is 8mm. There are 2.5 stamps in the whole sheet, commonly known as "thin paper Dalong".

The second issue was in April 1882, the distance between the sub-models was widened, and it was commonly known as "Broadside Dragon";
The third issue was in April 1883, and the paper was thicker, commonly known as "thick paper dragon".

In 1882, when the "Broadside Dragon" stamp was issued for the second time, it was just in time for the surge in mail, and the stamp consumption was large.

When printing 5-cent silver stamps, I couldn't find suitable paper for a while, so I used thin and brittle paper made in France to print. Only 2 pieces were printed, and most of them were used. The new stamps left in later generations are only More than a hundred pieces have become treasures in the China Post.

In 91, a complete set of 25 pieces was sold at a high price of 37.4 pounds.

Others such as: commemorative tickets for the China/Country/people/official/shoe/business/meeting, Sino-Soviet/friendly/good/alliance/mutual/assistance/treaty signing commemorative tickets, the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China There are many types of National Congress stamps and commemorative stamps commemorating the [-]th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

Many of them are stamps that Li Weiguo has never seen or heard of.

There are those after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, those of the Republic of China, and even those of the Great/Qing Dynasty. This trip is really worth it.

No problem, change it now.

Zhou Bo helped count the number of everyone, and Li Weiguo distributed candy beside him.

It took about half an hour to finish the exchange. A dozen or so children each brought forty or fifty envelopes. This time almost a thousand old envelopes were exchanged, filling a sack.

Li Weiguo picked out several envelopes with rare stamps, such as Dalong stamps, blue army stamps, "military/personal stickers" stamps, heaven/an/men shine stamps, BJ's new sailing boat 4 points "temporary 3 points" "Inverted stamps, original stamps with red stamps, stamped with Chinese/Chinese/Republic of/National/Provisional/Provisional/China/Independence stamps, etc.
These are all postage stamps with relatively high prices for later collections.

Pick it out for the time being, and go back to Zhou Can to ask if anyone has new tickets in their collections, and then find a way to exchange them.

After the candies were distributed, there was still about a catty and a half of fruit candy in the bag, and Zhou Bo looked at him eagerly.

Seeing his appearance, Li Weiguo laughed dumbfounded, and didn't bother with him. He pushed the rest of the candies to him: "These are all for you, and you will be rewarded. If there are still people who want to change them later, you can help me collect them first." , when the time comes, you bring it to my house, and I'll settle the bill for you, okay?"

After taking the rest of the candies, Zhou Bo was in full bloom, how could he not agree, he quickly nodded in response.

After exchanging the stamps, I returned to Zhou Can's house. At this moment, Aunt Zhou was about to prepare dinner.

Zhou Can asked: "You are finally back. If you don't come back, I will go down to find you. How was the harvest?"

Li Weiguo smiled and said: "It's okay, more than 1000 letters have been received."

"I really convinced you. What's so good about the old ones? If you want new ones, I can find some for you. Every household in the yard keeps some new stamps." Zhou Can said helplessly.

"Then help me see if there is any way to get new stamps for these stamps. If there are any, I will accept them at a high price. That's what I like." Li Weiguo took out those carefully selected envelopes from his satchel and gave them to him. Look at Zhou Can.

Zhou Can took these envelopes, looked at the stamps on them, thought for a while, and said: "It should be possible to get it, there is an old man in our yard who was already a postman in the Republic of China period. He has a lot of stock there, and other stores also have some. It’s the weekend today, so I’ll ask you about it after dinner later.”

Li Weiguo was overjoyed immediately: "Okay, thank you, take it back and I'll ask you to boil the mutton, enough!"

"Boiled mutton is enough, really?"

Zhao Guobing got excited when he heard that there was boiled mutton to eat, and he stretched his head from one side and said: "Our Grain Station Family House also has a lot of stamps. Every year, various units will send some various coupons to the grain station employees. It’s quite a lot, if you want it I’ll collect it for you.”

"Okay, you guys can collect it for me. Just those few stamps just now, as many as you want, it's no problem to collect them at three to five times the face value, or you can exchange them with food stamps."

Li Weiguo immediately agreed. It might be a bit sensitive to charge three to five times the price, but exchanging food stamps would definitely work. Who dares to say that his family is not short of food.

Zhou Can said confidently: "Okay, we're sure to eat your mutton meal, you wait until you bleed. If you dare to control enough, I'm afraid I don't know the fighting power of your Brother Can and Brother Bing, hahaha..."

Zhao Guobing was also booing, ready to kill Li Weiguo.

Looking at the fussy Zhou Can and Zhao Guobing, Li Weiguo smiled and said nothing. You may make a profit, but I will never lose, hehe.
　Sensitive words were blocked for a day yesterday and were released this morning.It’s embarrassing to always go to bother the editor, so some words and sentences have to be separated by symbols, so as not to always be tricked. If it affects the reading experience, there is no way. Please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)