Peeps at Postage Stamps

An ideal first page for a special collection of British stamps would show a whole wrapper bearing a nice copy of the penny black, then the individual stamp in pairs or blocks, followed by a somewhat similar arrangement affecting the sister stamp—the twopenny blue.

The page should not be crowded with specimens, but much space ought to be given up to explanatory written matter. At the head of the page, for instance, the following might be neatly printed: "Line-Engraved Stamps. Issued May 1st, 1840." Elsewhere room might be found for the statement that the adhesives given on the page were engraved by Mr. Frederick Heath, and printed by the famous firm of Perkins, Bacon and Co.; whilst below each stamp the particular watermark, paper, and method of separation should be mentioned. Nor should the notes end here; any little piece of postal information which may be discovered should be added to swell the interest of the collection. As an example of such matter, we may quote the following recipe for making red obliterating ink, which was sent to every postmaster in the kingdom when the penny black was first issued:

Take 1 lb. printer's red ink,
1 pint linseed oil,
1/2 pint of the droppings of sweet oil,
And well mix.

Another early stamp which will well repay attention is the perforated penny red with control letters in the four corners. This specimen bears various plate numbers, from 71 to 225 (Nos. 75, 77,[2] 126, 128 excepted). The collector will do well to seek out a copy of each number and arrange them in numerical order on three or four pages of the album. The distinctive numbers are to be found on either side of the head, hidden among the filigree lines. No. 225, it may be said, is somewhat difficult to obtain, but all the others are fairly common.

"Plate reconstructing" is another favourite work of the specialist. Let us first explain that many of the early British stamps contained various letters in the four corners. In a sheet of 240 stamps, the specimens found in the first row were all lettered A, in the lower left-hand corner, those in the second row B, in the third row C, and so on throughout the twenty rows. In the right-hand lower corner the first stamp of every row was lettered A, the second B, and so on until the twelfth stamp bore the letter L. The following diagram will make the arrangement quite clear:

Row 1. AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, ... AL.
"  2. BA, BB, BC, BD, BE, BF, ... BL.
"  3. CA, CB, CC, CD, CE, CF, ... CL.
"  4. DA, DB, DC, DD, DE, DF, ... DL.
"  5. EA, EB, EC, ED, EE, EF, ... EL.
.      .      .      .      .
" 20. TA, TB, TC, TD, TE, TF, ... TL.

The work of plate reconstructing consists in obtaining one stamp of each of the combinations of letters, placing them in their correct positions as given above, and so remaking a whole sheet of stamps.

Such is the way in which a specialist's collection should be managed. Our remarks have been directed more particularly to the stamps of Great Britain, but the suggestions apply equally well to any country which the philatelist may select for particular study.

CHAPTER IV

So far these talks have dealt almost entirely with ways and means of stamp-collecting, but now our attention must be centred on the stamps themselves. We naturally turn to the issues of Great Britain, the first specimen to be considered being the "penny black," bearing a portrait in profile of Victoria the Good. Not only was this stamp the first to be issued within our kingdom, but it was also the pioneer stamp, of the whole world. It is thus one of the most interesting labels which can figure among the treasures of any collection.

To Sir Rowland Hill, the promoter of the penny postage and other postal reforms, belongs the credit of first suggesting that the postage on a letter should be prepared by means of an adhesive label. Not only may he be called the inventor of postage stamps, but he also sketched in rough the design which was used for the first stamp. To him, also, was entrusted the work of arranging for the issue of this novel label.

On August 17, 1839, Parliament sanctioned the use of adhesive stamps, and immediately afterwards the Lords of the Treasury asked the public to suggest suitable designs. Nearly 3,000 drawings were submitted, but none were considered satisfactory. It was then that Hill made the rough sketch mentioned above.

Many were the difficulties which Hill had to overcome, but probably the most perplexing was how to get the stamps printed. We must remember that in those early days colour-printing was a slow and tedious process, and there were very few firms who could be entrusted with the work. After much consideration, Sir Rowland went to a Fleet Street house of printers named Perkins, Bacon and Co., and asked them whether they could undertake the task of producing the proposed adhesive stamps. Their reply is sufficiently interesting to be given in full.

         "69, Fleet Street,
                  "London,
                           "December 3, 1839.

"Sir,

"We have given the subject you mentioned yesterday afternoon all the attention the time would allow, and beg to say as the result that we would engrave steel dies of the size you gave us, containing work of any conceivable value as to cost and quality, transfer them to any number of plates that could possibly be wanted, and print them in any numbers per day, at a charge of eightpence per thousand stamps, exclusive of paper, which, we understand, would be supplied us; and, assuming that the numbers wanted would be very large, we have only named a fair price for the printing, and have considered the plates and dies, which ought to be very costly in the first instance, as given in without charge. You are probably aware that, having prepared the original die, we could insure perfect 'facsimiles' of it for a century.

"Our charge would not exceed what we have named above, nor be less than sixpence per thousand; but what relative position it would take between these two extremes would depend upon the exact size of the stamp, and the number which the paper would allow us to put upon one plate.

"We could prepare everything so as to commence printing in a month. Our present belief is that we could print 41,600 labels per day, or double that number in a day and night, from each press employed upon the work.

         "We are, sir, very respectfully,
                  "Your humble servants,
                           "Perkins, Bacon, and Petch."

The Perkins' firm was entrusted with the printing; instructions were also given them to elaborate the rough sketch made by Hill. They called upon a then noted engraver, Frederick Heath, to complete the design which has since become world-famous. He engraved the head and the lettering, but the beautiful curves forming the background of the stamp were "engine-turned" by means of a Rose engine, a contrivance consisting of a series of moving wheels which produced curved lines in geometric pattern.

The stamp proved a great success, thanks to the energies of Hill and the assistance of the printers; but it had one great fault—it was printed with a fast ink, which enabled dishonest people to wash out the obliterations and use the cleaned copies a second time. As a result, the black specimens were superseded in less than nine months by red ones printed with a fugitive ink. The short life of the first stamp has, of course, much to do with its present high price.

The dies used for the black impressions were employed for the red pennies, so that the two stamps are identical in all respects but colour. Gradually, as years passed along, slight changes were introduced. First, the small check letters in the lower angles were substituted by large letters, then perforated edges were provided, whilst in 1854 the whole of the dies were re-engraved. Stamps printed from the old and the new plates may be distinguished fairly easily. In die I. the nose is straight, there is little shading around the eye, and the lobe of the ear terminates with an upward curl. In die II the nose is slightly rounded, the eye is surrounded by much shading, and the lobe of the ear finishes without any upward curl.

The black and red penny stamps were line engraved (cf. previous chapter). The only other stamps printed in this style were the twopenny blue, issued concurrently with the penny black; the halfpenny rose; and the three-halfpenny red rose, both issued on October 1, 1870.

It seems somewhat remarkable, in these days when we have thirteen different stamps of values lower than a shilling, that in the early years the country was able to carry on its postal arrangements with but a penny and a twopenny stamp. That there was need for specimens of higher value seems certain, as the inland registration fee was a shilling, and the postal rates abroad were surprisingly high. In 1847 the letter rate for the United States was lowered to a shilling, and for France to tenpence; consequently, the time seemed appropriate for introducing three new stamps—a shilling, a tenpenny, and a sixpenny.

Though the line-engraved stamps had proved extremely satisfactory, there were certain high officials who claimed that these labels were by no means proof against dishonest practices. It was partly to please these dissentients that the three new values bore the familiar head of Queen Victoria in cameo relief. The innovation was almost if not a complete bar to forgery, also to the removal of obliterations by people of questionable character; but it made printing a slow and expensive process. Hitherto a sheet of stamps had been printed by one movement of the machine, but every embossed stamp needed a separate pressing. There were twenty-four stamps of these three new values on a sheet, which meant that instead of one action completing the sheet, twenty-four actions were required.

Some of these old stamps are to be found with the impression of another partly overlapping; this is due to the fact that the machines were fed by hand, and unless the workman placed the paper in exact position one stamp was bound to fall partly on to its neighbour.

One curious feature of the tenpenny and shilling stamps must be mentioned. Into the paper on which these adhesives were printed was introduced a number of silk threads in such a way that each stamp bore two portions of the thread. The silken lines ran either horizontally or vertically across each specimen, and made counterfeiting an almost impossible task. The sixpenny value was provided with a watermark as a safeguard.

The cameo stamps gained but little popularity, and were current less than ten years. Of the sixpenny specimen, we know that 6,659,920 copies were printed, and of them, 2,941,640 were destroyed after their withdrawal, probably about as many copies as are sold of our current penny stamps on an ordinary weekday.

On July 31, 1855, a fourpenny stamp was introduced. It was produced neither by the line-engraved process nor by the embossing method. A system of typography, or surface-printing (see p. 21), had long been used on the Continent, and it was this process which was employed for the printing of the new fourpenny value. Messrs. De La Rue and Co. were entrusted with the work.

The fourpenny surface-printed stamp proved very successful, and was followed by other values—the shilling green, the threepenny rose, the sixpenny lilac, and the ninepenny straw colour. Many of these early stamps bore minor distinguishing marks, and consequently command high prices. A very dark shade of the shilling green is worth £65 in an unused condition, the threepenny rose, with a white dot on either side of the word "Postage," has changed hands for £40, whilst the ninepenny straw colour, with a fine white line drawn across the exterior angles of the square spaces for the corner letters, is catalogued as high as £30. Specimens of these values should be carefully examined to see if they happen to be the rare kinds.

The surface-printed stamps issued between 1862 and 1881 bore angular check letters as well as plate numbers, and therefore prove of exceptional interest to those of us who wish to specialize in the stamps of our own Kingdom. Unused copies should be carefully preserved with the original gum on the backs, as their prices advance with every season. The used copies, also, prove a good investment.

In 1881 (July 12) the well-known penny lilac, with a large head of Victoria, was issued, and continued in use until the accession of King Edward. The stamps sold during the first five months had fourteen white dots in each corner, but afterwards the number, for some unaccountable reason, was increased to sixteen. The early variety, needless to say, commands a much greater price than the later one. The two stamps are easily confused, but a careful examination of our copies will soon tell us whether each used specimen is worth a fraction of a farthing or a sixpenny piece. Some time after the accession of King Edward the writer went into a post office and bought two dozen penny stamps. The clerk who served him half apologized for still selling the old specimens bearing the Queen's head. On reaching home, however, the adhesives were carefully examined, and found to be the rare "fourteen dot" variety, worth, unused, about four shillings apiece. It is hardly necessary to add that the block, intact, has found a home in the writer's collection.

The next stamps to attract attention are those of King Edward. At first sight there appears to be one variety of each value, with the exception of the halfpenny and the fourpenny, which are both found in two obvious varieties. On closer examination, however, the Edwardian stamps will be found to possess many minor but interesting differences. In the first case, most of the values were printed in turn by the firm of De La Rue, by Harrison and Son, also by the Government at Somerset House, and each set of impressions shows marked variations in colour. The most interesting Edwardian differences, however, are due to varieties of paper. In 1905 the authorities came to the conclusion that the then current stamps were not sufficiently protective against fraud. It was easy enough, they said, to compound an obliteration ink for use in the post offices which could not be cleaned away; but, as postage stamps were also used in increasing numbers for revenue purposes, it was also necessary to make the stamps of such colours that they could not be cleaned of even ordinary writing-ink. As a consequence, the labels on the usual paper were gradually superseded by specimens printed on a specially prepared "chalk-surface" paper. When this paper is wetted, the chalky glaze breaks up, and the coloured design is ruined. This innovation provides a complete check to the practices of fraudulent "stamp cleaners," but makes it almost impossible for collectors to remove the paper backing which disfigures many of their treasures.

"The easiest way to find out whether a stamp is printed on ordinary unsurfaced or on chalk-surfaced paper," says Mr. F. J. Melville in "King Edward VII. Stamps," "is to draw a small silver coin across one of the perforations or a piece of the marginal paper adhering to the stamp. If a black line appears where the silver has touched the paper, it indicates a chalk surface."

A third minor variety of the Edwardian stamps must be recorded. In certain of the halfpenny and penny values the large crown watermark is found inverted. Such specimens were not, as might be expected, the result of faulty printing, they were made especially for the stamp booklets, which have grown so popular since their introduction in 1903. The plates from which the booklet stamps were printed were divided into four panes, each of sixty labels. Each pane consisted of ten rows of six stamps surrounded by a fringe of blank paper. The panes were cut vertically down the centre and then along every second horizontal row. This gave ten blocks of six stamps, five coming from the left of the vertical cut and five from the right. Now, it was necessary to have a strip of edging paper on the left of each block for the binding-pins of the booklet to pass through; consequently, the stamps placed on the right of the vertical cut were inverted. As the watermark was not similarly turned round, the specimens in 50 per cent. of the booklets were provided with inverted crowns.

The stamps of King George require but little mention. When first issued they caused considerable adverse comment, owing to their poor design and inferior gum. The earliest dies of the halfpenny and penny values were re-engraved at least twice, but not until the small head was replaced by the larger profile bust could they be considered even passable. As a whole, the Georgian first issue may be now considered fairly attractive in pattern and colour; but the Mother Country has yet much to learn in the matter of stamp designing from her young Dependencies, notably Canada.

CHAPTER V

There have been three different brown-lilac £1 stamps, all issued within a few years of each other, so the collector is advised to note their descriptions carefully. The valuable type referred to above measures 1-1/8 by 1-3/8 inches, and is watermarked with an anchor. Of the remaining two types, one has a watermark consisting of three crowns (worth £12 unused), and the other has the watermark known as the three orbs (worth £20 unused). Both these stamps have the top and bottom sides much longer than the vertical sides. Other £1 values, in various colours and designs, command good prices, and should be carefully preserved, if only for speculative purposes.

Were the question to be put, "Which is the rarest stamp in the world?" probably the answer would be, more often than not, "The twopenny 'Post Office' Mauritius." Though it is not the rarest, it is probably the best-known philatelic treasure, and the one which collectors covet beyond all others. Just how much it is worth would be difficult to say; we do know, however, that the copy which figures in King George's Collection was sold at auction in 1904 for £1,450. Were it placed on the market to-day, it is safe to say that it would change hands at a higher figure—probably a much higher figure.

The twopenny and the penny "Post Office" Mauritius have an interesting history. The officials of this little island in the Indian Ocean decided in the year 1847 to follow the lead of the Mother Country and issue stamps. Whilst waiting for supplies to come from England, they commissioned a local watchmaker to engrave two dies, one for a penny and one for a twopenny stamp. The watchmaker took a small piece of sheet copper and engraved upon it, side by side, the two dies, and a neighbouring printer took off 500 impressions—that is to say, 1,000 stamps in all. Instead of cutting into the copper the words "Post Paid," the engraver scratched the inscription "Post Office" by mistake, with the result that his dies were soon discarded. The stock of stamps was quickly used up, for just as the labels were issued, a ball was being arranged at the Government House, and numerous invitations were sent out by post. About twenty-two copies only are known to exist, and most of these have been discovered on the communications which, nearly seventy years ago, summoned the Governor's friends to the long-forgotten festivities.

The rarest stamp in the world is usually considered to be the one cent (1856) of British Guiana. A single specimen only of this variety is known, the owner being Monsieur de la Renotière, a celebrated collector of Paris. To say that this treasure is worth its weight in gold is to understate its value by a great deal, for specialists claim that £2,000 would not buy it.

One would suppose that so costly a square inch of paper would have a prepossessing appearance or claims to artistic merit, but the unique specimen is said to be ugly, of a dullish magenta colour, and not in the best of condition. The design is a ship, around which the motto "Damus petimusque vicissim"[3] is written, together with the words "British Guiana, Postage One Cent."

Another very rare British Guiana stamp is the sorry-looking two cents of 1851. Having more the appearance of an obliteration stamp than a postal adhesive, this specimen bears the name of the colony and the value, two cents, in a circle. It was printed at short notice by the proprietors of the Royal Gazette, and was intended to serve for a new rate of letter-carrying which applied to the town of Georgetown alone. Apparently the new charge failed to serve its purpose, and was withdrawn after a brief space of time. Very few copies were made use of, and those which still exist are worth about £600 each.

From the Hawaiian Islands comes another valuable stamp, also of poor design: it is the two cents (1851), black on bluish paper. This adhesive was printed at Honolulu, and served mainly for franking the letters which the American missionaries sent home to their relations in the States. The issue suffered an untimely fate, for no sooner had the stamps been put into circulation than a serious fire devastated the quarter of the town in which the post office was situated and destroyed almost all the stock in hand. A round dozen copies are known to exist. One reposes in the Tapling Collection at the British Museum, but the authorities have removed it from the show-cases, where it used to lie, and placed it under lock and key in the Cracherode Room. It may be well to add that it can be inspected on request. Its value is probably £800 or more.

If we turn to the United States, many rarities will be found, but none are so much sought after as the issues known as the "Postmaster Stamps." For the want of a better term these adhesives have been called "locals," but they must not be confused with the worthless labels spoken of in Chapter II.

Each postmaster in the early years of the States designed and printed his own stamps, and some weird and curious effects were produced as a result of this arrangement. The master at Milbury, then a tiny place in Massachusetts, issued a two cents label (1847) which was no exception in the matter of design. Milbury was such a small town that the demand for this two cents stamp was insignificant, and consequently to-day copies are worth quite £300.

Another local stamp—more highly priced on the Continent than in England—is the ten centimes "Double Geneva." This curiosity was issued by the Canton of Geneva before Switzerland possessed a regular supply of adhesives. The stamp is composed of two sections, each bearing the value five centimes, but a narrow strip of paper joins them together and bears the value ten centimes. The idea was that, in its entirety, the stamp would frank a letter anywhere within the Canton of Geneva, but if cut in halves, the postage was only sufficient for letters circulating within any individual commune. A complete "Double Geneva" is worth £80 odd unused, but a halved copy may be procured for a £5 note.

Before concluding this chapter on rarities, some mention must be made of the triangular "Capes." Curiously enough, everybody has heard of these stamps, whether they are collectors or not, and every non-collector who happens to possess a copy nourishes the idea that some day a huge fortune may be realized by selling the valued possession. Granted that the specimen is not a forgery, which it very well may be, the stamp is perhaps worth no more than five shillings, for this is the market price of the fourpenny blue, 1855—the stamp most frequently met.

There are two valuable triangular "Capes," however, namely, the fourpenny red and the penny blue, both of 1861. The origin of these stamps is as follows: In making up the dies for printing some penny and fourpenny stamps, a block of the penny stamp was accidentally placed in the plate of the fourpenny value, whilst a fourpenny block found its way into the penny plate. As a result of this mistake, one stamp on each sheet which was printed bore the wrong colour for its value. Gibbons catalogues the blue penny at £85, and the vermilion fourpenny at £95.

CHAPTER VI

1. Great Britain, Queen, 1d. lilac, 1881.

2. Great Britain, King Edward, 1d. scarlet, 1902.

3. Germany, 1880, 10 pfennig (without the final "e") rose.

4. Germany, 1889, 10 pfennig rose.

5. Austria, 5 kr., Francis Joseph, 1857, red.

6. Austria, 5 kr. rose, 1883, double-headed eagle.

7. Austria, 5 kr., Francis Joseph, 1890, red.

8. Belgium, 10 c., Leopold II., 1885, rose.

9. Belgium, 5 c., arms, 1893, green.

10. France, 15 c., Mercury and Commerce, blue, 1877.

11. France, 5 c., Mercury, etc., green, 1877.

12. Hungary, 5 kr., numeral on envelope, rose, 1875.

From the above list it will be seen that all but three of the adhesives are of the penny value, or its foreign equivalent. The presence of the French three-halfpenny (15 c.) stamp is due to the fact that, for many years, this was the rate charged for letters circulating within the Republic.

Of these stamps the Queen's head of Great Britain enjoyed the longest life, whilst the two French specimens took second and third place, they having a prosperous run of sixteen years to their credit.

Whilst speaking of the length of currency enjoyed by stamps, it may be well to say that, of all the adhesive specimens issued throughout the world, the large fivepenny green, New South Wales, remained unchanged for a longer period than any other; whilst the Queen Victoria penny embossed envelope, with a light pink stamp—not, of course, an adhesive—was current still longer, being on sale from 1841 to 1902. Neither of these labels, it should be added, may be reckoned among the commonest varieties.

Of each of the twelve stamps mentioned in the list above prodigious numbers must have been issued. Just how many copies of each were used for franking letters cannot be gauged, but by turning to the postal records published annually by Great Britain some idea may be obtained of their colossal totals. During the year 1913 the General Post Office dealt with—

3,298,300,000 letters.

899,000,000 postcards.

1,079,000,000 halfpenny packets.

202,300,000 newspapers.

130,200,000 parcels.

Of the letters, postcards, and halfpenny packets, it seems fair to assume that three-quarters were franked by halfpenny and penny stamps in the proportion, probably, of two of the former to one of the latter. In other words, roughly 1,500,000,000 penny stamps and 2,500,000,000 halfpenny stamps were used in Great Britain during the year 1913 alone. As the life of our British stamps averages a trifle over ten years, we must multiply the huge figures by ten to obtain a rough estimate of the individual copies which are likely to be printed of these two stamps.

Looked at from the point of view of use, the dozen adhesives mentioned above have undoubtedly scored heavily; but if they be examined from the artistic point of view, little can be said in their favour. The lilac head of Victoria, it is true, is a fine dignified stamp; whilst the two French specimens, depicting Mercury and Commerce, are pleasing. The remainder, however, can claim but little respect, either on the score of design or workmanship. Truly the commonest labels seem to be the least beautiful!

What can we do with our accumulations of valueless stamps? is a question often asked by the young philatelist. A good plan is to collect the various shades of colour and minute variations of design, which are sure to creep into issues that extend over a lengthy period. In this way an interesting assembly of stamps may be secured which might, in time, prove extremely valuable to a collector who specialized. The Georgian stamps of Great Britain, for instance, though they have only been in use a few years, already show numerous variations in design and colour, and thus lend themselves to such work. The halfpenny is known in two or three shades of green; there are at least two different engravings of the penny; the twopenny varies in shade from dark to light orange; whilst the threepenny may be found in dull purple and also vivid purple.

Another good plan is to make what might be called a type collection, with the aid of the accumulations of common stamps. Such a collection should comprise (a) specimens of all known perforations from eight to sixteen; (b) cases of varied perforations—i.e., one gauge for the vertical, another for the horizontal sides; (c) stamps separated by other means than perforations; (d) stamps of every shade of the spectrum, arranged in a line and gradually merging from red through orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo to violet; (e) labels printed by different processes; (f) labels printed on all the commoner forms of paper; (g) stamps mounted face downwards to reveal the watermarks, etc.

A third form of collection, which helps to use up the valueless stamps, is a historical collection. In such a gathering as we have here in mind, it becomes possible to trace out, by means of postage labels, such interesting matters as the genealogical tables of royal families, the changes which certain Governments have undergone, lists of succession, etc.

CHAPTER VII

Most stamps as they repose in their rows on the pages of the album look very sober, matter-of-fact, little squares of paper. Some appear travel-stained, others are in the pink of condition, but all have undergone an experience—we are speaking of the used copies—which, could it be related, would make reading matter of a highly interesting nature. One specimen which lies in the album did duty, say, in the backwoods of the United States; another carried a letter across the snowfields of Siberia; a third franked correspondence in the unsettled land of Mexico; and a fourth brought a message from the battlefields of Belgium and Northern France. Viewed in this light, every obliterated specimen which figures in our collection is a curiosity.

There are, however, other kinds of curious stamps which are worth discussing. Who, for instance, would ever dream that a stamp could cause serious disturbance among a whole race of some millions of people? Yet this is what happened quite recently in India. The offending stamp was the two annas, bearing a profile portrait of King George. The trouble can be related briefly. The label showed the King attractively arrayed, and bearing a number of decorations, one of them being the elephant which denotes an Indian order. Unfortunately, the engraving was a trifle indistinct, and instead of the creature appearing as an elephant, as it should have done, it seemed to be an exact representation of a pig. Now, the latter animal is considered a most unclean thing by all faithful Mohammedans, and the people of this religious creed were not slow to suppose that somebody in power had placed the animal on the King's breast merely to insult them. Had it not been for the tactful assurances made by the authorities, and the early substitution of another stamp more carefully engraved, the results would probably have been of a serious character.

Another curious stamp is the Connell label, emanating from the colony of New Brunswick. Connell was the postmaster-in-chief of this British dependency. On one occasion he was requested to journey to New York to place a contract with a firm of stamp printers. What possessed him nobody knows. Instead of directing that Queen Victoria's portrait should appear on all the stamps to be engraved, he ordered that the five cents value should bear his features, which, to be candid, were not at all attractive. In due course the stamps arrived, but the authorities, on discovering Connell's audacity, issued a proclamation declaring the label to be worthless. The postmaster, so history tells us, became angry, and rather than appear before a prosecuting council retired hastily to the States. The Connell stamp, needless to say, is a rare curiosity, and few copies are known to exist. It is perhaps a little doubtful, however, whether the label can be reckoned as an authentic postage stamp, seeing that its use never received official sanction.

Vanity seems to play an important part in the lives of people—at least, this is the testimony which many of our stamps bear out. Some men like Connell crave for such notoriety as a postage stamp can afford them, but there are others—crowned heads—who will not allow their features to be portrayed upon the labels of their country, lest the obliteration marks may render them grotesque.

Among conceited Kings of recent times, King Ferdinand of Sicily stands out pre-eminently in the minds of philatelists. He possessed something of the Connell weakness, for he evinced a keen desire to have his head portrayed upon the stamps of his little kingdom; but running counter with this desire was a strong fear lest the marks of the postal obliterator should disfigure his none too prepossessing countenance. In the end, he thought of a kind of compromise. He called in one of the best engravers of the day and commanded him to execute a fine series of adhesives bearing his profile. When the issue was ready, Ferdinand provided the postal authorities with obliterating stamps, each of which consisted of a circular framework of lines, surrounding an empty space. The idea was that the lines should deface the edges of the stamp, but that the empty space should save his profile from disfigurement. What happened to his overworked officials who chanced to bring their obliterators down upon the royal countenance by mistake is too awful to contemplate!

Not only do some stamps betray the weaknesses of individuals, but others reveal the characters of nations. Let us look for a moment at the stamps of Belgium. Each is provided with a small label which bears the words, "Not to be delivered on Sunday." This label is very insignificant, and stamp collectors have seen it so often that they are apt to pass it by unnoticed. But this tiny strip of paper has a deep underlying purpose. The Belgians, as a nation, are sharply divided on matters of religion into two great bodies. The Roman Catholic section objects to having its letters delivered on Sundays, whilst the section of Freethinkers can see no harm in a postal delivery on the day which we in England set apart for rest. The Belgians are a tolerant race, however, and the matter has been settled by providing each stamp with what has been called a Dominical label. The Catholics use the label with the stamps they buy, but the Freethinkers detach them. The postmen are instructed to deliver letters on Sundays only when the footnote is missing from the stamps.

Another curious stamp is the twopenny plum colour King Edward issue of Great Britain. Who has ever heard of this adhesive? Who has ever seen it? The chances are that few collectors know that such a stamp ever existed, yet a used copy figures in the collection of King George.

The story relating to this stamp is as follows: In the early months of the year 1910 it was decided to change both the pattern and colour of the twopenny green and carmine. A rather attractive design was selected instead, and eventually printed in a hue which the authorities called "Tyrian plum." Some thousands of these labels were printed and held ready for issue, but just as they were to be placed on sale, the sad and unexpected death of King Edward took place. Rather than issue a new stamp after the King's demise, the whole stock was gathered together and burned. A few copies, however, were preserved for record purposes, and one at least was stuck to an envelope addressed to our present Sovereign, and posted at the East Strand Post Office.

The V.R. penny black is another stamp of the Home Country which every philatelist should know about. It is a famous label, not because it has ever made history or fulfilled any important mission, but because people have grown to look upon it as a rare form of the ordinary penny black. In reality the V.R. stamps never attained to the dignity of a postal label, for, although intended for official use, the authorities decided at the last moment not to make the issue, and destroyed the stock. A certain number of copies leaked out, and found their way into collectors' albums, and these command a fair price.

Of late there has been a great increase all over the world in the picturesque type of stamp, and these have provided a fairly large crop of pictorial "inexactitudes." As an example, two adhesives of the well-known United States Columbian issue may be mentioned, seeing that they have evoked many a smile among philatelists. The stamps in question are the one and the two cents values. The former portrays Columbus sighting land, whilst the latter reveals the famous traveller in the act of landing. As is well known, an interval of but twenty-four hours separated the two events, yet in the first picture Columbus appears clean-shaven, whilst in the latter he possesses a beard of ample and stately proportions!

Another interesting picture stamp of the United States is the one dollar value of the Omaha issue. The stamp bears the title of "Western Cattle in Storm," but those of us who know the canvasses of MacWhirter will recognize it as a reproduction of his painting, "The Vanguard." Mr. F. J. Melville, a noted philatelist, says in "Chats on Postage Stamps" that the United States Post Office "literally cribbed" MacWhirter's picture, apparently without permission or any sort of payment.

Many stamps possess particular interest owing to some speciality in manner of production. Just now a semi-perforated adhesive is becoming popular. Its upright sides are imperforated, but top and bottom the usual perforation marks are present. Such specimens are manufactured in rolls—not in sheets—for special use in automatic machines. They come largely from the United States and the Union of South Africa, and are, of course, only available in the penny and halfpenny, or equivalent, values. These semi-perforated stamps are of undoubted interest to-day, though the time may not be far distant when they will completely oust the usual perforated type.

CHAPTER VIII

Stamps are forged for two purposes, first to cheat philatelists, and second to cheat the postal authorities. The former kind of trade is fairly lucrative, but in England, at any rate, the production of fictitious stamps for postal uses seldom enjoys more than a short-lived success.

The forger hardly ever takes up his abode in the Home Country, for the pains and penalties awaiting him, when apprehended, are severe. He far prefers a Continental existence, where he can work his printing-press in obscurity. His unsavoury wares, however, are made to circulate in England just as much as abroad, and the novice must be ever on his guard in consequence.

Some forgers possess elaborate and costly plant, and have the means of turning out labels printed quite as well as the originals. But most people in this dishonest trade are handicapped for capital, and have to rely on the cheaper processes—usually lithography—in the production of their forgeries. It is here that a knowledge of the various means of printing stamps proves so valuable to the collector. A specimen, say, of a line-engraved stamp produced by lithography immediately excites suspicion, and a close examination shows it to be an undoubted counterfeit.

The watermark is another stumbling-block with the stamp faker of small means. He has no opportunity of procuring paper impressed with all the various watermarks, and so he often prints on ordinary paper, and trusts to the philatelist's ignorance or lack of examining powers. Of course, the beginner is often caught by such practices, but it is really wonderful how soon a serious collector grows to know at sight the real and the unreal.

An ingenious trick of the forger in a small way of business consists in transforming a common stamp into a valuable one. His work is not very arduous, and his apparatus costs but a few pence. All he needs is an aptitude for drawing, a few paints, brushes, and some chemicals. He selects, first of all, an issue where the stamps all bear an identical design and are printed in the same colour, the value, and perhaps an additional word or two, only being printed in a distinctive colour. His choice of stamp is by no means limited, for in Queen Victoria's time it was a favourite arrangement with many Colonies for the head and ornamentation to be printed in a shade of purple and the name of the colony and the price to vary on each value.

The forger takes a nice copy of the halfpenny, and cleans out the price and any features which make the stamp distinctive, by means of chemicals; then he fills in the blank areas with the particular lettering—using, of course, the correct colour—of a high-priced stamp. His work takes but a few minutes, and in this time he can transform a label worth, say, a penny into one catalogued at, perhaps, ten shillings. This form of faking is particularly dangerous, because such distinguishing marks as perforations, watermark, and quality of paper, are correct in every detail.

The length to which some forgers will go is positively amazing. A few years back a case came to light where one of these rogues regularly used real stamp-paper on which to print his worthless imitations. His plan was to buy a whole sheet of low-priced unused stamps, to remove all the printing by chemical means, and then to print on the blank paper so obtained a complete sheet of high-priced stamps. Of course, he had to select his paper and his stamps with care, but this was a matter simple enough. It is interesting to point out that the home authorities, seeing the possibility of such practices, have made it a rule to use one watermark for adhesives of low value and another for those of high value.

What is the best way to tell whether a specimen is a forgery? This is a question often asked. The first test is the watermark, but sufficient has been said already to show that too much faith must not be placed on this detail, especially as we may add that a very respectable imitation may be produced by painting the back of the label with oil. The next point to note is the perforation. These marks must be shaped in a business-like way, and be of the correct number as indicated by the catalogues. The third point is the printing, and the fourth the colour of the ink used. Lastly, the design should be compared with an identical stamp known to be genuine. Beyond such simple tests as these the collector needs to exercise ordinary common sense in arriving at a conclusion. If, say, a specimen is nice and fresh, and the catalogue tells us that it is at least fifty years old, a certain amount of suspicion might not be out of place.

It is not always a simple matter to know whether a stamp is a forgery or not. Cases are on record where the postal authorities themselves have been unable to distinguish between the real and the unreal. Some years ago the shilling value of Great Britain was counterfeited and used for postal purposes not once or twice, but some thousands of times, and never an atom of suspicion was excited. The case is recorded by Mr. F. J. Melville in his work, "Chats on Postage Stamps," in the following words:

"A romantic forgery, and one of almost colossal magnitude, was discovered in 1898. About that time a large quantity of British one shilling stamps—those of the 1865 type in green, with large uncoloured letters in the corners—came on the market, though, as they had been used on telegram forms, they ought to have been destroyed; probably the guilty parties relied on this official practice, not always honoured in observance, as offering a security against not merely the tracing of the offence, but the discovering of the fraud itself.

"Anyhow, after a lapse of twenty-six years, it was found that amongst these one shilling stamps there was a large proportion of forgeries (purporting to be from Plate V.), all used on July 23, 1872, at the Stock Exchange Telegraph Office, London, E.C. More recent discoveries show that the fraud was continued over twelve months, and, as an indication of the precautions taken by the forgers, Plate VI. (which came into use in March, 1872) was duly imitated, although the change of the small figures was a detail probably never noticed by members of the general public.