NEWSPAPER STAMPS.

To the Editor of 'THE STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE.' DEAR SIR, I was glad to see an article in your magazine entitled 'Notes and Memoranda concerning Newspaper Stamps.' I have been a collector upwards of four years, and have always thought that newspaper stamps deserved a place in an album far more than private stamps. I have always been disappointed in not finding them mentioned in any catalogue; but your article may probably stir up collectors to the utility of collecting them. I do not know whether the old English were used for postage or not; but if so they will place the date of postage stamps much farther back than most people suppose. As I have several varieties which are not mentioned in your article, I will enumerate them.

1776, January 9th. Like A, page 157, the word HALFPENNY twice below. 1802, February 15th. Same device, above 16 PR. CT. DISCT. THREEHALFPENCE, below HALFPENNY four times, on left 1 PR. CT., and on right

ADDL.

1807, March 14th. Same device, motto DIEU ET MON DROIT, above THREEPENCE, below HALFPENNY, on left DISCT. 16 PR. CT., and on right ADDL. 188. PER CT.

1819, January 25th. Same device, above FOUR, below PENCE, on left DISCOUNT 20, and on right PER CENT.

1823, February 24th. Same device, and value without the DISCOUNT. 1831, July 26th. Same device, on left DISCOUNT, on right 20 PER CENT. 1833, January 7th. Same device, and value with L after the 20, thus 20L. 1836, October 16th. Same device, above ONE, below PENNY, on left NEWS, on right PAPER.

The earliest newspaper which I have found bearing the stamp in present use is for January 12th, 1837.

A SUPPLEMENT TO OPPEN'S ALBUM. To the Editor of 'THE STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE.' DEAR SIR, I would beg to suggest that it would be conferring a great favour on the purchasers of the eighth edition of Oppen's Postage-stamp Album, if the editor and publisher of that work would issue a supplementary volume, uniform in size, &c., with the edition named. It might be got up somewhat as follows: a single page might be allowed for each country, headed simply with the name of the place. Hanover, the Ionian Isles, Modena, Naples, Parma, Poland, Romagna, Sicily, Tuscany, Venetia, Reunion, Confederate States, Corrientes, Pacific Ocean Steam Navigation Company, and New Caledonia, might be excluded from the supplement altogether, as there is space sufficient in the album already published for the stamps of these now obsolete states. Suitable headings, and a page or two would have to be allowed for Bergedorf, the Levant, Shanghai, Egypt, British Honduras, Bolivia, Haiti, St. Kitts, and St. Thomas. In my opinion Bergedorf, the Levant, and St. Thomas, ought to have been represented in the eighth edition of the album. I would allow a page in the sup

plement for all places issuing stamps at present, for the simple reason that many of the countries re-. presented in the album have already too little space for stamps already issued. For instance, Finland, Mecklenburg, Norway, Hong Kong, St. Helena, Honduras, Antigua, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Grenada, Nevis, St. Lucia, New Zealand, Sandwich Isles, and Tasmania. All these named have too little space, or will have whenever a new set of stamps are forthcoming. I think a supplement something like what I have attempted to describe, size and binding uniform with the eighth edition, would be much better than loose leaves gummed into the album, and which cannot in some instances be got to follow in their succession. Whether the thing would pay or not I have no means of judging, but I feel certain it would be a boon to many collectors.

I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully,

WILLIAM VIPOND.

[We understand that a ninth edition of Oppen's album is about to be published, and that all the conveniently practicable improvements noted above, with many others, will be embodied therein; but the moderate price of the work, in a complete form, militates against the production of the supplementary portion suggested by our correspondent. In the present edicion Bergedorf is included with Hamburg.-ED.]

THE TWO COMPANIES.

[The following letter, forwarded to us by our respected correspondent, L. H. B.,' of Massachusetts, U. S., will be read with interest by our readers, solving as it does what appeared to us to be a knotty problem.-ED.]

National Bank-Note Company,

No. 1, Wall Street, New York, July 31st, 1866. Mr. L. H. B., West Springfield, Mass.

DEAR SIR,-We have your note of the 30th instant. The American and National Bank-Note Companies are, and have always been, entirely separate and distinct corporations, antagonistic to each other in business, and only mutually interested and engaged upon the same work when they are compelled to be so by action of authorities ordering the work.

In

For the purpose of expediting the engraving and printing for the government, and surrounding it during the process of manufacture with all possible safeguards and checks, Mr. Chase, while Secretary of the Treasury, instituted the system whereby the two companies were compelled to use the dies and rolls belonging to each other, containing the material which had been selected for the notes, bonds, postage currency, &c., &c. some cases, as for example on the postage currency, the plates and printing for the backs of the impressions were made by the American company, while the plates and printing for the faces were made by the National, and delivered by them to the government. At other times one company executed the whole of the plates and printing for a series of notes, although they may have used the dies and rolls prepared by and belonging to the other company.

That each company might be known as being engaged upon the work, frequently the imprints of both companies were placed upon the same plate, as was the case with the five dollars legal tender you refer to. By marks upon each impression we can tell the time the plate was made, by whom, when the impressions were printed, and by whom.

With the exception of the United States postage stamps (for letters), which are made exclusively by the National Bank-Note Company, all the government work which is given to the two companies to execute is divided equally between them (the only difference being, that the American Company make

two notes of the national currency, fifty dollars and a hundred dollars, more than the National). Very respectfully your obedient servant, J. MACDONOUGH.

Secretary.

'DER BRIEFMARKEN SAMMLER' AND THE AUSTRIAN MERCURIES.

To the Editor of 'THE STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE.' DEAR SIR,-The account of these stamps in the above magazine, and condensed in the Stamp-Collector's Magazine, is so palpably wrong that a running commentary on the principal assertions may not hope) be considered out of place.

1. We are first told that red Mercuries were withdrawn, but a large stock being in hand, they were issued to the public instead of blue. The same is said of yellow, but in addition for the yellow when the stamp was decreed to be withdrawn, a new die (and why a new die?) was engraved, and stamps printed in deep red to supply the place of the deposed yellow-said yellows being meanwhile issued as blues. This is a curious idea, and not probable; it is the same as if our twopenny blue stamp were withdrawn, and a green one made, the twopenny on hand being sold as reds (penny). Then, too, if the yellow and red were used as blues, why are blues common as dirt, and the other two still so exceedingly rare? Indeed the Briefmarken Sammler itself says the original pale red is so rare that many collectors have never even seen one."

2. We are next told that yellow and deep red are seldom postmarked, the minor post-offices having, in spite of repeated instructions, generally omitted to obliterate them. The other idea (No. 1) was curious, this is simply foolish. Why did the minor post-offices obliterate the blues, but require such repeated instructions, and yet not do their duty by the reds and yellows? Have any of your readers noticed other Austrian stamps to be subject to the vagaries and neglect of obliterating clerks? Strange indeed if genuine red and yellow are so seldom obliterated, whilst the blues are to be had in that state by the hundred, that it it cannot be accounted for by the rarity of the two first mentioned.

The facts are simply these:-no Mercuries are original and genuine except blue, yellow, and pale rose. There are reprints respectively coloured poppy red (the ponceau of foreign cataloguers), ochre yellow, and darker blue. These reprints are from the same die as the originals, therefore all genuine Mercuries are from one die. The deep red mentioned by Der Briefmarken Sammler as from a different die, to replace the yellow, is a forgery, and is therefore seldom found obliterated. The reason again that yellows (as well as deep reds) are so rarely postmarked, is a simple one-the real yellow is but little commoner than the real pale rose; ninety-nine per cent. of those sold are prepared by chemical agency from the blue stamp, and as postmarked blues do not turn to so good a yellow as unpostmarked ones, the clue is at once found to yellows being (in common with the forged reds) seldom postmarked.'

Birmingham.

Yours faithfully,

EDWARD L. PEMBERTON.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

E. E. H.-The British Guiana provisional (formerly known as newspaper) stamps, are worth about five shillings each. The white letters in the centre are the initials R. M., written on each stamp before it was circulated. For full information respecting these stamps, we must refer you to the able article on the stamps of British Guiana, in The Stamp-Collector's Magazine, vol. iii.We understand that the project of issuing envelope stamps for France, has been postponed until next year.

DUDLEY, London.-This correspondent, in addition to the stamp named last month, mentions a black Strand Parcels' Company,' and a Bremen official, of the type described in our July number, printed on pink paper. He also sends a Dutch newspaper stamp, consisting of the arms of Holland, with 1 on the left, and c. on the right side, and NOORD, HOLLAND, on the upper edge of the enclosing circle.

L. W. P., Boston, Mass.--Your Prince Edward Island' essay we believe to be an impostor, got up only for sale. The name of the island is wrongly spelt, an s being added to the EDWARD, and altogether the design has an unreal look. It may have been submitted to the Prince Edward Island authorities, but, if so, it must have been without the slightest expectation of its being accepted, and only in order to give it a character which it is not entitled to. We trust our readers will be on their guard against this fictitious essay. Its design consists of a steamship in a narrow octagonal inscribed border, which, with a marginal scroll-work, is enclosed in a rectangular frame. It is printed, our correspondent informs us, in blue, green, vermilion, yellow, and black. -It is the intention of the publishers to continue the Stamp-Collector's Magazine through the next, and, it is hoped, through many succeeding years.

S. C. BLAKE, Great Yarmouth.-The stamp you enclose-a provisional six annas East India-was described and engraved in our last number.

G. W. JUDSON describes a stamp of which we have, ourselves, seen a specimen, and says it came on a letter from Cashmere. We have already noticed a round Cashmere stamp, and the square stamp he names is, perhaps, another of the series. Our correspondent requires information as to its history and date of issue. We purpose giving an engraving of our specimen next month, upon seeing which, our readers will be in a better position to answer G. W. J.'s inquiries, and our own.

J. J., London, sends us some capitally-executed tracings of old newspaper stamps. Two are Irish; one taken from a newspaper of 1784, and consisting of a crown and harp on a mantle, with IRELAND on white, and HALF-PENNY in dark letters below; the other-from the Dublin Morning Post of 1798-is larger and more elaborate, consisting of the Irish harp in a circle, inscribed 544 above, and TWOPENCE below, surmounted by crown, and with branches on each side. The whole is enclosed in a wavy oval ribbon, with a knot above, below, and at the sides. Another tracing is from an old French newspaper, and resembles those now in use, except in the inscription. -TIMBRE ROYAL, and a fourth for Holland is very like the one described in our reply to Dudley,' above; the differences being that the value is 23 instead of 1 c, and the inscription, which is vooR HETLAND, is below the shield.

LLEMNTHWFARFLNYHT.-The length of our correspondent's nom de plume leaves us but little room to reply to his query. Our 'newly-issued' article this month contains a representation of the East Indian stamp he

names.

UNDISCOVERED STAMPS OF THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION.

Ir is not often that it falls to the lot, either of our contemporaries or ourselves, to announce to the philatelic world an entirely new discovery of an ancient stamp, still less to record the accession to the list of two stamps of an issue dating so far back as 1858; the existence of which has never, to our belief, been known by any collector, much less revealed to the world. We can well imagine that our present declaration will cause incredulity among some, and provoke disbelief among others, but we owe it not the less to our readers and ourselves at once to make public the results of our recent research.

All collectors will easily recall to mind the earliest-catalogued stamp of the Argentine Confederation-5 centavos red the design displaying the well-known arms, viz., a rising sun, and the interlaced hands beneath supporting the cap of Liberty; the whole surrounded by a border ornamented with a Greek fretwork, and bearing a large figure (5) of the value immediately below the arms.

This stamp is recorded by Mount Brown as having been issued in 1860, while BergerLevrault, who is as accurate as Brown is loose and careless, gives the date of the decree authorising the stamp, as February, 1858, and of the appearance of the stamp as the succeeding April.

This 5 centavos has remained, hitherto, as the sole type and specimen of the issue, and has never been very common, either used or unused; it is lithographed on thinnish white woven paper, without watermark, adhesive, and unperforated. To it, according to all the catalogues, succeeded an issue of 5 centavos red, 10 cents green, and 15 cents blue, in the following December, viz., 1858 (Levrault), Brown puts it as 1861; the later issue was of a precisely similar design, the chief differences being that the figures of value were smaller, and the Greek fret bordering larger than in the former stamp. Paper and printing were alike.

We recently received from an official of high rank, at Buenos Ayres, several sheets of these two series, and, to our great surprise, found enclosed with them entire sheets of a

10 centavos green, and 15 centavos blue, large figures, similar to the hitherto unique value of the first issue, stamps and values hitherto unknown to us, in common with the rest of the stamp-loving community.

The person who forwarded these to England, obtained them directly from the Argentine government, with which he is officially connected, and his position is to us a sufficient guarantee of their genuine nature.

Putting that consideration aside altogether, and going to the stamps themselves, we also received entire sheets of the 5 centavos first issue, as to the genuiness of which no question can arise, and these sheets of the 10 and 15 centavos precisely tally both in number, position, mode of printing, paper, and indeed every other point where identity is possible, or a difference would, if it existed, be traced. The entire sheet is long

and narrow, comprehending eight stamps in a row, and twelve rows ranged under each other, thus making ninety-six stamps in all to the sheet.

The paper and the adhesive matter at the backs present traces of age, and are precisely similar in the whole three values of the series, the colours are slightly more positive and deep than the green and blue of the second issue. Like the 5 cents first issued, there is a dot after the figures 15. in the blue, but in the green stamp there is no dot after the 10. The size of the fret in the bordering is identical with that surrounding the first 5 cents.

We have now told nearly all we know of this newly-discovered pair of stamps, of the genuine nature of which we entertain no doubt; for, apart from their unquestionable source, the facts above stated leave no room for scepticism in our mind. But we can readily conceive the questions put, Why should these stamps be printed? Why lie so long unknown, and, above all, why should a complete series of three of identical values be issued by the authorities so soon after printing, and without using these?

To this we can reply that the emission of the second issue, it is clear, followed very shortly after the issue of the 5 centavos, and the reason for superseding these latter would be equally applicable to any others of

that issue; next, that the original decree authorising the first issue, specified three rates of postage, chargeable at 5, 10, and 15 centavos respectively; that the 5 centavos was, probably, first printed as being most needed for use, and as a multiple of the other values, could serve in their stead; that afterwards these 10 and 15 centavos were prepared, but before being actually issued, indeed before more than a few sheets were printed off, the change to a smaller sized stamp was resolved on, and the second issue prepared and issued in its entirety; and lastly, that the few sheets thus printed remained in the possession of the government authorities, unknown to philatelists, unchronicled in catalogues, and lost to fame, till the present specimens were sent to England in the early part of last month, November.

Thus it will be seen, we conjecture, in the absence of more detailed information, that this pair of ancient novelties are veritable stamps, printed and prepared for circulation, but never issued, resembling in this respect the stamps of Austrian Italy, recently noticed in our columns. We have thus given our readers the benefit of our judgment and the reasons for our conclusion on the facts now before us. We only desire to reserve ourselves the right, if further information reaches us, to modify our opinion in any way that fresh circumstances may require..

THE MILLIONTH!

A THREE-VOLUME SENSATION.
EXTRACTED FROM 'FUN.'
VOL. I.

Ar the close of a fine autumnal day, during the troublous year eighteen hundred and sixty-odd, a handsome and intelligent youth might have been observed collecting obliterated postage-stamps in a retired part of Islington. Several hundred of the fragile baubles lay before him on the table of his modest parlour.

Suddenly there came a loud, quick summons that shook the entire district. Hark! a second; and then all was utter silence for a time. Anon there came an opening and shutting of doors--a scuffle of busy feet;

479,834 !

VOL. II.

One year was over, and the labours of Guy were not yet half accomplished. Still the hoard kept increasing day by day. His fellow-clerks in the City had come forward manfully in the cause; and a few young ladies at Barnsbury, interested in the romance of the affair, had formed themselves into a committee, and contributed seventynine stamps, together with an expression of profound sympathy written in red ink.

But in the meantime toil and anxiety were doing their work upon the once jubilant and vivacious Guy. His cheek was no longer ruddy-his eye was no longer lighted up with Love and Hope. Occasionally, as he contemplated the barrier that stood between himself and Angelica, the tear would start unbidden.

Medical men recommended a change of air, but there was an insuperable obstacle. Our great metropolis is the centre of commerce, and a large proportion of that commerce is carried on through the agency of the penny post. The climate of Broadstairs is ir reproachable; but there is only one delivery per diem in that salubrious village.

The enfeebled but courageous Guy determined that he would remain in London. Come what might, he would be true to his post! The weary weeks and months crawled on and the collection increased slowly but surely.

At the close of an autumnal day, exactly two years after the events narrated in our first volume, Guy lay stretched upon a bed of sickness. The gorgeous fabric of his ambition was within one little unit of completion, but his face was pale and his eyes lustreless.

A few devoted friends were around his bed; there was no lack of sorrow in that little group. Many of them, stern men of the world, would have purchased at the price of gold one simple obliterated postage-stamp. But it was not to be!

Guy raised himself in bed-looked round him affectionately-and was on the point of speaking, when the well-known summons at the street-door reverberated through the house.

They brought the letter to him. He tore it open, and read in a weak voice :

:

NOTES ON THE PRUSSIAN STAMPS. BY OVERY TAYLOR.

THE Prussian stamps are amongst the few which seem always to have been common. The early issues had been in existence so long before stamp collecting became fashionable, that specimens were easily obtained as soon as a demand for them arose. When penny Bahamas realized eighteen pence each, Prussian stamps could be got for a sixth of that sum. Since then, they have been raked up by hundreds of thousands, and now it would probably be difficult to find a collection in which they are not fairly represented.. Doubtless, every reader of these remarks will be able to confirm them, if correct, or to disprove them, if fallacious, upon the evidence afforded by the Prussian page in his own album.

in

The first emission took place on the 15th November, 1850, and consisted of four stamps, the 6 pf. red, 1 s. gr. rose, 2 s. gr. blue, 3 s. gr. yellow. The device was the same for each value, viz., the head of king on ground of horizontal and vertical lines, ornamented rectangular frame, with FREIMARKE above, and value in words and letters below. The first-named stamp is printed on white paper, the remainder in black on coloured. These latter present, as far as we know, no variation in colour. We have examined thousands, but have never found any greater difference than could be accounted for by the better or worse preservation of particular specimens. The reason, no doubt, is that paper is far more uniformly coloured than printing ink can be. In the 6 pf. there is not the same unchangeable tint, though in none which have come before us has the distinction been so great as to constitute a variety. M. Moens chronicles a 6 pf. brown, but Levrault does not include it in his list. We have now before us a specimen evenly coloured red-brown, which we think may have been so issued, but we hesitate to assert that such was the case, as we have two other specimens that are each partly red and partly