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POSTAL CHIT-CHAT

'HAVE you a yellow Saxon?' 'I want a
Russian.' 'I'll give a red Prussian for a
blue Brunswicker.' 'Will you exchange a
Russian for a black English?' 'I wouldn't
give a Russian for twenty English!' Such
were the exclamations that saluted our ears
two years or so since, when waiting for an
interminable line of vehicles to break suf-
ficiently to allow us to cross Cheapside. The
singularity of the conversation attracted our
attention and excited our curiosity. The last
phrase particularly surprised us, and we
turned round in expectancy of seeing some
sallow foreigner's countenance, but found
the remark, so disparaging to our national

No. 1. Feb. 1, 1863. Price Fourpence.]

2

member being asked to search among our
old letters for the black English postage
stamp; and we have at times contributed a
stray specimen towards the store of a young
lady, who had been even then some time
collecting, and we are frequently inclined
to wish our said friend and her stamps
are impatiently
at the place whence we
expecting an importation, viz., Hong Kong,
for, albeit we never seemed to take any
interest therein, we must have imbibed the
seeds of a malady which has entailed on us a
frightful amount of trouble, excitement, and
anxiety.

An

The timbromanie, or stamp mania, has long prevailed in Belgium, Germany, and France; originating, as we have been given to understand, in the former country; and though, as we have just intimated, by no means unknown here, it is within the last two or three years only that it appears to have taken a firm root in the metropolis, extending its ramifications to all parts of the United Kingdom. individual in Brighton boasts of being the first to introduce it generally into England, and was, we believe, the primary commercial speculator in what may be termed a new trade. Twelve months ago not a stamp could be purchased in London at any shop, whereas there are now a dozen or more regular dealers, and numbers of private individuals make a pretty tolerable profit out of the coloured rectangles launched into circulation, with no purpose of that kind, by Sir Rowland Hill.

have seen

The (now, alas!) surreptitious 'Change in Birchin Lane and its alleys,-where from fifty to a hundred individuals used to congregate in the evenings of last spring,-was an interesting epitome of its typical congener in the neighbourhood. Buying, selling, and exchanging were then carried on with spirit and pleasurable excitement; all ranks (we one of her Majesty's ministry there) and all ages (ourselves were blandly told by X 149, that we were old enough to know better) taking part in the traffic. We have occasionally seen ladies, album in hand, on the scene; of whom one contrived to effect a highly-advantageous exchange of a very so-so specimen for a rarity, with a friend of ours, who salvoed his greenyoung

ness with the apologetic remark, that he could not drive a hard bargain with a lady.

The variation in prices was right noteworthy-a stamp fetching sixpence or a shilling one evening, the next realising but a penny or twopence; some merchant's clerk or office-boy, with an eye to business, having rummaged to some purpose for a packet of old letters laden with the stamp in demand. We have seen a set of the Nevis stamps the same evening pass from hand to hand for four, six, and eight shillings successively, and even at the last price bought to sell again at a profit.

A similar scene is of daily occurrence in the gardens of the Tuilleries at Paris, though Sunday afternoons attract the larger attendance; but there the fair sex decidedly predominates, and groups of amateurs may be observed sitting with their albums on the chairs under the trees, busily earnest in exchanging. The same, on a minor scale, might be witnessed in the gardens of the Luxembourg, on Thursday evenings.

Marvellous to a degree is the ignorance of the uninitiated respecting the various kinds of postal stamps. We heard a gentleman, who had travelled through the United States, confidently affirm there were no purely local stamps there, the actual number being then something like a hundred. Again, inquiring of a Spaniard if he could procure us some specimens of the old issues of his country before 1854, he pertinaciously insisted there had been no postage in Spain till after that period, and it was only by producing one of our own collection dated 1850, that he could be convinced of his erroneous idea. Spanish gentleman, of our acquaintance, had never heard of the nineteen-cuartos stamp of his own country; and a WestIndian merchant of Jamaica, through whose hands the stamps of that island must have passed for years, had never observed the difference between them and the English.

A

Last year we applied at several minor offices, and even at the general post in Paris, for the chiffre-taxe stamp-showing one as a pattern-and were assured by one and all that it could not be French. This will be less surprising on observing the general ignorance prevailing as respects our own higher-priced

envelopes. Before we ascertained whence to obtain them, we tried at several post-offices, -among others, at the principal districtoffice at the West End,-and were confidently informed they were not in use then, if they ever had been, which was doubtful. Not two months since we used a fourpenny one in part payment of a registered letter, at Lombard Street, which created quite a sensation among the officials there, who had never seen one before.

Something more excusable was the ignorance of a servant where we were residing, who, remarking our penchant for such items, good-naturedly volunteered the information that her aunt had received a letter from her brother in the West Indies, with a very extraordinary stamp on it. Thinking to draw a prize, we rushed into the city, mounted one of the endless staircases of a seven-storied warehouse; penetrated the sanctum of the housekeeper, narrowly escaping a broken head from the low roof; and, after waiting till a miscellaneous store of treasures was ransacked for the coveted epistle, were duly rewarded for our enterprise by the sight of the wondrous stamp, which disclosed itself to our eager eyes in the shape of a common penny head stuck cornerwise!!

RISE AND PROGRESS OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

SIR ROWLAND HILL deservedly claims credit for the introduction,-we may say, invention, of the adhesive postal stamp; but we cannot congratulate the designer of our penny and twopenny stamps on the display of any taste. Compared with some since issued, they are simply hideous. Those of other denominations are a shade more tasty, but poor in colour; and our envelopes are handsome, though not comparable with the Baden and some others. The newly-issued Antigua is extremely like the first English, but immeasurably superior, being well designed and exquisitely engraved.

Zurich appears to have been the first adopter of the new system, as some of its stamps bear the date of 1843. Half-a-dozen years later Belgium and the French Republic

made simultaneous issues; the former libeling the really handsome countenance of King Leopold, which the too liberal use of cancelling ink tends further to uglify, and the latter imaging the frail but beautiful daughter of Eve, whose effigy realised the ideal goddess of liberty of the first revolution.

About the same time appeared the now rare local Madrid stamp, bearing the arms of that city impressed in bronze. The next year (1850) launched the general Spanish (of which more anon), the Thurn and Taxis, Baden, local Saxon, Wurtemburg, and Prussian. The first and last of these bore the heads of their respective sovereigns, but the German minor states contented themselves with the useful, if unornamental, design of a large figure, denoting the value of the stamp. These, however, with the exception of the Thurn and Taxis, which retain the chiffre, now carry the impress of their various armorial bearings.

It would be tedious to individualise the gradual but rapid enrolment of the other continental states, and, in fact, every part of the known world, under the system. The most recent adopter is Nicaragua; the stamps of Hong Kong, though made some time since, being not yet issued; and Turkey having but lately decided upon a postal emission.

Our own and twopenny, with slight penny variations, have existed three and twenty years, while Hanover, Brazil, and others have issued three; Oldenburg and Prussia, four; the colony of Victoria, six; and Spain no fewer than eight impressions, bearing the same value. The latter country, indeed, for four successive years varied her Catholic Majesty's profile annually, made use of the Spanish arms for a twelvemonth, then settled on the sovereign's face again; and, strange to say, the Queen of Spain looks much younger (on the stamp) at this present year than she did thirteen years ago. first four years' issue comprehends the rarest and most recherché specimens extant, many being almost unattainable. These are far from attractive in appearance, but the emission of 1854 (armorial bearings) comprehends a series beautiful in colour and finely engraved. For richness of hue, how

The

ever, and exquisite design, the stamps of Greece stand pre-eminent, unless Nova Scotia be allowed to dispute the palm.

The most prominent postal pattern is the reigning sovereign's head; witness our own domestic and colonial stamps, and some of the continental states. Next in favour follow the arms of the country, as in the modern Prussian, Danish, Swedish, Russian, and others. An emblematical device signalises some states, as the figure of Hope, for the Cape Colony; a swan for Western Australia, where the rara avis of the Latin poet first offered itself to modern eyes; Britannia, for Trinidad, Barbadoes, &c.; and a ship for British Guiana. Under the same category fall the elegantly-designed stamps of Nevis and Liberia, and the very quaint impressions of Monte Video and the Argentine Confederation.

More than forty changes have been rung on Queen Victoria's portrait, represented in so many ways, and in about a dozen shades of colour. After the queer shilling Victoria and the South Australian, our British penny would get the prize for

ONE

beauty.

LAND

PENNY

ugliness; for the old penny and tenpenny Van Diemen's Land, and the curious native Mauritius impressions, have a sort of barbaric simplicity; while the Ceylon envelopes and the Nova Scotian adhesives claim pre-eminence in

Except the Swiss, whose different cantons formerly issued divers patterns, the colonies of Canada and New Brunswick exhibit the greatest diversity of design, each imaging six devices, including the effigy of one of the postmasters, whose harmless vanity cost him his appointment.

Impressions are usually in black on coloured or in colour on white paper, with the exception of two of the Mexicans, which show colour on colour; but the Russian and some of the disused Swiss, and one or two others, sport two colours on the same stamp. The local Spanish stamp, alluded to previously, and one of the Sardinian, are printed in bronze; one of the Western Australians and a few of the local

New Yorks in gold. A different hue is generally employed to distinguish each value, except for the now obsolete Neapolitans, which were all of the selfsame colour and bore a similar device, but within diversely formed scrolls; and the Newfoundlands, six of whose stamps were of the same pattern and closely approximating hue, till the last emission, when a darker shade was employed to distinguish the values most closely allied. The Peruvian Steam Navigation Company's (of which we give an P engraving), Liberian, and very rare old Brazilian stamps, are among the largest; and Brunswick and Mecklenburg-Schwerin issue the smallest stamps. Those of the mysterious town of Bergedorf are note-worthy, as varying the dimensions in accordance with the values of its stamps.

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Some of the Natals are truly singular, being simply rectangles of thin coloured paper, impressed with a hand stamp.

Postal stamps most usually have their value more or less conspicuously marked, but the obsolete Barbadoes, Trinidad, and Mauritius, and current St. Lucia and Ionian stamps, are distinguishable only by their colours.

The lowest money value is borne by the one centime of France and Belgium, being not quite two-fifths of a farthing; and the highest (168. 8d.) by the four-dollar Californian Pony Express.

These are also of lower PONY EXPRESS

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denominations, and below them rank the five-shilling New South Wales, the onescudo Roman, the ninety cents of Hong Kong and the United States, and the three lire of Tuscany and Sardinia; but the more usual values range from the equivalent of an English penny to a shilling.

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The rarest stamps in actual use are those of Nicaragua, the Philippines, and the Sandwich Isles; yet these are, of course, comparatively attainable, and will become commoner as the demand increases. But the long-disused emissions of Reunion and New Cale

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