colours and values (second principal emission): 1 kr. chocolate-brown, 3 kr. orange, 6 kr. bright-green, 9 kr. crimson, 18 kr. blue; the paper white, and traversed by an orangecoloured silk thread. The impression of these stamps commenced in the month of August, 1857. In July and August, 1857, the 1, 3, 6, and 9 kr. of the first series were again reprinted upon coloured paper. The new stamps were placed in circulation for the first time on the 22nd September, 1857. In December, 1858, it was decided to introduce perforation and to do away with the silk thread. On the first January, 1859, the old stamps, black on coloured paper, were finally withdrawn. The third principal emission took place, according to official statements, on the 9th November, 1859, when the stamps on white paper without the silk thread, but perforated, were placed in circulation. These stamps were in all other respects the same as those of the second emission. But, in fact, the first perforated stamps on strong white writingpaper, without thread, were not emitted until May-July, 1860. The perforating machine (which was also used for the Baden stamps) was, however, often out of order, and in consequence it became necessary to issue temporarily the stamps on white paper, without silk thread, unperforated. There exist therefore both perforated and unperforated stamps of the third emission, but there is no possibility of determining the exact time at which the unperforated kind was placed in circulation; and it is to be considered as a variety only, and not as a distinct emission,-not as an emission proper, because it was only accidental. In February, 1861, it was decided to use a thin, entirely white, pressed paper, made of pure thread, in fact the best sort of letter paper. In March, 1861, it was proposed to adopt the same colours for the same values throughout the German postal union: namely, for the 1 kr., green; 3 kr., red ;* 6 kr., blue; 9 kr., brown; and for the 18 kr., orange. The writer uses the generic term red to describe throughout the hue which we recognise as rose.-ED. These stamps were in preparation accordingly from March to May, 1861, upon paper without silk thread, and were issued solely with perforations, forming the fourth principal emission. In July, 1862, it was finally decided that only these stamps should be printed and sold (official notice, dated 8th September, 1862). In September, 1864, it was decided to print a small quantity of the oldest stamps (first emission) for sale to collectors, and for exchange with other postal administrations, for which purpose casts were taken from the original blocks.* In this manner 1200 stamps of the 1, 3, 6, 9, and 18 kr. stamps were prepared, of which only a few now exist. In the autumn of 1864 the Wurtemburg stamps were printed, for and at the cost of an Englishman, from the old first dies, upon all sorts of coloured papers, on condition that none of them were to be employed for postage. In the same manner, for other stamp collectors, and notably for one or two, the current 1 kr. stamp was worked in brown, violet, green, &c., and upon all possible species of paper, they paying the printing expenses and the facial value of the stamps. In May, 1865, a special perforating machine was ordered from Berlin, and in August of the same year the perforation of the stamps after the Prussian method was commenced. The first stamps showing this new style were emitted in October, 1865. Present issue. Stamps in sheets of 60; form of paper 64 by 100 lines (the twelfth part of an inch); paper of the finest kind, made from pure thread, white and glossy; impressions in relief; coloured green (a little yellowish), 1 kr. ; red (rose), 3 kr.; blue, 6 kr.; brown, 9 kr.; orange, 18 kr.; perforated with small cuts. ENVELOPES. The introduction of envelopes was for the first time proposed in Wurtemburg in 1858. In 1859 the envelope manufacturer, Helfferich, prepared, without order, samples of envelopes bearing a round stamp of the size of a florin, but his specimens were rejected by the finance minister. * Amateurs must understand that the frames differ a little. In 1862 the question of the emission of envelopes was again brought forward, and this time the finance minister gave his sanction to the proposal. The royal approval was given, under date the 10th February, 1862, for 3, 6, and 9 kr. envelopes in two different sizes. An inscription in very small type (technically termed 'pearl'), crossing the envelopes at the right corner, and printed green, was also resolved on, and stamps authorised of the following values:-3 kr. red, 6 kr. blue, and 9 kr. brown. The minute inscription in pearl was printed by a press from casts in a private printing-office, but the result was not considered satisfactory. The dies of the stamp were prepared by the engraver, Schilling, of Berlin, but that artist had inadvertently spelt the word WURTTEMBERG with one T only, and had accordingly to make fresh dies. Pending their arrival the defective dies were used to test the stamping machines, and it is said that proofs from these dies were also taken at Berlin and have been sold to persons engaged in the stamp trade. The test proofs were never placed in circulation. After the arrival of the correct dies the stamping of the envelopes was commenced. The paper employed for these envelopes was entirely white, highly pressed, glossy, and rather soft. The embossed stamp is the same for all the values; form octagonal. By a decision of the 8th September, 1862, it was ordered that they should be emitted on the following 1st October. Soon after their issue it was remarked that the pure white paper of the envelopes permitted the writing beneath to show through, and consequently recourse was had to a blue paper only slightly pressed by the machine. This paper was first used in the month of December, 1862. In January, 1863, it was resolved not to make any more envelopes of a large size on account of the slight demand for them, but instead samples of very small size, termed "ladies envelopes," were tried for the 3 kr. In February, 1863, the printing of the inscription was confided to a better organised printing-office; the characters were re-engraved in another type, and, galvanised copper casts being taken, the impression was executed by a printing-machine. The shade of green varied, nevertheless, with each working, being sometimes bluish and sometimes yellowish-green, and similarly the colours of the stamps underwent frequent changes the brown especially, of which from three to six shades were successively emitted. After the 1st March, 1863, the stamping of the envelopes was entirely conducted by the administration (Druckmaterialien-verwaltung), and in March, 1864, it was resolved that the printing of the inscription should also be done by the post-office. In consequence, a machine for the purpose was ordered, which commenced working in December, 1864, and produced a better and more equal impression than could be obtained from the typographical method. From the month of December, 1864, the following colours were employed for the pearl incription: black for the 3 kr. red, yellow for the 6 kr. blue, and green for the 9 kr. brown. The first emission of envelopes thus printed took place in the month of January, 1865. A royal decree of the 27th December, 1864, authorised the emission of envelopes of the value of 1 kr. The printing of the inscription for these envelopes commenced in April, and the impression of the embossed stamps in May, 1865, The pearl inscription for this envelope traverses the left angle (for the 3, 6, and 9 kr. the right), and is coloured violet, the stamp itself green. The embossed stamp on the flap consists of a posthorn with the figure 1 in the middle. The emission of 1 kr. envelopes commenced on the 1st June, 1865. In April, 1865, it was resolved to use the same flap ornament (posthorn with corresponding figures) for the 3, 6, and 9 kr. envelopes. The first emission showing this alteration took place in July, 1855. Current envelopes-1st January, 1866, 1 kr., envelope, small size, lilac tinted, pressed paper, pearl lettering in violet, crossing the left angle; 3, 6, and 9 kr., envelopes, all of the middle size (the large size and the very small "ladies envelopes being no more made, there being no demand for them), bluish, pressed paper, pearl inscription crossing the right angle, coloured black for the 3 kr., red for the 6 kr., and green for the 9 kr.; the stamps impressed just under the inscription at the right side, red for the 3 kr., blue for the 6 kr., and brown for the 9 kr. It is not possible even now to obtain perfectly identical shades of the latter. Design of seal on the flap, similar as for the 1 kr. Stamps for sealing returned letters (Retourbriefe) of the well-known type were placed in use from the 1st June, 1862. For the post-office-order envelopes a number of specimens were prepared during the month of September-November, 1865, upon white, green, and red paper of two different sizes, with red stamps for the 3 kr., violet for the 4 kr., blue for the 6 kr., yellow for the 7 kr., and brown for the 9 kr.; official stamp, black, ordinary typographical impression. As to the introduction of the post-officeorder system in Wurtemburg, we have not any definitive order before us; nevertheless, it is probable that the system projected for the postal union will also be adopted in Wurtemburg. REVIEWS OF POSTAL PUBLICATIONS. The American Stamp Mercury. 66 Mass.: F. Trifet. Boston, THE second number of this periodical is before us, and bears evidence of carefulness in its get up." It contains eight pages, of which six are occupied with readable matter, including (in the copy from which we write) an editorial article entitled "Thanks;" a paper on "Newly-Issued Stamps," in which we observe our description of the Argentine series has the honour to be quoted at length; answers to correspondents; a long narrative, entitled "The Winter Mail Service across the Straits of Northumberland, from Prince Edward Island to the main land of New Brunswick," which we may be able to transfer to our columns on a future occasion, and a page of miscellaneons items. We find we have further to add a list of United States revenue stamps on the seventh page. We wish our contemporary every success; and as he states that he has " come to the conclusion to make it the stamp paper of America, or perish in the attempt," we do not doubt but that, with such a resolution, he will obtain all the prosperity he could wish. The American stamp public must surely be able to support two magazines so cheaply priced as this and the Stamp-Collector's Record. We should like to see in both a better class of writing than has hitherto characterised the American periodicals, and believe that, were our friends in the States to study their stamps, they would soon find sufficient matter for interesting original articles. The Postage-Stamp Collector's Hand Book. Boston, U. S.: S. Allan Taylor. THE circumstances connected with the preparation and printing of this book give it a sad and peculiar interest. The author, a young man of three or four and twenty, compiled this book without assistance, and, furthermore, himself set up the type from which it is printed. We are not aware whether he was by profession a printer, but, in any event, the labour thus involved was very considerable, and, as it proved, wrought fatally on his constitution-which, according to the Stamp-Collector's Record, had always been delicate-causing his death, after eight days' illness, on the 8th August, 1867. The facts we have narrated disarm criticism, but were it otherwise we should still have much room for praise in reviewing this book. The descriptions are concise and sufficiently clear for the guidance of collectors; they also appear to include all the standard colours, but not the varieties; in example of Dr. Gray. The spirit in which this respect, as in some others, following the it has been compiled may be inferred from the following extract from the preface: The want of a proper text-book has been one of the weightiest disadvantages under which the American stamp collectors have laboured for two or three years past, and accounts in a great measure for the comparatively slow progress which the science of timbrophily has made in this country, when compared with the progress which it has made during the same period in Great Britain and on the continent. The British works on the subject, apart from their high prices, are usually of such an elaborate character, that the technical phrases of mathematics and the more abstruse technicalities of "heraldry," used by their compilers, serve more to perplex and mystify the young collector, than to afford him any real, available information. No doubt the non-existence of a book-post until a recent date has rendered it impossible for American collectors to obtain English philatelic works at anything like the moderate prices at which they are published; but this drawback no longer exists, and whilst we hail the appearance of the work under notice, we think American collectors will find it to their benefit to collate it with the standard books on this side, which are now placed within their reach. Its completeness, and, so far as we have been able to discover, its general correctness, will be great recommendations to it, and we doubt not it will circulate largely in the States. The objections made to the descriptive terms used in British works seem to us hardly tenable, as only such mathematical or heraldic phrases are employed, as any educated person, devoid of special knowledge of these sciences, could understand; and we are loath to believe that our American cousins" are so far behind us in education as to be unable to comprehend them. That we may not, however, conclude our review with anything approaching to blame, we would call our readers' attention to the commendably low price at which the book is published, and suggest even to English philatelists the propriety of obtaining a copy, as it is the latest, and, in some respects, the best American catalogue published tainly the one which shows most originality in description. POSTAL CHIT-CHAT. cer THE NEW ORLEANS STAMPS are noticeable, from the fact that, although originally made in 1846, and issued for a short time then, they were, upon the breaking out of the rebellion, resuscitated and reprinted to do duty with the stamps of Mobile, Memphis, Baton Rouge, and other provisional stamps of the Confederacy.-The PostageStamp Collector's Handbook. OCEAN PENNY POSTAGE AGAIN.-A penny postage between Great Britain and America is one of those desirable things which we have often thought of, but deemed of remote likelihood; and yet the matter is not only on the tapis, but seems very close on its accomplishment. The National Steamship Company has, it is said, offered to the post-office authorities to carry the mails one day in each week to America at the rate of a penny per half-ounce for letters. NEW AUSTRIAN POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.-A postal convention has been entered into between Austria and the Northern Confederation, which will greatly reduce the postage of letters in Germany. Throughout the whole Austrian empire a single letter costs only one penny, but from Austria to other parts of Germany threepence was the sum paid. By the new arrangement, to begin with the new year, a letter from Vienna to Hamburg or Cologne will only cost one penny, the same as in the Austrian territory. Small packages are to cost threepence. -The Standard. THE TELEGRAPH AND THE POST-OFFICE-Government have proposed to purchase and take up the telegraph lines; and if they had the railways as well as the telegraphs. the natural place for the post-offices and telegraph-offices would be the railway-stations. The postmaster and his staff might perform the functions of ticket-issuer and forwarder of telegraphic messages, in addition to their present duties. The mails would be sorted immediately upon arrival. The vehicle which brings the mails from the train to the post-office would, in such case, bring the letter-carriers with their bags. All telegraphic messages might be paid in stamps, and the telegrams either sent to the stations or deposited in the letter-pillars or wall-boxes, which could be emptied every hour. This consolidation of several duties would be a great public convenience and a considerable saving of expense.-Waterford Mail. THE PLAINT OF THE POSTAGE STAMP.* BY GEORGE ARNOLD. I'm a very dirty little stamp; My back is gummed, my face is dimly blurred; Now on an envelope I'm not so bad, But now I stick to everything I meet; But woe is me! for I have fallen low; I'm passed for vulgar drinks and oyster stews, A victim to the dearth of currency! Thumbing and gumming have quite worn me out; (Extracted from Mason's Magazine.) A HINT TO STAMP DEALERS AND COLLECTORS.-Collectors are proverbially dishonest, and entomologists are no exception. A short time ago a collector in Germany, who had a fine collection of beetles, prided himself on possessing a couple of Goliath beetles of great value. One day, to his dismay, he found one of the beetles had disappeared out of the drawer. He made out a list of the persons collecting such objects, who had lately inspected his collection, and then set out to visit their collections. He called on No. 1 and No. 2 without any result, and looking through the cabinet of No. 3, there was a Goliath of the kind he missed. He said, "So you have got that species at last?" "Yes," said the collector No. 3; "I had to pay a large price for it." "Pray let me have it in my hand, and examine it more closely." "Oh, certainly," said the collector No. 3. As soon as he had got it fairly in his hand, he broke the specimen in half, that is, between the body and thorax, and holding the broken ends up to the collector, showed him a label, gummed on the inside of the body, on which was written, "Stolen from Mr. R." Foreseeing such an event might happen, he had placed such a label in the body of each of his specimens. It is to be wished this could be done in other cases. Athenæum. * Written during the late rebellion, when P. O. stamps were in general use for currency. The numerous errors in the designation of the stamps, in the spaces set apart for them-not corresponding with the list on the opposite page-must be well known to all who use this album, and is, I know, sometimes a source of bewilderment. I think most will agree with me that it adds much to the appearance of a page of stamps to have a slight space between each stamp, be it ever so small, and that nothing looks worse than to have them crowded and overlapping each other. Now in many cases the allotted spaces in this album are so miserably small that it is impossible to arrange the stamps without crowding, or even overlapping; as for instance, in those of Austria, and more especially, Austrian Italy. Keep your margins as wide as possible," say those who advise us on stamp collecting. "Cut off your perforations to make your stamps fit together neatly," would seem to be that of M. Lallier. Compare a page of Austrian stamps, or of Swiss, with one of Turkey, or Mecklenburg-Strelitz, or of Spain, page 69, and the difference of effect will be evident. In some cases, again, the spaces are to an unsightly degree disproportioned, as those for the St. Thomas stamps; in others, the forms are erroneous, and might mislead a beginner, as the circles for the oval envelopes of Hanover, and the early issues of our own stamps. In a new edition, too, it is much to be desired that no spaces should be specially allotted for those vile productions, the Hamburg locals, which add a disfigurement, and no beauty, to any stamp album. If any one is greatly desirous of collecting them, let a limbo be provided for them at the end of the book, but without names or spaces, so that those who do not care for them may appropriate the space to better purposes. The same remarks would apply also, I think, to the stamps of private firms, Smith, Elder, & Co.; Brown, Jones, & Robinson; et hoc genus omne. The double stamps also of our own, which are but little better than an imposition on collectors, should be henceforth omitted, and the space applied to better uses. One other point also, I think, should be submitted to M. Lallier's polite consideration. If in this country we were to publish an edition of a stamp album for the use of Frenchmen, I think we should put the stamps for France foremost in it; will not M. Lallier, in a new edition for this country, exercise a like politeness towards us, and place our country first in it? Surely he will not be behind us in politeness in this matter. Wirksworth. F. II. BRETT. THE NEW STAMP EXCHANGE. To the Editor of "THE STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE." SIR,-Having noticed in a recent number of your valuable magazine a notification respecting a "New Stamp Exchange" in the city, I, as a constant attendant at the same, hasten to corroborate in a great measure the facts of the case as narrated by your correspondent. The meeting in the Royal Exchange appears, however, to date from a much earlier period than he imagines; for although it is true that this autumn we received an access of strength in consequence of the breaking up of the Cullum street "congregation," still our attendance in that building, as I am informed, really dates from the cessation of the Birchin Lane Exchange in 1862, and has consequently continued, on and off, for nearly five years. This year the locality is in the immediate left-hand corner on entering from the portico, last year it was in the immediate right hand, and in 1865 in the extreme right ditto. Here my information fails me, but I am given to understand that we have been all round the building, which, from the fact of its affording shelter in wet weather and seats into the bargain, is admirably adapted for the requirements of such a meeting. I should have thought that the information afforded to your readers would have tended to increase our numbers, but I have seen no new comers. The attendances, regular and irregular, since I have been there have at times gone as high as 50 or 60 in number, it is often, I am sorry to say, more generally a dozen or so With respect to the regular attendance, I may remark that it is small as compared even with Birchin Lane in the latter part of 1862, only some half dozen regularly attending from one till two o'clock (Saturdays excepted), all of whom, however, are collectors of long standing in the city, and most of them of the old English schoolthe exception existing in a few isolated cases where accredited locals (i. e., those having government sanction) are considered. The best collection represented is 1800, another numbers 1600, both allowing the above innovation, my own (strictly government emissions) follows in the wake with 1400. As you may suppose, stamps soon find their level as to price on 'change. If you want to sell it must be for almost nothing or not at all; but it is a good place for buying. As an instance of this I may mention a Peru, first issue, 1 p. red, bought for 2d. ; 2d. block Mauritius also bought for 2d. 6d. yellow Victoria (value in ovals) for d.! and Sydney views, 1d. and 2d. (clouds and no clouds), for 6d. a piece, as many as you like to have. I suppose this winter season we shall as usual slacken in our attendance during the inclement weather, but only to resume in, I hope, still greater force next spring. Trusting the above particulars may interest your readers, I subscribe myself, Yours truly, TAN. London. P.S.-I presume that "J. H. Greenstreet" is not aware that gum-tragacanth two or three years after use turns quite brown in colour; being an entomologist I know SO to my cost, for many of my mounted specimens of coleoptera are quite spoilt by it. I can confidently recommend white starch to collectors: it leaves no gloss on the paper; does not affect thin paper stamps by showing through them; and although it secures the stamp, does so only to such an extent as to render removal at any time much easier of attainment. M. BERGER-LEVRAULT ON THE ENVELOPE QUESTION. To the Editor of "THE STAMP-COLLECTOR'S MAGAZINE." DEAR SIR,-I observe in your number for November last the letter of "Doubtful" (Waterford), entitled "How are envelopes to be mounted? wherein the writer arrives at the following conclusion, which I for one can by no means adopt : "I think, unless one of your correspondents can clearly |