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.