[Illustration: POSTAGE STAMPS HAVING SPECIAL USES
1 Canada: Registered Letter Fee Stamp 2 Belgium: Parcels Post Stamp 3 U.S.A.: Parcels Post Stamp 4 Italy: Unpaid Tax Stamp 5 India: Telegraph stamp 6 Germany: Official stamp 7 Austria: Stamp for franking newspapers 8 Sweden: Official stamp 9 Spain: War-tax stamp levied on letters]
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.
[2] Plate No. 77 is supposed to have been rejected as unfit for use. An unused copy, however, figures in the Tapling Collection in the British Museum.