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                             [Illustration]

                                   THE
                  Stanley Gibbons Philatelic Handbooks.

                              SAINT VINCENT

                                  WITH
                      Notes and Publishers’ Prices.

                                   BY
                            FRANCIS H. NAPIER
                                   AND
                              E. D. BACON.

                        STANLEY GIBBONS, LIMITED,
                          391, STRAND, LONDON.
                                  1895.




[Illustration]




[Illustration]




                                   THE
                  Stanley Gibbons Philatelic Handbooks.

                             SAINT VINCENT.

                                  WITH
                     _NOTES AND PUBLISHERS’ PRICES_.

                                   BY
                            FRANCIS H. NAPIER
                                   AND
                              E. D. BACON.

                                 London:
                        STANLEY GIBBONS, LIMITED,
                              391, STRAND.
                                  1895.


                                                   _391, STRAND, LONDON._

_The large number of collectors, not only in this country, but also on
the other side of the Atlantic, who now make the postal issues of the
various West Indian Colonies of Great Britain the object of their quest,
justifies us in believing that the present volume (the fourth of the
series) will be received with as much interest as that which has been
evinced for the preceding volumes._

_The authors of this Handbook, Lieut. F. H. Napier, R.N., and Mr. E. D.
Bacon, have in preparation a Handbook on the Stamps of Barbados, which we
hope will be ready for publication in the course of the present year._

_The prices quoted will in some cases be found higher than the prices
given in our General Catalogue and Price List, but it must be borne in
mind that those in these Handbooks are specimens of more than average
quality, for it is a fact now generally recognized by all philatelists
that a specimen in exceptional condition commands a higher price than
that which rules for an average specimen._

_We have priced only those varieties which we have in stock in certain
quantities, but it must not be concluded from this that all those
unpriced are of such rarity or value that we are unable to supply them._

                                              _STANLEY GIBBONS, LIMITED._

_May, 1895._




SAINT VINCENT.




INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.


The prehistoric times of Philately may be said to have ceased in 1863,
when the publication of the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ and the
_Timbre-Poste_ commenced. The few and meagre catalogues which preceded
them in 1862—such as those of Mount Brown and Dr. Gray in England, Moens
in Belgium, and Potiquet in France—can only be looked upon as archaic
productions, interesting certainly because of their associations, but
of no appreciable utility now-a-days to the student of stamps. It is,
however, worthy of remark that the difference between imperforate and
perforated stamps was then recognized, as they are distinguished from
each other in the catalogues both of Moens and Potiquet; this shows that
even at that early date the true philatelic spirit was already abroad.

When studying countries of which the philatelic histories begin prior
to 1862 or 1863, we are dependent entirely on public notices emanating
from postal authorities, official records, and information derived from
the books of firms who manufactured the stamps, or supplied the plates,
paper &c. for printing them, sources of knowledge not always easy of
access. Luckily for our present purpose, seeing that postage stamps were
not adopted in St. Vincent until 1861, we are not so dependent on these
official or commercial records, having a great number of philatelic
works, such as catalogues and periodicals, to rely upon, all of which we
have carefully searched and collated; at the same time we have received
great assistance from Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., Limited, the printers
of the stamps included under the head of Section I. This Company have
been good enough to furnish us with a complete list of every stamp sent
out by them to the Island, a copy of which we give in Appendix D, and we
acknowledge with thanks our indebtedness to the Managing Director and
Secretary, for the valuable material they have so considerately placed
at our disposal, which has enabled us to satisfactorily clear up several
points that before were more or less obscure. It will also be seen that
the list helps in no small degree to form what we hope may be considered
a fairly complete history of the stamps of this Island.

Our method of designating and arranging the perforations of the stamps
supplied to the Colony by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. from 1861
to 1882 is a novel one, but we think it will remove the difficulty
that has hitherto been felt in classifying the perforations, as it
has always seemed impossible to assign any limit to the number of
so-called compounds, which, if we are to believe some recently-published
catalogues, must indeed be infinite, and incapable of any classification
whatsoever. For instance, in one of these catalogues, five simple and
seven compound perforations are given to the stamps of 1861; to those of
1866 seven simple and five compound; to those of 1869 four simple and
five compound; and so on through later issues. On the other hand, another
catalogue, also of recent date, is content to make the general statement
that the issues up to 1880 are perforated 11½ to 15, simple and compound.
This is at first sight an apparently innocent statement, but in reality
it opens up an appalling perspective of interminable lists. We think we
shall have justly earned the gratitude of the many philatelists who (as
far as it is compatible with strict accuracy) desire above all things
simplicity of arrangement, in having banished from the lists all mention
of these fanciful perforations, whether simple or compound. The fact is
that in the St. Vincent stamps printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.,
with the exception of one (that is the yellow-green Six Pence of 1862),
there are only two simple perforations and one compound, and although
this last makes its appearance very frequently, it is always exactly the
same in every issue in which it occurs. No doubt the confusion which
has arisen has been caused by the too zealous and indiscriminate use of
a perforation gauge limited to two centimetres, and applied to single
specimens of stamps, which has led true compounds to be confounded
with those apparent deviations from the normal gauge arising from
irregularities in the spacing of the holes, irregularities existing in
both of the two machines used for these stamps by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon
& Co., but in a very much greater degree in one of them than in the other.

The whole point of our argument lies in this, that to separate
perforations, it is only necessary to differentiate between those
produced by distinct machines, and that there is no object in collecting
the same stamp over and over again merely because the perforation varies
within a space of 2 centimetres, _if_ it can be shewn that the stamps
were all perforated by one and the same machine. Hitherto it has been
the great aim of collectors and writers to try and gather together every
variety of perforation that can be found on a stamp of any one particular
issue—this quite regardless of the cause from which these varieties
arise. Our method obviously removes many difficulties, and greatly
simplifies the arrangement of all stamps that have been perforated by
machines in which the pins were irregularly spaced. We further claim
that our system is based upon strictly scientific lines, and that it is
applicable, not only to St. Vincent, but to the other British Colonies
whose stamps were printed and perforated by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.,
although it must be borne in mind that in some of these there were other
machines used, besides those we describe for St. Vincent.

As in the Notes we go fully into all details of perforation, it is not
now necessary to dwell further upon this point; we only wish to insist
on the importance of the subject, as it was the uncertainty hitherto
regarding it that first induced us to particularly examine the stamps
of St. Vincent, and that now leads us to make public the results of our
investigations.

In order to make the list of the varieties of perforation as complete
as possible, we have during the last three years examined a very large
number of St. Vincent stamps, so many that we think it is highly unlikely
there still remains anything to be added to the tables of perforations
(Appendices B and C), and this in spite of the gaps that will be seen to
exist in them.

The history of the use of distinctive postage stamps in St. Vincent
dates from May 1st, 1860, when the Colonial Authorities took over from
the Imperial Government the entire management of the Post Office of the
Island, which, like the posts of many of the other British West Indies,
had up to that date been administered by the Postmaster-General of the
United Kingdom. The Local Legislature of the Island thereupon passed
an Ordinance, known as the “Post Office Act,” which became law on June
14th, 1860. This Act, amongst other things, provided for the appointment
of a Colonial Postmaster, a General Post Office for the Island, rates
of postage, and the issue of postage stamps. As many of the clauses of
the Ordinance possess a good deal of interest for Philatelists, we give,
in Appendix A, a copy of those which, from a collector’s point of view,
may be considered the more important ones. After the passing of the Act
postage stamps were ordered from England, and, as we shall afterwards
see, a supply was despatched to the Island on March 27th, 1861. The
stamps were no doubt put into use immediately on their arrival, as a
statement in the _Blue Book_ of the Colony for 1861 gives the amount
received for postage during that year as £158 16s. 5d., as against £78
5s. 4d. for 1860, and the increase is accounted for by the “Sale of
Postage Stamps which were obtained in 1861.” This fixes with certainty
the date of the first issue, but when we commenced to study those of the
later issues, and attempted to make a proper chronological list, we found
there were many discrepancies in the published catalogues we consulted;
from them we turned to contemporary notices in the pages of the
_Timbre-Poste_, the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, the _Philatelist_, the
_Philatelic Record_, and other less celebrated periodicals, in hopes of
removing our difficulties. Unfortunately Philately was decidedly under a
cloud from the middle to near the end of the seventies, and this is just
the time during which a number of issues took place in St. Vincent. The
_Stamp Collectors Magazine_ ceased with 1874, the _Philatelist_, never
a good source of _original_ information, stopped in 1876, and after that
the _Timbre-Poste_ alone filled the breach until the _Philatelic Record_
made its appearance in 1879. It is with regard to this important subject
of dates that Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s list has been so extremely
useful, as we have thereby been enabled to check the notices scattered
through the pages of the various philatelic works we have mentioned. We
therefore believe that the dates of issue given by us will be found to be
more accurate than those in any previous publication.

With regard to describing the colours of the stamps, we have met with
the usual difficulty of at once satisfying our own opinions, and those
of various friends whom we have occasionally questioned as to what they
would call the colour of such or such a stamp, and we do not think
we have got out of the difficulty either better or worse than other
compilers of catalogues usually do, the differences of opinion we have
met with, as to the proper names by which to call certain shades, being
generally hopelessly irreconcilable. No reference to other works is of
much use; for instance, we find the one shilling of 1874 called “dirty
rose colour” in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, “dull rose-pink” in
the _Philatelist_, “lilac-rose” in the London Society’s list, “pink”
by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., “_rose sale_” in Moens’ Catalogue,
and “lake” in Messrs. Stanley Gibbons & Co.’s price list. It must be
confessed that all this is very confusing, and we are afraid that
collectors will always find the task of distinguishing between the
earlier red shillings of St. Vincent rather a difficult one. Fortunately
there are not many cases in this Colony where the identification of a
particular stamp depends on the description of its colour alone, as we
are generally helped to the desired conclusion either by the watermark or
the perforation.

We think that the two plates of autotype illustrations accompanying this
work will be found something more than mere embellishments, and will be
of real use to our readers as a means of discriminating between genuine
and false surcharges, and also of distinguishing the various perforations
alluded to in our text.

There are many interesting questions connected with the perforating
machines used by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., as well as with the
papers, unwatermarked and watermarked, employed by them for the numerous
British Colonies to which they supplied stamps; but in this handbook
we do not propose to enter into these questions more fully than is
absolutely necessary for elucidating our subject. We intend to do so at
greater length in a handbook of the stamps of Barbados, now in course of
preparation. This country is much more complex than St. Vincent, both in
its watermarks and perforations, and a thorough knowledge of the stamps
of the latter Colony will prove to be of the greatest assistance when the
more difficult subject of Barbados comes to be studied.

The stamps of St. Vincent are remarkable, inasmuch as this is the only
British Colony that still continues to print the whole of its stamps from
line-engraved plates. This is certainly noteworthy when we bear in mind
that since the year 1883 the stamps have been printed by Messrs. De La
Rue & Co., whose name is generally associated with surface-printed stamps.

The change of printers, although the same plates have always been
employed, marks such a distinct epoch in the history of the stamps,
that we have thought it advisable to place those furnished by the two
different firms under separate headings, and so break up the Reference
List into two parts, under the nomenclature of Sections I. and II.

It will be observed that our lists contain no mention whatever of postal
fiscals. Such stamps do not exist in St. Vincent, although M. Moens and
other writers have chronicled them. All postmarked specimens that may be
met with must have either been passed through the post by inadvertence,
or been obliterated by favour.

In concluding these remarks we beg to acknowledge with thanks the
kindness of Mr. T. Maycock, Mr. M. Giwelb, and Mr. W. H. Peckitt, who
have lent us stamps for illustration, and of Messrs. Whitfield King &
Co., who sent us for examination a great number of entire sheets of the
De La Rue printings, which have been of the greatest assistance to us in
writing the notes to Section II. of this Handbook.




REFERENCE LIST.


SECTION I.

_Stamps printed and perforated by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., London,
from 1861 to 1881 inclusive._


Issue 1.

_May 1861._

  =Type=                       Shape, upright rectangular—22¼ mm.
                               × 19¼ mm. Diademed head of Queen to left
                               on engine-turned background. Straight
                               labels above and below, with “St. Vincent”
                               and value in words in white block capitals
                               on solid background.

                               Illustration No. 1.

  =Paper=                      White wove, inclined to greyish, rather
                               rough, and varying considerably in
                               thickness.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish.

  =Perforation=                A.[1]

                               Illustrations 16 and 17.

[1] This is a roughly punctured, slightly irregular perforation, varying
from 14 to 15, but generally about 14½. See Note to Section I.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =1=    | 1d., bright rose-red                          |  5  0 |  2  6
         |                                               |       |
  =2=    | 6d., blue-green                               | 12  6 |  3  0

                    Variety. Imperforate vertically.

  =2_a_= | 6d., blue-green                               |       |

             Variety. With double perforation horizontally.

  =3=    | 1d., bright rose-red                          |       |

                         Varieties. Imperforate.

  =4=    | 1d., bright rose-red                          |       |
         |                                               |       |
  =5=    | 6d., blue-green                               |       |


Issue 2.

_1862._

  =Type and Paper=             As in Issue 1.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish.

  =Perforation=                C.[2]

                               Illustrations Nos. 13 and 14.

[2] This is a clean cut, slightly irregular perforation, generally 15½,
sometimes 15, and more rarely 14½. See Note to Issue 2.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =6=    | 6d., yellow-green                             |       | 10  0


Issue 3.

_1863-1866._

  =Type and Paper=             As in Issue 1.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish to yellow-brown.

  =Perforation=                [3]B and B × A.[4]

                               Illustrations Nos. 18, 19, and 20.

[3] This is a clean cut, very irregular perforation, varying from 11 to
nearly 13. See Note to Section I.

[4] Throughout this handbook, in describing perforations made by two
machines, the first given measurement denotes the horizontal gauge, and
the second the vertical.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED B.

  =7=    | 1d., bright rose-red                          |  5  0 |  2  6
         |                                               |       |
  =8=    | 6d., blue-green                               | 20  0 |  5  0

                         (ii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =9=    | 1d., bright rose-red                          |       |


Issue 4.

_August 1866._

  =Type and Paper=             As in Issue 1.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish, and white.

  =Perforation=                A, B, and B × A.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED A.

  =10=    | 1s., dark slate-grey                         |       | 20  0
          |                                              |       |
  =11=    | 1s., greyish-purple                          |       |

                           (ii.) PERFORATED B.

  =12=    | 4d., deep bright blue                        | 17  6 | 12  6

                        (iii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =13=    | 1s., dark slate-grey                         | 45  0 | 17  6
          |                                              |       |
  =14=    | 1s., greyish-purple                          |       |


Issue 5.

_April 1869._

  =Type and Paper=             As in Issue 1.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish and white.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =15=    | 1s., indigo                                  | 65  0 | 25  0


Issue 6.

_September 1869._

  =Type and Paper=             As in Issue 1.

  =Watermark=                  None.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =16=    | 4d., deep bright yellow                      | 60  0 | 35  0
          |                                              |       |
  =17=    | 1s., bright brown                            | 65  0 | 22  6


Issue 7.

_June 1871._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper=                      White wove, varying considerably in
                                thickness.

  =Watermark=                  A six-pointed Star, measuring 13 mm.
                                from point to point across the Star;
                                generally regular, but sometimes varying
                                a little in the shape of the rays.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish, and white.

  =Perforation=                A and B × A.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED A.

  =18=    | 1d., black                                   |  2  6 |  0  9
          |                                              |       |
  =19=    | 6d., dull blue-green                         |       |
          |                                              |       |
  =20=    | 6d., dark blue-green                         | 20  0 |  6  0

                    Variety. Imperforate vertically.

  =21=    | 1d., black                                   |       |

                         (ii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =22=    | 1d., black                                   | 20  0 |  4  0


Issue 8.

_June 1872._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 7.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish to brownish-yellow.

  =Perforation=                B and B × A.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED B.

  =23=    | 1s., bright rose-red                         |       | 17  6
          |                                              |       |
  =24=    | 1s., deep rose-red                           |       | 17  6
          |                                              |       |
  =25=    | 1s., dull red                                |       | 17  6

                         (ii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =26=    | 1s., bright rose-red                         |       |
          |                                              |       |
  =27=    | 1s., deep rose-red (?)                       |       |
          |                                              |       |
  =28=    | 1s., dull red (?)                            |       |


Issue 9.

_Early in 1874._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 7.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish to brownish-yellow.

  =Perforation=                B and B × A.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED B.

  =29=    | 1s., pale violet-rose                        |       |

                         (ii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =30=    | 1s., pale violet-rose                        |       | 16  0


Issue 10.

_1875._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 8, but the paper is usually
                                 strongly toned by the gum.

  =Gum=                        Yellow-brown.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =31=    | 1s., dark claret                             | 70  0 | 17  6


Issue 11.

_February 1877._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 7.

  =Gum=                        Yellowish, and white.

  =Perforation=                A, B, and B x A.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

                           (i.) PERFORATED A.

  =32=    | 6d., pale yellow-green (October 1878)        | 15  0 |

                           (ii.) PERFORATED B.

  =33=    | 1s., bright vermilion-red (June 1880)        | 30  0 | 10  0

                        (iii.) PERFORATED B × A.

  =34=    | 6d., pale yellow-green (February 1877)       | 15  0 |  5  6
          |                                              |       |
  =35=    | 1s., bright vermilion-red ( ”     ”  )       | 40  0 | 12  0


Issue 12.

_July 1877._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 7.

  =Gum=                        Yellow-brown to white.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =36=    | 4d., dark deep blue                          |       | 40  0


Issue 13.

_May 1880._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of One Penny made
                                 locally by surcharging “d./1” twice
                                 vertically, in red, on the Six Pence,
                                 dark blue-green, of Issue 7, the two
                                 halves of this stamp being divided
                                 vertically by a line of perforation
                                 gauging 12. Illustration No. 2.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 7.

  =Perforation=                A, and 12 on one side.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =37=    | “1d.,” in red, on right half of 6d., dark    |       |
          |   blue-green                                 | 70  0 | 70  0
          |                                              |       |
  =38=    | “1d.,” in red, on left half of 6d., dark     |       |
          |   blue-green                                 | 70  0 | 70  0

          Variety. With additional line of the local perforation.

  =39=    | “1d.,” in red, on right half of 6d., dark    |       |
          |   blue-green                                 |       |


Issue 14.

_June 1880._

  =Types=                      As in Issue 1 for 1d. and 6d.

                               New type for 5s. Shape, large upright
                                 rectangular—30 mm. × 25½ mm. Royal Crown
                                 over white scroll, inscribed “Pax et
                                 Justitia,” in small coloured block
                                 capitals, below which are allegorical
                                 figures, the whole contained in white
                                 oval band, 2 mm. in width. The band is
                                 inscribed ST. VINCENT above, and FIVE
                                 SHILLINGS below, in coloured block
                                 capitals; and the spandrels and background
                                 are composed of engine-turning.
                                 Illustration No. 8.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 7.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =40=    | 1d., pale grey-green                         | 10  0 |  2  0
          |                                              |       |
  =41=    | 6d., bright yellow-green                     | 60  0 | 12  6
          |                                              |       |
  =42=    | 5s., deep rose-red                           | £8 10 |


Issue 15.

_September 1881._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of One Halfpenny,
                                 made locally by surcharging “d/½” twice
                                 vertically, in red, on the Six Pence,
                                 bright yellow-green, of Issue 14, the
                                 two halves of this stamp being divided
                                 vertically by a line of perforation
                                 gauging 12. The figure “1” of the fraction
                                 has a curved serif. Illustration No. 3.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 14.

  =Perforation=                B, and 12 on one side.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =43=    | “½d,” in red, on right half of 6d., bright   |       |
          |   yellow-green                               | 30  0 |
          |                                              |       |
  =44=    | “½d.,” in red, on left half of 6d., bright   |       |
          |   yellow-green                               | 30  0 |

          Variety. Figure “1” of fraction has a straight serif.

  =45=    | “½d.,” in red, on half of 6d., bright        |       |
          |   yellow-green                               | 80  0 |


Issue 16.

_November 1881._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of Four Pence, made
                                 locally by surcharging “4d.,” in black, on
                                 the One Shilling, bright vermilion-red,
                                 of Issue 11. The original values are
                                 obliterated by black bars printed across
                                 the sheet. Illustration No. 4.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 11.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =46=    | “4d.,” in black, on 1s., bright              |       |
          |   vermilion-red.                             |       |


Issue 17.

_December 1881._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of One Penny, made
                                 locally by surcharging “One Penny,” in
                                 black, on the Six Pence, bright
                                 yellow-green, of Issue 14. The original
                                 values are obliterated by black bars
                                 printed across the sheet. Illustration
                                 No. 6.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 14

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =47=    |“One Penny,” in black, on 6d., bright         |       |
          |   yellow-green                               | 60  0 | 60  0


Issue 18.

_December 1881._

  =Types=                      As in Issue 1 for 1d. and 4d. New
                                 type for ½d. Shape, small upright
                                 rectangular—20 mm. × 17 mm. Diademed
                                 head of Queen to left on engine-turned
                                 background.  Straight labels above and
                                 below, with ST. VINCENT and HALFPENNY in
                                 white block capitals on background of
                                 solid colour. Illustration No. 5.

  =Paper and Watermark=        As in Issue 7.

  =Gum=                        White.

  =Perforation=                B.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =48=    | ½d., orange-yellow                           |  0  9 |  2  0
          |                                              |       |
  =49=    | 1d., drab                                    |       |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =50=    | 4d., bright ultramarine                      |       | 12  6


SECTION II.

_Stamps printed and perforated by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., London, from
1883 to present time._


Issue 19.

_January 1883._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper=                      White wove, smooth, and slightly surfaced.

  =Watermark=                  A Crown over “C A.”

  =Gum=                        White, and pale yellowish.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =51=    | 1d., drab                                    |  5  0 |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =52=    | 4d., bright blue                             |       | 15  0


Issue 20.

_February 1883._

  =Type=                       A new value of Two Pence Halfpenny, made
                                 by surcharging “2½ Pence,” in black, on
                                 the One Penny, printed in rosy-lake, the
                                 original value being obliterated by a bar
                                 14 mm. in length. Illustration No. 7.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =53=    | “2½ Pence,” in black, on 1d., rosy-lake      |  2  0 |  1  6


Issue 21.

_October 1883._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                12.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =54=    | 4d., dull blue                               |       |
          |                                              |       |
  =55=    | 6d., bright green                            | 20  0 |
          |                                              |       |
  =56=    | 1s., orange-vermilion                        | 15  0 |


Issue 22.

_September 1884._

  =Types=                      As in Issues 1 and 18.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                12.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =57=    | ½d., dark green                              |  7  6 |  4  0
          |                                              |       |
  =58=    | 4d., ultramarine                             | 60  0 | 10  0

              Variety. Prepared for use, but never issued.

  =59=    | ½d., orange-yellow                           |       |


Issue 23.

_March 1885._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of One Penny, made
                                 locally by surcharging “1d,” in black,
                                 on the 2½d. of Issue 20. The values
                                 “2½ Pence” are obliterated by double
                                 lines 1 mm. apart, printed across the
                                 sheet. Illustration No. 9.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =60=    | “1d,” in black, on “2½ Pence” on 1d.,        |       |
          |   rosy-lake                                  |  2  0 |  2  0


Issue 24.

_April 1885._

  =Types=                      As in Issues 1 and 18.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =61=    | ½d., dark green                              |  0  2 |  0  2
          |                                              |       |
  =62=    | 1d., carmine                                 |  0  3 |  0  2
          |                                              |       |
  =63=    | 4d., red-brown                               |       | 12  0


Issue 25.

_June 1886._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =64=    | 1d., pink                                    |       |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =65=    | 1d., rosy-lake                               |       |
          |                                              |       |
  =66=    | 4d., purple-brown                            |  4  0 |  4  0
          |                                              |       |
  =67=    | 4d., lake-brown                              |  2  6 |  2  0


Issue 26.

_October 1888._

  =Types=                      As in Issues 1 and 14.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =68=    | 6d., dark lilac                              |  5  0 |
          |                                              |       |
  =69=    | 5s., lake                                    | 10  0 |


Issue 27.

_August 1889._

  =Type=                       A stamp of Two Pence Halfpenny, made
                                 by surcharging “2½ Pence,” in black, on
                                 the One Penny, printed in blue, the
                                 original value being obliterated by a
                                 bar 14 mm. in length (surcharge of same
                                 type as in Issue 20). Illustration No. 7.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =70=    | “2½ Pence,” in black, on 1d., milky-blue     |  2  0 |  1  0


Issue 28.

_August 1890._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of Two Pence Halfpenny,
                                 made locally by surcharging “2½d.,” in
                                 black, on the Four Pence, lake-brown,
                                 of Issue 25. The original values are
                                 obliterated by black bars, printed across
                                 the sheet. Illustration No. 10.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =71=    | “2½d.,” in black, on 4d., lake-brown         | 15  0 | 15  0

                   Variety. Without the fraction line.

  =72=    | “2½d.,” in black, on 4d., lake-brown         |       |


Issue 29.

_November 1890 to 1891._

  =Type=                       As in Issue 1.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =73=    | “2½ Pence,” in black, on 1d., bright blue    |  0  5 |  0  3
          |                                              |       |
  =74=    | 6d., pale red-lilac                          |  1  0 |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =75=    | 6d., deep red-lilac                          |  1  0 |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =76=    | 1s., vermilion-red                           |  2  0 |  2  0


Issue 30.

_November 1892._

  =Type=                       A provisional stamp of Five Pence, made
                                 locally by surcharging “5—PENCE” (in
                                 two lines), in carmine, on the Four
                                 Pence, lake-brown, of Issue 25. The
                                 original values are obliterated by
                                 carmine bars printed across the sheet.
                                 Illustration No. 11.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =77=    | “5 Pence,” in carmine, on 4d., lake-brown    |  8  0 | 10  0


Issue 31.

_March 1893._

  =Types=                      As in Issue 1 for 4d. The Five Pence is
                                 made by printing the Six Pence in a
                                 new colour, and surcharging “FIVE
                                 PENCE” (in one line), in black, over the
                                 original value. Illustration No. 12.

  =Paper, Watermark, and Gum=  As in Issue 19.

  =Perforation=                14.

                                                           Unused.  Used.
                                                            s. d.   s. d.

  =78=    | 4d., canary-yellow                           |  0  8 |  0  8
          |                                              |       |
  =79=    | “Five Pence,” in black, on 6d., dull carmine |  1  0 |  1  0
          |                                              |       |
  =80=    | “Five Pence”       ”       ”   carmine-brown |  1  0 |  1  0




NOTES.


SECTION I.

This section of the Reference List comprises all issues printed and
perforated by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., London; that is, from
the first issue of 1861 until the end of 1881, when the last stamps
printed by this firm made their appearance. For about half this time
unwatermarked paper was used, and afterwards each stamp was watermarked
with a star. We shall consider these two papers, as well as their minor
varieties, in later notes, but we must here give a detailed description
of the perforations, three simple and one compound, found in the stamps
included in Section I. During all this time only two perforating machines
were employed, except in 1862, when for one particular stamp, namely, the
yellow-green Six Pence, another machine was used. With this exception all
the stamps printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. were perforated by one
or the other of the two first-mentioned machines, and it is of these two
that we now propose to treat, leaving the description of the perforation
of the 1862 Six Pence to the note on Issue 2, as it is altogether an
exceptional stamp, and need not be taken into account just at present.

The two machines we have now to consider were both single-line, or
guillotine ones; that is, they made but one line of perforation at a
single stroke. These two machines, as well as the perforations made by
them, we have elected to call “A” and “B,” so that in the Reference List
the perforations of the stamps are called “A” or “B,” or “B × A,” instead
of being, as is usual in philatelic writings, labelled with a number
denoting the number of holes found in a space of 2 centimetres. Further
on we shall endeavour to make plain and justify our reasons for so doing.

The method now in use for describing the perforations of stamps succeeded
a previous clumsy and inaccurate system of counting the actual number of
notches along the top or bottom of a stamp, as well as those down one
side, so that the perforation of each stamp was denoted by two numbers.
These numbers depended as much on the size of the stamp as on the spacing
of the holes, and we suppose the system proved to be unworkable, as we do
not think it was ever adopted in a catalogue, although it was certainly
the first manner in which philatelic writers ever specified differences
of perforation. It was soon abandoned for the well-known method in
general use at the present day.

This latter system, invented by Dr. Legrand, was evidently intended by
its original contriver to apply to lines of perforation of which the
holes were so regularly spaced that all intervals of 2 centimetres in
the same line contained the same number of holes, all these holes being
exactly the same distance apart. Irregularity in the spacing of the
holes does not seem to have been contemplated, but, as the vast majority
of machines make holes spaced at regular intervals, this system of
taking a gauge of 2 centimetres, applying it to a line of perforations,
and counting the holes contained in that space in order to get a
number by which that particular perforation may always be identified,
works admirably in practice in by far the greater number of cases. St.
Vincent is one of those cases in which it entirely fails to satisfy
our requirements (that is, in as far as the stamps of Section I. are
concerned), and its misuse has led to the recording of such a bewildering
number of different perforations, simple and compound, that no one has
ever yet been bold enough to give a properly arranged list of them, or to
attempt to explain how so many varieties arose. A description of the two
perforations will explain all this.

That made by the A machine is well known in many other British
Colonies—Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Ceylon, Grenada, Natal, Queensland,
St. Helena, Trinidad, Turks Islands, Western Australia—that is, in most
of the Colonies whose stamps were printed from plates prepared by Messrs.
Perkins, Bacon & Co., and is one of the best known perforations in the
world of Philately. Although its eccentricities are trifling compared
with those of its fellow, the B machine, since it was in use in St.
Vincent before that one, we take the description of its perforation first.

The gauge in 2 centimetres varies from 14 to 15, this variation arising
from a slight, but frequent, irregularity in the spacing of the pins
or plungers of the machine. It _may_ be possible by moving a gauge
backwards and forwards along a line of perforations to hit off a space
of 2 centimetres containing rather more than 15 or fewer than 14 holes,
but we have not been able to do so ourselves. With the best of goodwill
the limits we have attained are 14 in one direction and 15 in the other,
and we rather suspect that the frequent records seen of a gauge of 15½,
and sometimes even of 16, in St. Vincent, have all been obtained from
the Six Pence of 1862, as that is the perforation with which this stamp
(for which the A machine was never used) is most frequently found. The
difference of gauge between 14 and 15 can often be found by moving a
perforation-gauge a few holes only to the right or left, so it is evident
that we can get both extremes on one single side of one particular stamp,
and also haply all the measurements which lie between these limits.
The variation between 14 and 15 is of course very slight, and since
intermediate gauges are those generally found, had we in St. Vincent
to deal only with the A machine, we might, with no great degree of
inaccuracy, and for the sake of general simplicity, call the perforation
of the A machine “14½,” or “14 to 15”; but since it was used so much in
conjunction with a far more irregular machine—that is, the one we have
called “B”—it is better to treat them both in the same manner, and call
the first one “A,” rather than label it with a gauge which, strictly
speaking, does not belong to it.

This perforation A, either alone or compounded with B, was in use from
the first issue of stamps in 1861 until 1878; after that the B machine
was used exclusively up to 1882, when Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. ceased
to supply stamps to the Colony.

We must here call attention to a change which took place about 1871 in
the _character_ of the perforation made by the A machine. Up to that time
the paper was very seldom even slightly pierced by the pins, or any of
it removed—_i.e._, the perforation is what is called _blind_. A writer
in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ of December, 1866, speaking of St.
Vincent stamps, thus describes it: “… the stamps … are perforated (if
that term be quite accurate) by an instrument fixed in the machine, which
leaves a series of indentations … which does not remove a particle of
paper except in a very occasional spot, hardly one in a thousand. On
severing the stamps by tearing, a rough indented edge is left…” This is
quite correct, and we cannot better the description of the work of the A
machine given by this old-time philatelist of nearly thirty years since,
who collected and studied stamps in a day when perforation-gauges were
not. It is only after 1871 that we generally (but not always) find the
pins piercing through the sheet and leaving _small_ holes, the paper
being thrust aside and turned back by the passage of the pins through
it, but little or any of it being removed. We wish to call particular
attention to this point; that is, that the holes are _small_, and that
the portion of paper displaced is not clean-cut or punched out. If this
be not attended to, these particular examples of the later work of the A
machine may be confused with the clean-cut perforations of 1862, which we
have yet to consider.

It is to the vagaries of the B machine that we are principally indebted
for the extraordinary number of perforations, simple and compound,
that have been ascribed to the stamps of St. Vincent, as well as to
those of the few other Colonies for which this machine was used. These
Colonies are Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, and Turks Islands. We know of
no other instances in which the B machine was used, and in all these it
was employed to a very limited extent as compared with its use in St.
Vincent. Possibly this limitation was owing to the very unsatisfactory
nature of its performance, and to the difficulty of separating the stamps
without tearing them.

In examining unsevered blocks perforated by the B machine, the first
thing we notice is that the holes cut by it are circular, and of nearly
uniform size, and that the pieces of paper are punched out and altogether
removed, leaving holes varying from a little less than 1 mm. to a full
1 mm. in diameter, and of which the edges are clean-cut. These holes
vary in their spacing to a very great extent, some being separated from
edge to edge by a space of 1¼ mm., while between others there is only a
thread of paper left. This is not owing to variation in the size of the
holes, since measuring from centre to centre we find some holes to be
as much as 2¼ mm., and others as little as 1 mm. apart. Besides these
extremes all sorts of different measurements are to be found, generally
in close proximity to each other, so that it is impossible to get more
than a few consecutive holes that measure the same from centre to centre.
Under these circumstances, how is it possible to assign in the usual
manner any particular gauge to a perforation so erratic? And is it worth
while, by the laborious examination of single stamps, to attempt to
make a list that we know from the nature of the case must necessarily
be interminable? We ourselves are quite content to look on all stamps
perforated by the B machine as being of one and the same perforation, and
we have so treated them in the Reference List, extending the same system
to the perforations of the A machine. At the same time we do not think
that any philatelists ought to lay down the law to others perhaps more
ardent than themselves in the pursuit of varieties, as to what ought or
ought not to be collected, and it is quite open to any such collectors,
whenever they find a stamp in these lists said to be “perforated B,” or
“perforated A,” to gather together, by what we call the injudicious use
of the perforation-gauge, as many examples of the aberrations of the
machines as they please, or as their time and purses will permit. We
think they will find it in some cases, say in that of the Five Shillings,
to be a laborious, an expensive, and above all an unsatisfactory, task.

In order to ascertain the mean gauge of the B machine, the only possible
way would be to get a line of perforations representing the whole length
of the machine, and measure it. The longest line of perforations we
have been able to experiment on is one of 124 mm.; this contains 72
holes, giving a mean gauge of about 11⅔ in the 2 centimetres. In some
places in this line nearly 13 holes can be counted in the space of 2
centimetres, in others not more than 11, and all intermediate gauges
as well are present in the same line. Indeed one has only to move the
perforation-gauge one or perhaps two holes to the right or left to
obtain a striking change of gauge. We have seen that the same sort of
thing occurs in the perforation done by the A machine, but in a much
lesser degree, the variation being only between 14 and 15—here it is
from 11 to nearly 13, and is visible at a glance without the aid of the
perforation-gauge. The above mean gauge of 11⅔ is very near to the 11½
usually ascribed in catalogues to stamps perforated by the B machine,
but even if that be correct as a mean gauge for the whole line, it is
very misleading so to call the perforation, as a collector whose solitary
specimen might gauge, say 13 x 12½, would naturally suppose that it was a
variety differing essentially from those said to gauge 11½. This, as we
have seen, it would not be.

As in the case of the A machine, after the B machine had been in use
some considerable time (about 1876), its perforations show a change of
character, the holes being seldom punched right through; the discs of
paper remain in their places, so that when the stamps are severed the
edges are very ragged. Otherwise there is no change whatever, the holes,
or the marks where they should be, being still circular, and spaced in
the same irregular manner.

Besides the two simple perforations A and B, we find one compound when
the two machines are used in conjunction for the same sheet. Whenever
this compound appears it is invariably the same in all cases; that is,
the horizontal lines of perforation are made by the B machine, and the
vertical lines by the A machine; or, adopting the philatelic notation now
generally accepted, it is “B×A.”

Omitting the Six Pence of 1862, this reduces the possible number of
varieties in the perforations of the stamps of Section I. to three in
all; and in order to show at a glance how these occur in the different
issues, we have arranged them in a table, which will be found under the
head of Appendix B.

It will be observed that no one stamp is known with all three
varieties of perforation, except the One Penny, bright rose-red, on
the unwatermarked paper, and it is not at all certain that all these
varieties existed together in any one of the seven different printings
that were made of this stamp. Another point we may also note is, that
whenever a stamp is to be found with the compound perforation, it also
invariably exists with one of the two simple ones, but, with the above
exception, never with both.

Our second plate of illustrations consists of six groups of four
unsevered stamps each. These are intended to illustrate the various
perforations of the A and B machines, and as these are more easily
studied on the reverse side than on the face of the stamps, it is the
backs of the groups we have had reproduced. Nos. 16 and 17 show the work
of the A machine at two different periods of its career. No. 16 is a
group of four of the One Penny of 1861, when the perforations made by the
A machine were _blind_; and No. 17 is a similar group of the One Penny of
1871, when the pins generally pierced the paper.

These particular groups were selected by us for illustration as showing a
very marked contrast between the character of the perforation of 1861 and
that of 1871; but as regards the latter, it is not easy to find such long
lines of perforations in which _all_ the holes are pierced through, as
in the example we show in No. 17. In these two particular instances, if
the central lines of perforation be gauged, the vertical line in No. 16
will be found to be 14 at the bottom and 14½ at the top. Its horizontal
line is 15 on the left and 14½ on the right. In No. 17 the vertical line
is 14½ at the bottom, higher up it is 15, and at the top it is again 14½.
The horizontal line of No. 17 gauges 15 throughout its length. It will be
noticed that in no one of these four lines do the two extremes of 14 and
15 both appear; but it must not be inferred from this that such is never
the case, and we have now before us a group of four of the Six Pence of
1871, in which both gauges of 14 and 15 are present in the same line, and
actually overlap each other. This group would not, however, have been so
suitable to illustrate the general character of the A perforation in 1871
as the one we selected, since the holes in it are only pierced through in
parts of the lines.

Illustrations Nos. 18 and 19 show the work of the B machine. No. 18 is
a group of four of the Four Pence of 1866, and No. 19 a group of four
of the One Penny of 1880. These groups speak for themselves, both as
regards the irregularity in the spacing of the holes, and the different
character of the perforation at the two mentioned dates. In No. 18, in
the central vertical line, the space separating the second and third
holes, counting from the bottom, may be contrasted with that between the
eleventh and twelfth in the same line, as this affords a good example of
the irregularity of the machine, and a little search will yield many more
such examples, both in No. 18 and in No. 19.

No. 20 is a group of four of the Six Pence of 1877, and shows the
compound perforation B×A. In this case the later work of both machines
appears. We should have liked to have been able to illustrate the
compound perforation as it appears in 1866, when the machines made lines
of holes as in illustrations No. 16 and No. 18. The only stamp available
for this purpose would have been the One Shilling of 1866, but we have
been unable to procure a group of four of these for illustration.

No. 21, which shows the De La Rue perforation 12, has been given so as to
allow of its comparison with the early work of the B machine, as shown
in No. 18, as it approximates to it in gauge, is like it in character,
and even faintly imitates its irregularities. We shall revert to this
perforation in our notes to the Issues of Section II.


Issue 1.

_May 1861._

  1d., bright rose-red, many shades from pale to deep.
  6d., blue-green, slight shades from medium to dark.

These two values constitute the first issue for St. Vincent. They were
printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., and sent out to the Colony on
March 27th, 1861, the consignment consisting of 934 sheets of the One
Penny, and 167 sheets of the Six Pence.[5] Both values were printed from
plates engraved in _taille-douce_, each plate consisting of 60 stamps,
arranged in six horizontal rows of ten. The paper used was without
watermark, either for the stamps themselves or in the margins, and at
least two very distinct sets can be made, one on thick and the other
on much thinner paper. The texture is rough, and the colour greyish,
sometimes slightly toned by the yellowish gum. There can be no reasonable
doubt that the perforation of the first consignment was A, for although
we have no direct evidence to that effect, any supposition other than
this would involve us in such contradictions that our belief on this
point amounts to what is practically a certainty.

We have inserted the imperforate varieties in the list, as, although
we have not seen a satisfactory used copy of either value, both stamps
have always been described in catalogues from the earliest to the
present time. They are, for instance, so given in the catalogue of
Mons. Alfred Potiquet, published in Paris in December, 1861, and also
in the first edition of Mons. J. B. Moens’ _Manuel du collectionneur de
Timbres-poste_, which appeared early in 1862. We think, therefore, that
there can be little doubt that both stamps were issued in the imperforate
state. The only postmarked specimen that has come under our notice is
one of the One Penny, which is in the “Tapling Collection.” This stamp
has fair margins on three sides, but is cut close on the right side,
so that it cannot be considered of quite unimpeachable authenticity.
Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s books state that each lot of stamps sent
out to the Island was perforated and gummed, and this applies to the
first as well as to all the other consignments, so that the specimens
chronicled by early writers must have come from sheets which were sent
out imperforate in error. Looking at the date these varieties were first
catalogued, they probably came from sheets out of the lot despatched
on March 27th, 1861. Some of the later consignments seem also to have
contained imperforate sheets, as we have seen an entire one of the Six
Pence, which came out of the lot forwarded on June 15th, 1868. Of late
years quite a number of the imperforate stamps have turned up, but we do
not believe that any of these ever saw the Colony, and in our opinion
they stand upon very different ground to the early chronicled varieties.

Altogether there is such an atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding these
imperforate varieties that, had it not been for the references to them
in the above-mentioned catalogues, we should have been inclined to have
excluded them from the lists, and classed them either as proofs or trials
for colour.

The variety of the Six Pence, imperforate vertically, is noted from a
horizontal pair recently in the collection of Mr. F. de Coppet of New
York, and which was sold at the sale of his stamps on December 12th,
1894. The pair was perforated all round, but imperforate between the two
stamps.

[5] See chronological list of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s printings,
and consignments in Appendix D.


Issue 2.

_1862._

  6d., yellow-green, very slight shades, all deep.

This very interesting issue consists of one value only—a yellow-green Six
Pence—which not only differs in colour from any other stamp of the same
denomination on unwatermarked paper, but has a perforation quite peculiar
to itself among the stamps of St. Vincent.

Hitherto when it has figured at all in any catalogue it has been
mentioned only as a shade of the green stamp of the first issue, and
as far as we are aware no hint has ever yet been given that not only
is its colour quite distinct from that of any other Six Pence, but its
perforation, being unknown in any other stamp of the Colony, clearly
points out that it belongs to one particular printing, and that it is
important enough to rank by itself as a separate issue.

That it has remained altogether unchronicled up to now is not exactly the
case. In the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ of August 1863 it is stated
“Saint Vincent. The green of the Six Penny is of a different shade to
what it used to be.” This is the only chronicle of it which may be called
contemporaneous; but in the same periodical of August 1866, in an article
entitled “Postage Stamp Paper and Watermarks,” the writer says, “St.
Vincent. The pair of values belonging to this Island, _of which the green
is found in two distinct hues_, seem unwatermarked.”

On referring to Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s list of printings we find
that at the date, August, 1863, when it was chronicled in the _Stamp
Collector’s Magazine_, besides the first consignment of March 27th, 1861,
two other printings of the Six Pence value had been made and sent out
to the Island. It is quite clear to us, from the marked difference in
colour and perforation between this stamp and any other Six Pence, that
it constituted a printing by itself, and therefore in order to assign
it a date we have to choose between July 22nd, 1862, when 167 sheets,
consisting of 10,020 stamps, were printed; and May 28th, 1863, when the
number of stamps was 40,080 in 668 sheets. Now there can be no hesitation
in saying that the probabilities are enormously in favour of the smaller
of these two printings being the yellow-green Six Pence, seeing the
scarcity of this stamp even in a used state, the unused stamp ranking as
one of the rarest of the St. Vincents. It is quite probable that it had
been some time in use before it was noticed by the writer in the _Stamp
Collector’s Magazine_; but, on the other hand, although it was sent out
to the Island in July, 1862, it may not have been issued for some little
time after that. On the whole we do not think we can be far wrong in
dating its issue 1862, rather than in the early part of 1863.

Even if the distinctive colour of this stamp did not make its
identification very easy, its peculiar perforation would do so. It is
the solitary instance in Section I. in which neither the A nor the B
machine was used, but a third machine, which we call “C.” This is hardly
the proper place for us to enter into a dissertation on the various
perforating machines that were employed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon &
Co., and used by them for perforating the stamps of the Colonies for
which they held contracts; but, at all events, the C perforation is to
be found, not only in this one St. Vincent stamp, but also more or less
frequently in those of Bahamas, Barbados, Ceylon, Natal, Queensland, St.
Helena, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and Western Australia.

Like the A and B machines, the C machine was a guillotine one, and like
them its irregularities prevent us from naming it by any particular
gauge. It is generally a rather regular 15½, but also frequently 15, and
in some instances we have found it to measure only 14½. It is probable
that this machine is also responsible for a perforation of 16, said to
have been seen in St. Vincent stamps. It can never be mistaken for the
perforation A, for not only is its most frequent gauge a higher one than
that to which the A machine usually attains, but its pins, or plungers,
make clean-cut circular holes, smaller in size, but otherwise just like
the early perforations of the B machine, although, from insufficient care
and attention being paid to the working of the machine, it is rather
difficult to find specimens that show the holes clean cut on all four
sides.

This stamp, like those of the preceding issue, is found on both the thin
and the thick paper.

We give two illustrations of this stamp, Nos. 13 and 14, which are taken
from the only two unused specimens we have ever seen, or heard of. No. 13
gauges 15½ on all four sides; this is the gauge which is most frequently
found in stamps perforated by the C machine. No. 14 is perforated 15 at
the bottom and right side; the top and left side are too ragged to be
measured with accuracy, but they appear to be the usual 15½. The gauge
of 14½ (and that of 16, if it exists) must have been present in a very
limited portion of the line of pins, as it is very rarely met with.


Issue 3.

_Between 1863 and 1866._

  1d., bright rose-red; many shades, from pale to deep.
  6d., blue-green; very slight shades, all dark.

The two stamps constituting this issue differ in no respect from those
of Issue I., except in the perforation, which is now B, or B×A, instead
of A. It is not possible to say at what precise date the B perforation
first came into use. One thing which is certain is, that it, as well as
the compound B×A, was known to philatelists as existing in these two
values before December, 1866, at which date both perforations A and B
as well as the compound B × A, were described by a writer in the _Stamp
Collector’s Magazine_.

It follows from this that the B perforation must have been used for one
or more of the printings made before this date.

Now if we turn to the table of the consignments sent out to the island,
we see that there had been in all five printings of both values. The
first of these, that of March 27th, 1861, was the first issue, and, as
we have said, it was perforated A. The second, that of July 22nd, 1862,
was, as far as the Six Pence is concerned, incontestably perforated C,
and there therefore only remains the printing of the One Penny of that
date, and the three printings of both values of May 28th, 1863, March
1st, 1865, and March 14th, 1866. We think it more than probable that when
the B machine was first used both values were perforated by it; and we
therefore pass over the second printing of the One Penny, and give 1863
to 1866 as the date which most likely belongs to Issue 3. We are thus
able to antedate this issue at least three years, all previous catalogues
having given 1869 as the earliest date at which the B perforation made
its appearance.

It must not be inferred that after the B machine came into use the A
machine was discarded, or even that any printing of either value was
altogether perforated by the same machine. The perforation A is much too
common in both values for it to be supposed for a moment that the first
issue only was so perforated. There were in all seven printings of the
One Penny, red, and five of the Six Pence, blue-green, on unwatermarked
paper, perforated by one or other of these two machines; and as there
is little or nothing to choose in point of rarity between the two
perforations A and B in either value, it is to be presumed that once the
B machine had come into use both machines were used indiscriminately for
both values, as long as they continued to be printed.

We are fortified in our opinion that more than one kind of perforation
was used for the same printing, by the impossibility of believing that
one whole printing of the One Penny, red, was perforated B × A. This
variety is so scarce, that the number of specimens known to us can
literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. About three years ago we
unearthed two specimens from a dealer’s stock. These were mounted on a
card, and endorsed as “very scarce” in the handwriting of the late Mr. E.
L. Pemberton. Two other specimens are known to us, and all these four are
used. It is not possible to believe that 18,000 of these ever existed,
and that is the least number of the One Penny ever printed at one time.

The Six Pence with the compound perforation is not known to us, but we
think it is a variety that may possibly exist. The writer in the _Stamp
Collector’s Magazine_, in referring to this compound, unfortunately does
not specify the denomination of the stamp in which he had “occasionally”
noticed it.

As stated in our note to Issue 1, it is quite possible that some of the
consignments belonging to this issue, at any rate of the Six Pence,
contained a sheet or sheets that missed being perforated.


Issue 4.

_August 1866._

  4d., deep bright blue.
  1s., dark slate-grey; slight shades.
  1s., greyish-purple.

The plates for these two values were prepared by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon
& Co., early in July, 1866. They contained 30 stamps, arranged in three
horizontal rows of 10, so were just half the size of those used for
printing the One Penny and Six Pence values.

On July 28th a consignment of stamps printed from them was sent out to
the Colony. This consisted of 500 sheets of each of the values; that is,
15,000 stamps of each denomination.

The stamps must have been immediately put in issue, as they were in use
in August. They were chronicled in October, both by the _Timbre-Poste_
and the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_. The notice in the latter is as
follows: “Within the last month or six weeks the number of St. Vincent
stamps has been doubled by the emission of a Four Penny, blue, and
Shilling, purple-black.” In the _Timbre-Poste_ the colour of the Shilling
is called “_pourpre_,” but in the same publication of April, 1867, M.
Moens calls the colour “_ardoise_.” There is a further notice touching
these stamps in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ of December, 1866,
which is worth quoting _in extenso_, as it is a valuable contribution
to our knowledge as regards both the colours and perforations of the
stamps: “The newly-issued Four Pence and One Shilling have come over with
the late mails in entire sheets. The colour of the former is a clear
Prussian-blue, while the latter varies, one sheet we have examined being
a purple, while the other is a deep slate without the tinge of red in it,
which makes a purple. The normal colour is evidently one which requires
great nicety in manipulation, a slight difference in mixing forming
the two shades, which are very distinct. Like the Penny and Six Pence
already known these stamps are on thin woven paper, without watermark,
and perforated. The Four Pence is perforated by a machine which removes
a little circular piece of the paper, like that in use for the English
stamps, but the holes very much wider apart. The sheets of the Shilling
stamps are also perforated by a machine, and show the following
remarkable peculiarity in the perforation: the horizontal lines which
sever the stamps from the rows above and beneath them are, as in the Four
Pence, perforated by a succession of small circular holes cut or punched
out, but the vertical lines dividing the stamps from their fellows side
by side in the row are perforated (if that term be quite accurate) by an
instrument fixed in the machine, which leaves a series of indentations
much closer than the holes before alluded to, and which does not remove
a particle of paper, except in a very occasional spot, hardly one in a
thousand. On severing the stamps by tearing, a rough indented edge is
left on each side; a ragged edge caused by the holes being too far apart
is left above and below. A similar difference has been remarked by us in
the former issues, specimens of each of which, completely perforated by
either method, may be found, as also occasionally a copy showing both
systems on the same stamp.”

We have already in previous notes given extracts from the above
to show that the difference between the A and B perforations was
thoroughly understood by the writer, and also that the B perforation
and the compound B×A both existed in the One Penny and the Six Pence
previous to December 1866. We learn from the same source that the two
colours of the One Shilling—what we have called “dark slate-grey” and
“greyish-purple”—appeared in the same consignment; and, moreover, that
part of this consignment of the One Shilling was perforated A, and part
of it B×A, both of which statements are confirmed by Messrs. Perkins,
Bacon & Co.’s list. We have found the greyish-purple very rare as
compared with the other colour.

The One Shilling perforated B×A is certainly much more common than the
one with the A perforation, and the greater part of the consignment
probably consisted of the compound. No other printings of either of the
two values were ever again made in these colours on the unwatermarked
paper. The Four Pence is a clear deep blue, and there are practically no
shades; but as it has a strong tendency to oxidation, it is to be found
in all sorts of deteriorated colours up to nearly black. Out of the
15,000 printed, a great number must have found their way into dealers’
stocks, as it is quite as common unused as used. It continued in use for
some years after it had been superseded by a Four Pence of a different
colour. The _Philatelist_ of February, 1873, that is three years after
the issue of the Four Pence, yellow, says, “The colour of the Four Penny
would seem to have reverted to its original hue, our specimens just
received by the last mail being a full blue, but unwatermarked as far
as we can distinguish.” Were it not for the information we have been
fortunate enough to obtain from Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., this might
lead us to believe that another printing of the Four Pence, blue, had
been made about the end of 1872; but we know that this was not the case,
as only one printing of it was ever made, and the stamps alluded to must
have been some of the old stock that were being used up. The One Shilling
is given in the London Philatelic Society’s Catalogue as perforated 11½
on all four sides. We have not met with this variety, and do not believe
in its existence. If the specimen from which the description was taken
is one in the “Tapling Collection,” as seems probable, the particular
stamp proves, after examination, to be merely an oxidised copy of the One
Shilling, indigo, of the following issue.


Issue 5.

_April 1869._

  1s., indigo.

On February 27th, 1869, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. sent out a
consignment of 300 sheets (9,000 stamps) of the One Shilling. Their
records note no difference between the colour of this stamp and that of
the One Shilling of the last issue—they call them both “purple,” although
the difference between them is really very great. We think the colour of
the new stamp, which is very deep, is best described as “indigo.” The
_Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, which chronicled it in July, 1869, calls it
“dark muddy-blue”; the _Timbre-Poste_ of a month earlier, “_bleu-sale_”;
but the colour really does not matter much, as there is no other stamp
with which it can be confounded. If any shades of it exist they are
certainly very slight, and probably due more to oxidation than to any
other cause. It only exists with the B perforation.

We do not know exactly the month of its issue, but since it was sent out
late in February, and first chronicled in June, it most likely came into
use some time in April.

It is a much rarer stamp than the One Shilling of Issue 4, especially
unused, but this is what we might expect to find when we consider that
only 9,000 of it were printed, as against 15,000 of the first One
Shilling.


Issue 6.

_September 1869._

  4d., deep bright yellow, slight shades.
  1s., bright brown, slight shades.

On August 13th, 1869, a consignment of stamps of two values—Four Pence
and One Shilling—was sent out to the Colony by the printers, the colour
of the Four Pence being altered from blue to yellow, and that of the
One Shilling from indigo to brown. The consignment consisted of 300
sheets—9000 stamps—of each value.

The One Shilling was the first of these to be chronicled in the
philatelic periodicals. It was noticed in _Le Timbrophile_ of September
30th, 1869, and in the _Philatelist_ and the _Timbre-Poste_ of November,
but the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ did not announce its appearance
until the December number of that year. It is therefore certain that
the issue of the One Shilling, brown, took place in September, and most
probably the Four Pence, yellow, was issued at the same time, although
the latter was not chronicled until November 30th, when it was noticed
by _Le Timbrophile_, the other three above-mentioned periodicals not
chronicling it until January, 1870.

The _Philatelist_, speaking of the change of colour, says of the new Four
Pence, yellow: “It is now in full service, and proves to be of a very
deep rich yellow. The emissions of this Island, for some time two only,
now amount to a respectable figure, there being the slate, indigo, and
brown Shilling; a dark and light green Sixpenny; the blue and the new
yellow Fourpenny; and the Penny in slightly varying shades of red. In
addition are varieties of perforation, one being pin-pricked, one fully
perforated, and some anomalously presenting both methods in the same
stamp. Such emissions as these must shut up _all_ Pendragonites, and
puzzle the patronizers of Lallier’s and other exclusive albums.” Here
is additional evidence, were such required, of the attention paid in
those days by certain writers and collectors to those minutiæ of stamp
collecting, which in the aggregate make up what is now understood by the
term “Philately.”

Like all the preceding issues these two stamps are on unwatermarked
paper, varying from thick to thin, and are perforated B, with gum from
yellowish to almost white. The colours of each are nearly uniform, slight
shades only being found, the darker shades of the brown Shilling being
generally due to oxidation. Only this one printing was ever made in these
colours, and as this was limited to 9,000 stamps of each value, it need
not be a matter of surprise that they are both fairly rare in the unused
state.

The One Shilling is described in Stanley Gibbons’ _Monthly Journal_ for
December, 1891, as found perforated 11 by 15½. We have examined the
particular specimen by the kindness of the owner, and the stamp turns
out to be an unmistakable oxidized copy of the vermilion-red Shilling of
Issue 11.

This was the last issue of stamps for St. Vincent to be printed on the
unwatermarked paper.


Issue 7.

_June 1871._

  1d., black, shades to grey-black.
  6d., dull blue-green, rather pale in shade.
  6d., dark blue-green, slight shades.

With this issue a radical change of paper took place, and the new paper,
which was watermarked with a star, continued to be exclusively used as
long as Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. supplied stamps to the Colony. It
varies very much in thickness; the thinnest variety is about the same
thickness as the thinnest of the unwatermarked paper, but the thickest
sometimes approaches _card_. This is especially noticeable in certain
issues, in which the thick paper predominates, and we will refer to this
subject in subsequent notes.

The star of the watermark is a six-pointed one, measuring 13 mm. from
point to point across the star, and the watermarks in the sheet are so
spaced that when the plate has been printed in register each star falls
exactly on the centre of a stamp. The lateral distance between the
stars from centre to centre is 20⅓ mm., and the vertical 24 mm.; these
measurements of course correspond with those of a St. Vincent stamp,
_plus_ one margin each way. All the stars in the sheet are disposed
with two opposite rays in a vertical line—that is when the stamps are
printed in the normal position with regard to the paper. Personally we
have not much sympathy with the collection or cataloguing of inverted
or reversed watermarks, which we think tends to the undue lengthening
out and complicating of lists, to no useful purpose whatever, but we
may as well mention that the star watermark is to be found sideways
on _all_ the St. Vincent stamps printed on this paper. Of course when
in this position two opposite rays are in a _horizontal_ instead of in
a vertical line. This peculiarity of position in the watermark is not
confined to St. Vincent stamps only, among those of the Colonies for
which Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. used the same paper, as in 1874 it
was noticed by philatelists in the stamps of Antigua. A correspondence
about the watermarks of these stamps took place early in that year in the
pages of the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, and at about the same time the
subject was discussed at a meeting of the Philatelic Society, London.
Those who are curious in these matters will find all the particulars
given in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, vol. xii., where it appears
from the letters printed that an idea prevailed that, as concerned the
stamps of Antigua, the paper with the star sideways denoted a later
issue. The explanation given by the then President of the London Society
was that the change in the position of the watermark was due to “the
stars being turned when cleaning the plates, or when they became worn.”
This was rather far-fetched, not to say grotesque, nor did it succeed in
satisfying all the correspondents of the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_.
The true solution of the question is, that as the paper was sufficiently
large to admit of the plate being printed on it in either position, the
printer was quite indifferent as to how the paper was placed, and were
it not that this particular watermark is a symmetrical figure we should
doubtless occasionally find it inverted, as well as sideways. A variety
of the One Penny, with one point of the star up, was indeed chronicled
with “inverted” watermark in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_, vol. xii.,
p. 95, by the same writer who noticed the two different positions of the
stars we have just alluded to. The design of the watermark was, however,
such that it made no difference which end of the sheet was put first into
the press, and it passes our comprehension to know how an _inverted_
watermark could therefore be distinguished.

Although all the stars in St. Vincent stamps are of the same size,
owing to the “bits” being hand-made they vary a little in shape, and we
have seen faulty ones having one or more rays with the points broken
or twisted out of their proper direction. Besides this there are two
rather distinct varieties in the shape of the star. These exist side by
side in the same sheet. In the star more usually found all the six rays
are of similar size; in the other variety the two opposite rays in the
vertical line are narrower at the base than the other four, so that they
are thinner throughout their length, and end in a more acute angle. This
last variety of star is in shape almost exactly like the larger stars
found in the paper used by the same firm for printing the stamps of South
Australia and certain other Colonies.

In the thicker varieties of paper it is sometimes very difficult to
see the watermark. This is especially the case when the specimens are
unused and have the gum intact. The change in the colour of the One
Penny from red to black marked that stamp at once, so that we find its
advent recorded in the _Stamp Collector’s Magazine_ of September 1871,
and in the _Philatelist_ and _Timbre-Poste_ of the following month,
the last-named periodical being the only one to mention the watermark
or perforation, which last was given as 14½. We learn from the list
of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. that the consignment was sent out on
March 28th, 1871, and consisted of 300 sheets (18,000 stamps) of One
Penny, black, and a like number of Six Pence, green; and, since the One
Penny was chronicled in September, we may assume that the issue took
place some time in June. There can be little doubt that the Six Pence
was issued with the One Penny, although it was unnoticed at the time
by philatelists, probably because the colour was unchanged, and the
watermark, owing to the thickness of the paper, not readily seen. It was
not until September, 1872, that it was chronicled by M. Moens in the
_Timbre-Poste_, which is the only record of it we can find in any of the
philatelic periodicals.

The One Penny, black, is found with two varieties of perforation—A and
B × A. It continued in use from the date of its issue, in 1871, until
the colour was changed in 1880. Nine printings of it were made, and
the last consignment was sent out on August 28th, 1878, making in all
the large total of 6000 sheets, or 360,000 stamps. The great majority
of these must have been perforated A, since the compound B × A is very
much less common, and is even rather scarce unused. We do not know in
which particular printing this last variety of perforation occurred. We
have the authority of the _Timbre-Poste_ that some at least of the first
consignment were perforated A, and the sample stamp attached to the entry
in the books of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., referring to the despatch
of the last consignment in 1878, is also perforated A. In the absence of
further information we have, however, catalogued both the two varieties
of perforation as belonging to Issue 7.

The Six Pence, green, of which only three printings were made, is always
perforated A. It is generally in a blue-green colour, identical with that
of the Six Pence, blue-green, of previous issues on unwatermarked paper.
It is sometimes, but rarely, met with of a dull green hue, rather pale
in shade, and nearer a yellow-green than is the ordinary colour. We have
only found one unused specimen of this stamp, nor have we seen many used
ones, so we are still a little doubtful whether it is an original colour
or not.

There is a rather mystifying chronicle of another green Six Pence in the
_Timbre-Poste_ of January, 1876, which was copied by the _Philatelist_,
and which we think it as well to refer to here. M. Moens appears to have
overlooked the fact that he had already, in 1872, mentioned the Six
Pence, green, with Star watermark—“Le 6p. vert arrive avec étoile en
filagramme et piqué 15”; and in January 1876 records it again as “6p.
vert foncé piqué 15.” At this time no printing of the Six Pence had taken
place since March 1875, so what M. Moens saw could not have been a new
variety, and was probably only a specimen, rather darker than usual, of
the same stamp he had already chronicled in 1872.

A horizontal pair of the One Penny, black, with no perforation between
the stamps, was sold at the sale of Mr. M. P. Castle’s collection of
British and Colonial stamps, on May 2nd, 1889, the pair being described
erroneously in the catalogue as _imperforate horizontally_. M. Moens,
in his _Catalogue Prix Courant_, gives the same stamp as existing
imperforate, but not having been able to verify it we have omitted it
from our list.


Issue 8.

_June 1872._

  1s., bright rose-red, shades.
  1s., deep rose-red, slight shades.
  1s., dull red, shades, sometimes with a tinge of yellow in it.

We now come to a series of issues of the One Shilling, which present a
good deal of difficulty to collectors, because of the number of colours
and shades they contain, all rather closely resembling each other. They
are not easy to describe in print, so as to be properly understood, owing
chiefly to the great divergence of opinion on the subject of the names of
colours, when these are closely allied.

On April 13th, 1872, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. despatched 9000 stamps
in 300 sheets of the One Shilling value printed in a colour they call in
their books “_pink_,” but this is a description we put out of court at
once, especially as the sample stamp in the firm’s books is a rose-red
one.

In addition to the sample stamp, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. possess
an imperforate proof sheet of the stamp in the same colour, but upon
unwatermarked paper. This sheet is inscribed on the margin “Patterns for
colour. Postage Pink, small quantity of Drop carmine-lake about ½ oz. for
300 sheets.” The technical name of the colour appears consequently to be
“carmine-lake.”

The first chronicle of the issue was in the _American Journal of
Philately_ of August, 1872, which was quoted by the _Timbre-Poste_ of
September. The _Philatelical Journal_ of September says that they have
accidentally omitted to chronicle it in August. We give June as the
probable date of issue.

As regards the colour of the stamp, the _Philatelist_ of October, when
chronicling its issue, says that “the colour is precisely that of the
rose penny,” but in the following month it adds to this statement that
other specimens have been seen, “all deeper in hue than the penny ones
of the same colour.” This, as far as it goes, agrees exactly with our
own experience, which is that there are specimens in shades of bright
rose-red, all of which may be found in the bright rose-red One Penny
of Issues 1 and 3, but that there are others in a deeper rose-red of
a slightly different colour, never seen in the One Penny, and due to
something more than mere depth of shade. Besides these two colours we
find a third, which we have called “dull red,” differing from both of
them, and in which a faint tinge of yellow is sometimes to be seen, as if
it were turning somewhat towards vermilion. There was only one printing
made of this One Shilling, rose-red or dull red, but we have already seen
in the case of the One Shilling of Issue 4 that more than one colour may
exist in the same printing, from causes connected with the mixing of the
ink. The paper of this issue is sometimes found more or less toned by the
action of the gum, which seems always to be yellow, and never white; this
affects the appearance of some specimens, and adds considerably to the
difficulty of limiting the number of colours even to three.

By far the greater number of the stamps of this issue are perforated B.
We have seen very few indeed perforated B × A, and all these have been
bright rose-red in colour. The only periodical which in chronicling the
stamp gave the perforation was the _Philatelical Journal_, which says
that it is “perf. circ. 14½ to 15½” which we would call A; but in 1872
compound perforations were ignored, and the usual plan was to measure
only the long side of a stamp, so this record of the perforation probably
corresponds to our B × A, as the stamp does not exist perforated A alone,
so far as we have been able to discover. The sample stamp kept by the
printers is perforated B.

This One Shilling is a very scarce stamp in the unused state.


Issue 9.

_Early in 1874._

  1s., pale violet-rose.

We learn from the books of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. that on July
28th, 1873, they sent out to the colony a consignment of 300 sheets—9000
stamps—of a One Shilling which they call “pink,” as they did the rose-red
One Shilling of the 1872 printing. Fortunately the sample stamp attached
to their book is there to show us what it was they sent out, and we find
it to be a violet-rose stamp perforated, as are most of this issue, B ×
A. In few other cases in St. Vincent have the records of the firm been
of more use to us, as the stamp remained unchronicled by the periodicals
until quite the end of 1874, and their various descriptions of its colour
are extremely misleading.

At the same time, it seems almost impossible that had it been issued
at once on its arrival in the island, its existence should have been
unsuspected by all philatelic writers for a period of more than a
year, as it was not until September, 1874, that the first chronicle
of it was made in the _Timbre-Poste_, where M. Moens calls its colour
“_rose-sale_”; and we are therefore inclined to believe that its issue
was delayed for at least some months, perhaps until the early part of
1874.

Its colour is a pale violet-rose, always of uniform shade, but, as the
stamp has a strong tendency to oxidation, some very dark specimens may be
found in which the colour has greatly deteriorated.

Like the One Shilling of the preceding issue, it is found perforated
B and B × A. It is scarce unused, and we have seen very few specimens
perforated B, all of which have been used ones.


Issue 10.

_1875._

  1s., dark claret, very slight shades.

This One Shilling was printed and sent out to the Colony on March 27th,
1875. The consignment consisted of the same number of stamps as those
of the last two issues. It is not clear in what month its actual issue
took place. It was not chronicled until the _Timbre-Poste_ noticed it in
January 1876, where the colour is called “_lie-de-vin foncé_.” In their
books the printers still adhered to the term “_pink_,” but although no
sample stamp of this printing was preserved, we can be quite certain that
it consisted of 300 sheets of One Shilling, _dark claret_, as both the
other two printings of “pink” Shillings have been accounted for.

In colour it is a rich dark claret, with very slight shades, and even
most of these are due to the deep toning of the paper, as the gum used is
always the darkest to be found in St. Vincent stamps, and the paper is
invariably more or less deeply stained. The perforation is always B.

Although no more of this issue were printed than of the One Shilling,
rose-red, or the One Shilling, pale violet-rose, it is rather more common
unused than either of those two stamps.


Issue 11.

_February 1877._

  6d., pale yellow-green.
  1s., bright vermilion-red.

The two values in changed colours were sent out to St. Vincent by the
printers on December 30th, 1876, the consignment consisting of 300 sheets
of each value; that is, 18,000 stamps of the Six Pence value and 9,000
of the One Shilling. They were both chronicled by the _Timbre-Poste_ of
April, 1877, and must have been issued some time in February. The Six
Pence remained current until the middle of 1880, and the One Shilling
as long as Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. supplied stamps to St. Vincent.
Besides the printing of the two values in December, 1876, one other
printing of the Six Pence and two of the One Shilling were made. The
second printing of each value was sent out on August 28th, 1878, and the
third printing of the One Shilling on May 13th, 1880. All these printings
consisted of 300 sheets each, so that the total printed of the Six Pence
of this issue amounted to 36,000, and that of the One Shilling to 27,000
stamps. In the printers’ books sample stamps are attached to all the
entries referring to these printings, with the exception of the second
lot of the One Shilling. The samples of the first printing are perforated
B × A in both values; in that of 1878, the second printing of the Six
Pence is perforated A, and the One Shilling of the 1880 printing is
perforated B.

We have seen from the case of the One Shilling of Issue 4 that more
than one variety of perforation (and even of colour) may exist in the
same printing, nor is it to be expected that in such cases samples of
each variety would be preserved by the printers, since differences of
perforation are more appreciated in philatelic than in printing circles.
There is, however, a circumstance connected with the perforation of the
vermilion Shilling which leads us to believe that the stamps of all these
printings were perforated only as shown in the sample stamps of each
consignment. We know that in 1881 the third printing of the vermilion
Shilling was utilized for making a provisional stamp of Four Pence, and
that all these provisionals are perforated B only. We therefore think it
probable that all of the One Shilling value perforated B × A belong to
the first printing, and all perforated B to the second and third, more
especially as the stamp perforated B is much the commoner of the two
varieties. We have extended this theory to the Six Pence as well, and in
the Reference List we give in brackets after each variety the probable
date of issue of the different perforations.

One thing that is remarkable about the colours of both these stamps
is that there are no appreciable shades of either, the colours being
maintained unchanged in all the printings of each value, although in
the books of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. the colour of the first two
printings of the One Shilling is called “scarlet,” and that of the third
“bright red.”

In the unused state the Six Pence is very much rarer perforated A than
with the compound, but the converse is the case with the One Shilling, in
which B × A is by far the rarer perforation. The paper of the stamps of
this issue varies a great deal in thickness, but this is more pronounced
in the Six Pence than in the One Shilling, as the former value is met
with on what can only be described as thin card.

Both values, as well as the One Penny and Six Pence of Issue 7, and other
stamps current during the later years the stamps of Issue 11 were in use,
are not uncommonly found with a curious obliteration of an upright oval,
pointed at the top and bottom, and divided across the centre by a double
line. The upper part contains the letters “G.B.,” and the lower “40 c.”
The cancellation made its appearance upon these three stamps about the
end of 1878, or early in 1879, and was first thought to be a surcharge.
The credit of its explanation is due to the editor of the _Foreign Stamp
Collectors’ Journal_, who made enquiries at the Post-office, and who
stated in the numbers of that journal for December, 1879, and July,
1880, that “in addition to the ordinary mail steamers from the West
Indies, letters are conveyed to England by the French Packets running
intermediately. These letters are stamped as above; the G.B. signifying
‘Grande Bretagne,’ and the 40 C., the amount payable to the French
Post-office for their services.” “The stamp ceased to be employed for its
original purpose some time ago, but is now used instead of the ordinary
cancellation stamp, which is worn out.” Its use as an obliterating stamp
must have been continued at least up to some time in 1882, as we have
frequently seen it on the Halfpenny orange of Issue 18, a stamp which was
not issued until December, 1881.


Issue 12.

_July 1877._

  4d., dark deep blue.

A consignment of 200 sheets—6,000 stamps—of the Four Pence value,
printed in very dark deep blue, was sent out to St. Vincent on May
29th, 1877. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we have no
reason to doubt the stamp was immediately put in issue, and that it
was first used in July of the same year, but had it not been for the
record in the books of the printers, we should have had a good deal of
difficulty in assigning a date to it. Most of the principal catalogues,
including the London Society’s list and the current edition of M. Moens’
_Catalogue Prix-Courant_, give 1876 as the date of issue, but the stamp
is not catalogued in the 1877 edition of the last mentioned work. The
solitary chronicle of it we can find in philatelic literature is in the
_Timbre-Poste_ of May, 1878, where we find it recorded in the following
terms: “Réapparition du 4 pence, en bleu foncé, mais avec étoile en
filagramme.”

We think it far more likely that the fact of the stamp being on
watermarked paper should have escaped the notice of M. Moens, than that
its issue should have been delayed for nearly a year after its arrival
in the Colony. The one printing of the Four Pence yellow had been a
small one; it consisted of only 9,000 stamps, as compared with 15,000
of the Four Pence blue, on unwatermarked paper, issued in 1866. We do
not know for what reasons the postal authorities had changed the colour
of this value from blue to yellow, but they could not have been very
important ones, as the blue Four Pence of Issue 4 was, as we have seen,
undoubtedly still allowed to be used in 1873—that is, about four years
after the introduction of the Four Pence, yellow, so it is evident that
the use of the two stamps was concurrent for some time at least. It is
stated in the London Society’s West Indian Catalogue that the Four Pence
value became “disused,” but this cannot have been the case, as we have
the evidence of postmarked specimens of the yellow Four Pence that it
was in use in July, 1876, and we know that a fresh supply of the value
was sent out in 1877. There is therefore every reason to believe that
although the Four Pence, deep blue, of the issue now under consideration
had probably been seen by M. Moens when first issued, he mistook it for
the old blue Four Pence that was still being occasionally used, and it
was not until 1878 that he discovered the difference in the paper, and
chronicled the watermarked stamp in the _Timbre-Poste_. There is every
excuse to be made for this temporary omission, as the great majority of
the issue is printed on the very thick variety of paper which approaches
thin card, and it is a matter of great difficulty to detect the watermark
in this paper, even when it is known to be there.

There was only one very small printing, 6,000 stamps, made of this Four
Pence, and so it is naturally very much rarer than either of the two
stamps of the same denomination previously issued. In addition to this,
its rarity unused is even out of all proportion to the smallness of the
printing, and we may be certain that since it was unchronicled in the
philatelic publications of the day it was not put into stock by the
dealers, and that the unused specimens we occasionally find have been
preserved by accident rather than by design.

It is always perforated B, and the colour, which would alone distinguish
it from the Four Pence of Issue 4, shews no shades, except those due to
oxidation, to which it has a certain tendency.


Issue 13.

_May 1880._

  1d., in red on half 6d., dark blue-green of Issue 7.

This is the first of a very interesting and important series of four
provisional stamps that were made in St. Vincent, in 1880 and 1881, to
supply a temporary want of certain values. From information received
from Mr. Frank W. Griffith, late Acting Colonial Postmaster, and already
published in the West Indian Catalogue of the London Society, we know the
date of issue of the provisional One Penny was May, 1880, and that the
number of stamps issued amounted to 1,800. Reference to Messrs. Perkins,
Bacon and Co.’s list of consignments shows that the last printing of the
black One Penny had been sent out in August, 1878, and it is evident
that another supply of the value had already been ordered, but not
received when this provisional was made, as the new One Penny, printed in
grey-green, was only despatched from London on May 13th, 1880.

The stamp used for surcharging was the dark blue-green Six Pence of
Issue 7, perforated A, a remainder being in hand, probably from the last
printing of March, 1875.

In those days surcharged stamps, especially in British Colonies, were not
so common as unfortunately they have subsequently become, and were much
appreciated by philatelists, as may be seen by the tone of the writer
who chronicled the provisional One Penny in the _Philatelic Record_ of
July, 1880. “A very curious provisional stamp, forming a fit pendant to
the makeshift 1d. employed in Barbadoes in 1878, has been used recently,
but may by this time have become obsolete. The postal authorities of St.
Vincent have treated their 6d. value in the same way as the Barbadians
did their 5s. stamp—perforating it down the centre, and surcharging each
side with 1d. in red, the numeral being 8 mm. in length.” The writer
then goes on to say that the central line of perforation is clean cut,
and gauges 12, which is quite correct, and records a fact worth bearing
in mind when examining doubtful specimens, as the forgers have found
the perforation much more difficult to imitate than the surcharge.
Unfortunately our illustration of this stamp, No. 2, is not as clear as
we could have wished, owing to the red and green colours not lending
themselves readily to photography—so we give the measurements of the
surcharge, which are as follows: Height of figure, 8¾ mm.; width of
figure, 1½ mm.; length of foot of figure, 3½ mm.; height of “d,” 3 mm.;
extreme width of “d,” 2 mm.; space between “d” and figure, 1½ mm.; space
between figures on right and left halves of the same stamp, 8½ mm. The
figure “1” has a straight serif. These details will help to protect
collectors against at least the more ordinary forgeries, but the gauge
of the perforation and its regular clean-cut circular holes are really
the crucial tests, as some of the surcharges are heavily printed, and
are difficult to measure with accuracy. A description of the forgeries
known to us would be of little use. They all fail in the perforation,
most of them in the dimensions of the surcharge, and one rather dangerous
one we recently discovered has the figures on the two halves of the
stamps wrongly spaced. The one most likely to be met with is the least
dangerous, as it has a large cross stroke to the top of the figure,
instead of a serif, besides being wrong in many other particulars.
This forgery is evidently copied from the illustration in a well-known
catalogue, and not from the stamp itself.

This provisional One Penny has always been a rare stamp, especially
unused, or in pairs; none of the issue seems to have found its way into
dealers’ stocks, but to have been all used up for legitimate postal
purposes, so that a great part of it must have been destroyed, and only a
small proportion of the original 1,800 saved for philatelic purposes.


Issue 14.

_June 1880_.

  1d., pale grey-green.
  6d., bright yellow-green.
  5s., deep rose-red.

On May 13th, 1880, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. sent out 1000 sheets
(60,000 stamps) of the One Penny, printed in pale grey-green, 300 sheets
(18,000 stamps) of the Six Pence, printed in bright yellow-green, and
100 sheets (2,000 stamps) of a new value—Five Shillings, printed in deep
rose-red. In this consignment was included the third and last printing
of the One Shilling bright vermilion-red. All the three first mentioned
values were perforated B only, this we know because no other variety of
perforation exists in any of these stamps, the issue of which was in all
three cases confined to this one printing. We think this is a very good
reason for believing that the printing of the One Shilling that was made
at the same time was like them perforated B only, and that at this date
the use of the A machine had been discontinued for ever, as far as the
stamps of St. Vincent are concerned.

The printings of both the One Penny and the Six Pence were small ones.
The former value must have been used up quickly, as a new supply was
ordered in the next year; we may, therefore, expect this stamp to become
much scarcer than any of the same value that preceded it, and of which
such a large quantity were printed.

The Six Pence was the last of that value to be printed by Messrs.
Perkins, Bacon & Co., and it remained current for more than three years,
until October, 1883, when it was succeeded by a stamp printed by Messrs.
De La Rue & Co. About a fifth part of the printing was used in 1881 for
making provisional stamps of the One Penny and Halfpenny values.

It is rather a scarce stamp, even in a used state, and is decidedly rare
unused, it being one of the St. Vincent stamps the dealers appear to have
neglected.

The Five Shillings value is a striking stamp, both in its size and
design, which is very artistic, and it is altogether a fine example of
the line-engraved work of its makers, Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co. The
central portion of the design portrays the Arms of the Government of
St. Vincent, and represents “Justice pouring out a libation to Peace,”
which illustrates the motto of the Colony, PAX ET JUSTITIA—“Peace and
Justice”—given on the scroll above the Arms. The plate contained twenty
stamps, arranged in four horizontal rows of five, and the same star
paper was used for printing the issue as for the other stamps of smaller
dimensions; the consequence of this being that each stamp is watermarked
with at least more than _one_ star. There seems to have been very little
demand for the stamp for postal purposes in the Island, and genuinely
postmarked specimens are now of great rarity. Used Five Shillings stamps
have always been eagerly sought for by philatelists, who for many years
declined to have anything to do with unused specimens, as they looked
upon the stamps as fiscals only. This belief seems to have arisen from
the way they were chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of August,
1880, which said—“The 5s. fiscal stamp has lately been used for postal
purposes.” The _Timbre-Poste_, in announcing the stamp, quoted from the
_Philatelic Record_, and so the error came to be perpetuated, until the
true character of the stamp was explained in the London Society’s _West
Indian Catalogue_, published in 1891. In that work will be found an
official notification, dated 15th September, 1882, in which it is called
“the existing five shilling postage stamp,” and in which it is directed
to be “over-stamped _Fifty Pounds—Revenue_,” and “used as a Revenue stamp
of that value.” Its use as a Revenue stamp was not confined to this
high denomination, as it exists with “Revenue” only on it, and fiscals
with this surcharge are fairly common. We are of opinion that the great
majority of the 2,000 stamps printed were so treated, and that only a
very small number were ever used for postage, or escaped the fiscal
surcharge. This readily accounts for the great rarity the stamp has
acquired of recent years, and this rarity cannot, we think, but increase
still further in the future.

The official notification quoted above contains a clause which “directs
that the present six penny postage stamps may be cut diagonally in
half—each half to be over-stamped _3d. Revenue_, and be used as a
revenue stamp of that value.” It was further used, with the surcharge
“Revenue,” as a fiscal Sixpence. This fiscal use of the Six Pence, bright
yellow-green, of Issue 14, is an additional reason for its now being so
rare in an unused state.


Issue 15.

_September 1881._

  ½d. in red on half 6d., bright yellow green, of Issue 14.

The necessity for a Halfpenny value arose from the Colony of St. Vincent
having joined the Postal Union on September 1st, 1881, and, pending the
arrival of the stamps ordered from England, this provisional was made
in the Island by dividing the Six Pence of the last issue by a vertical
line of perforation through the centre, and surcharging each half stamp
“½d.” in red, the additional perforation being the same as that of the
provisional One Penny of Issue 13.

It was thus chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of October, 1881: “St.
Vincent, proud apparently of her provisional One Penny, which has eluded
the grasp of so many collectors, has provided herself with a Halfpenny
makeshift, which is as like it as possible. The current Sixpenny stamp
has been perforated down the centre, and each half surcharged ½d. in red.
We have only, as yet, seen a single specimen, but there may be almost as
many varieties as there are stamps to the sheet.” This surmise of the
writer, fortunately for collectors, turned out to be incorrect, as there
are practically no varieties on the sheet, except one in which the serif
of the figure “1” of the fraction is straight, instead of being curved
as in the other figures on the sheet. Beyond this there are no varieties
of the surcharge, save in very slight differences in the position of the
fraction line, due to the surcharge being type set. Our illustration No.
3 shows the variety with the “1” with straight serif on the right half
of the Six Pence. It will also be observed that this surcharge is on a
slightly higher level than its neighbour on the left half of the same
stamp. It may also be noted that the surcharges were not always printed
fairly in register with the sheet, so that each one fell exactly in
the centre of a half stamp, as we have seen a used specimen of a right
half stamp, which shows portions of a second surcharge down the line of
perforation on the right side of the stamp.

A variety of this stamp, with the fraction line of the surcharge omitted,
is reported to us from the United States, but not having been able to
verify for ourselves whether the surcharge is genuine or not, we have
omitted it from our Reference List.

There were twelve sheets (1,440 stamps) of these provisionals printed,
but not many were issued for use, and we believe they were withdrawn from
issue _before_ the arrival of the new Halfpenny value in December. It
is an excessively rare stamp used, and at the date of its issue and for
some considerable time afterwards it was unattainable unused. We believe
this was owing to an official order to the effect that neither stamp
collectors nor dealers were to be supplied with it. Whether this order
was eventually rescinded, or fell into abeyance in the course of time,
we do not know; but one thing is certain—that philatelic persistence
triumphed in the end, and that the unused remainder of the issue found
its way at last into the hands of philatelists, so that now it is not at
all a rare stamp in the unused state. For this reason, and because the
unused Six Pence itself is so difficult to find, the forgers have not
been so busy with it as with its predecessor, the provisional One Penny;
but forgeries of it do exist, and for the satisfaction of our readers, we
give the dimensions of the surcharge. The extreme length from the top of
the letter “d” to the bottom of the numeral “2” is 16½ mm.; the height
of the letter “d” is 4 mm.; the space between the “d” and the figure “1”
is 2 mm.; the height of the figure 1 is 4 mm.; the space between the
figures “1” and “2” is 2½ mm.; the height of the figure “2” is 4 mm.; and
finally, the width of the letter “d,” without measuring the foot, is 2¼
mm. These measurements all vary a little according as the surcharge is
lightly or heavily impressed.


Issue 16.

_November 1881._

  4d. in black on 1s., bright vermilion-red, of Issue 11.

Four Pence being one of the Postal Union rates, the stamps of that value
remaining in hand from the issue of July, 1877, were soon used up, and in
November, 1881, the new lot of the Four Pence value not having yet come
out from England, 21 sheets (630 stamps) of the vermilion-red shilling
perforated B were surcharged in the Island with a large “4d.” in black,
and issued as provisionals. The original values were obliterated by black
bars, 2 mm. wide, printed across the sheet. The _Philatelic Record_ of
December, 1881, says: “St. Vincent.—Since this Colony joined the Postal
Union there has, of course, been a demand for Four Penny stamps. Those
used hitherto have been blue, like the issue of 1866, and not yellow,
like those of 1869. They were not remainders of the 1866 issue, but
stamps reprinted in a brighter shade of blue, and perforated in the rough
way which has lately distinguished the stamps of St. Vincent. By the
mail delivered here on the 13th inst. we have received letters franked
by a provisional Four Penny adhesive, formed by surcharging the current
scarlet Shilling 4d., and obliterating the original value by means of a
bar.”

We now see how deep was the mystery enshrouding the Four Pence on star
paper of Issue 12, when the editor of the leading English philatelic
periodical had been ignorant of its existence up to this time, and even
then failed to perceive any difference, except in the perforation,
between it and the Four Pence of 1866.

The provisional Four Pence has always been a very rare stamp; and it is
probably much scarcer than it is generally credited to be, as it has been
a favourite with the forgers of all nations, who have in some instances
been able to produce articles that pass current as genuine even in
circles believing themselves to be well-informed. We refrain, for several
reasons, from giving the measurements of the surcharge. First, because,
owing to the “4d.” being generally deeply indented in the paper, it is
not at all easy to measure it with accuracy; and also because, as regards
dimensions, there is a very dangerous forgery frequently met with, which
is not to be detected by any amount of measurement, however carefully
done, and which can only be distinguished by careful comparison.
Particular attention must be paid to the shape of the different angles of
the figure “4,” and especially to the contour of the top of that figure,
and to the way in which the slanting stroke joins the horizontal and the
vertical ones. The forgery alluded to fails in these particulars, but
it is like the genuine in this—that it is heavily printed, although not
quite so deeply indented as the genuine is _sometimes_ found.

Our illustration, No. 15, represents a well-known forgery of British
manufacture, which has been kindly lent to us for the purpose by a
gentleman to whom it was presented by the artist himself as a specimen
of his skill. This is a much easier forgery to detect than the one we
have just been speaking about, as it is generally accompanied by a forged
postmark, and is altogether too smoothly printed. Its measurements are
also incorrect, the foot of the figure “4” being fully ½ mm. too long.
There are a good many specimens of this latter forgery in circulation.

Another point to which we direct attention is, that in the genuine stamps
the black bar across the sheet begins on the left exactly flush with
the left of the figure “4” of the left hand stamp of the row, and ends
exactly under the right edge of the tail of the letter “d” of the right
hand stamp. It follows from this, that when the surcharges have been
printed in register with the sheet, the three stamps of the left hand
vertical column and the corresponding three on the right have the words
of value only partly obliterated, the bar under the “4d.” only reaching
part of the way across the label containing the original value.


Issue 17.

_December 1881._

  “One Penny” in black on 6d., bright yellow-green, of Issue 14.

This provisional, which was also surcharged in the Island, was probably
issued on the 1st of the month. It was chronicled in the _Philatelic
Record_ of January, 1882, and the editor of that periodical notes a
specimen postmarked “2nd December 1881.”

The issue consisted of 27 sheets (1,620 stamps) of the Six Pence, bright
yellow-green, of Issue 14, surcharged “One Penny” in block capitals. The
length of the surcharge is 18 mm., and the height of the letters 2 mm.
The original values are obliterated by black bars on the sheet, placed
exactly the same as those described in our note to Issue 16, but only 1
mm. in width instead of 2 mm.

It is not nearly such a scarce stamp as the provisional Four Pence, or
the One Penny of Issue 13; but it is rarer than the Halfpenny of Issue
15, except when this last is in the used state.

A number of the provisional One Penny of this issue came over unused to
English dealers after the stamp had been withdrawn from use, just as in
the case of the provisional Halfpenny. Used specimens were at first very
scarce, but to remedy this deficiency a certain number of these unused
stamps were reshipped to an agent in St. Vincent, and came back through
the post in instalments during the course of 1883 and 1884, whenever
their owner had a demand for used specimens. This explains the late dates
seen on some of these stamps. At the present time there is nothing to
choose in point of rarity between used and unused specimens.

There are a good many foreign-made forgeries of this surcharged One
Penny, but all we have seen have been very poor attempts, and none of
them have ever been made on the right stamp, the one usually selected for
forging being the pale yellow-green Six Pence of Issue 11.

We think this is the proper place to note a curious stamp that has just
reached our publishers from the United States. It is the left half of a
bright yellow-green Six Pence of Issue 14, which stamp has been divided
in half by a vertical line of perforation gauging 12. This half stamp
is surcharged “D/1” in red, and is postmarked, apparently over the
surcharge. The extreme height of the surcharge is 8½ mm.; the height of
the figure “1” is 5 mm., and its width ¾ mm.; the height of the letter
“D” is 2¾ mm., and its width 2¼ mm. The figure “1” has a long serif,
slanting downwards, and a foot like that of a Roman figure “I.”

We do not like to hazard an opinion as to what this stamp may be, but
we think it right to place its existence on record, as the perforation
which has divided the stamp has been, in our opinion, done by the same
official machine that performed the same operation, not only on the
postal provisionals of 1880 and 1881, but also on the fiscals that were
made in 1882 by dividing diagonally this same Six Pence of Issue 14,
and surcharging each half “3d. Revenue.” It was expressly forbidden in
St. Vincent to make use of postage stamps for fiscal purposes, unless
they had been overprinted “Revenue”; this stamp, if genuine, cannot
therefore have been intended for anything but postage. It may have
been experimentally prepared in December 1881, when a provisional One
Penny was required, and rejected in favour of the one actually issued;
but farther than this we cannot go. We are sorry that this interesting
stranger has reached us too late for illustration.


Issue 18.

_December 1881._

  ½d., orange-yellow, shades from pale to deep.
  1d., drab, slight shades.
  4d., bright ultramarine.

The consignment of these three stamps, which was sent out on November
16th, 1881, consisted of 1000 sheets (60,000 stamps) of the Halfpenny,
1000 sheets (60,000 stamps) of the One Penny, and 500 sheets (15,000
stamps) of the Four Pence. All three values were issued in December, and
the three provisionals which had temporarily supplied their places were
at once withdrawn from use, if indeed this had not already taken place in
the case of the provisional Halfpenny.

The plate for the Halfpenny value, like those of the One Penny and Six
Pence, consisted of 60 stamps arranged in 6 horizontal rows of 10. Like
the other current values, it was printed on the star-watermarked paper.

The lateral distance between the stamps is 19 mm. from centre to centre,
and the vertical 21½ mm. These dimensions being smaller by 1⅓ mm. one
way, and 2½ mm. the other, than those of the spaces between the stars in
the paper, it follows that these last are distributed among the stamps in
less than the proportion of one star to each, so it is very seldom that
we find the watermark properly centred on any single specimen.

The colour of this Halfpenny varies a good deal in depth of shade,
and, like that of most St. Vincent stamps, it has a strong tendency to
oxidation. This colour was called “primrose” by the printers. Although
only one printing was ever made of it, this was a large one, and it is a
very common stamp either unused or used.

We have called the colour of the One Penny “drab,” but it is not a very
easy one to define, although our term is more likely to be understood by
our readers than that of the printers, which is “chemical black.” For
some reason or other it is a very much scarcer stamp unused than the
Halfpenny, in spite of there having been printed an equal number of both.
We suppose that this must be through the dealers having omitted to put it
in stock in any great quantity, and from a number of the sheets having
been overprinted “Revenue” for fiscal purposes.

Possibly for the same reasons the Four Pence is also a rare stamp unused,
and even used specimens are getting scarce. Only 15,000 of these were
printed, and they must have been quickly used up, as a new issue of the
value was required within a year.

The three stamps of this issue are only known perforated B; they were the
last to be printed for the Colony by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.

In a letter in _Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal_ for December, 1891, the
One Penny drab, with star watermark, is said to exist perforated 14, but
the reputed owner has since informed us that this is a mistake.


SECTION II.

With the end of 1881 the printing of the stamps of St. Vincent by Messrs.
Perkins, Bacon & Co. ceased, and on February 25th, 1882, that firm
delivered up the various plates of stamps to the Crown Agents of the
Colony in London. These plates were afterwards handed over by them to
Messrs. De La Rue & Co., and this firm has since printed all the further
supplies of stamps ordered by the Colony, using Messrs. Perkins, Bacon &
Co.’s plates for that purpose.

We give the dates of the various issues comprised in Section II. as
accurately as it is in our power to do, but, as we do not enjoy for the
stamps of this section the same advantages as we did for those printed
by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., we are now obliged for our information
to fall back entirely upon the philatelic periodicals, the authorities
we have chiefly relied upon being the _Philatelic Record_ and the
_Timbre-Poste_.

With the change of contractors alterations took place in the paper,
colours, and perforation of the stamps—printers’ accessories that
naturally differ with each individual firm. At the time Messrs. De La Rue
& Co. took over the contract they had, in the case of stamps of the size
of the majority of those of St. Vincent, ceased using their well-known
paper watermarked with a crown and “C.C.,” and had substituted in its
place a paper with watermarks of a crown over the letters “C.A.”—these
initials standing for “Crown Agents.” This paper is milled or surfaced,
medium in thickness, and varies but slightly in both of these two
respects. It was specially made for the electrotype plates used by
Messrs. De La Rue & Co. in the surface-printing process they employ for
most of the current British Colonial stamps. The entire sheet measures
21¼ inches in height by 11 inches in width, or 54 centimetres by 28
centimetres, approximately. In order to correspond with the stamps on
these electrotype plates, the watermarks in the sheet are grouped in four
panes of sixty, and those in each pane are arranged in ten horizontal
rows of six, with a line in watermark enclosing each pane. The two upper
panes are separated from the two lower ones by a space of an inch,
and this interval is watermarked with the words “Crown Agents,” in a
straight line in double-lined block capitals 12 mm. in height. The two
panes on the right are separated from the two on the left by a narrow
unwatermarked space of 6 mm. There is no marginal watermark at either the
top or bottom of the sheet, but at each side the words “Crown Agents for
the Colonies” are watermarked in a straight line of double-lined block
capitals 7 mm. in height, the words on the left reading upwards, and
those on the right reading downwards.

From these particulars it will be seen how ill-adapted this paper is for
plates of the size of those of the St. Vincent stamps. The consequence
is that the watermarks, “Crown C.A.,” are irregularly distributed over
the sheets of all the different values, never being in proper register
with the stamps, but more so in the cases of the Halfpenny and the Five
Shillings, on account of the sizes of these two values being so very
different from that of the De La Rue stamps for which the watermarks are
spaced.

We have seen that the plates of the Halfpenny, One Penny, and Sixpence
contained sixty stamps, in six horizontal rows of ten, and that of the
Five Shillings twenty stamps, in four horizontal rows of five. The
“Crown C.A.” paper was, therefore, quite large enough to be divided
horizontally, so as to take three impressions of any of these plates. The
result of this division of the sheet is that the impression of the plate
that happens to be printed on the middle portion has one row of stamps,
either partly or wholly, watermarked with as much of the inscription,
“Crown Agents,” as the length of the plate will permit; and specimens
of all the above values, as well as of the two issues of the One Penny
surcharged “2½ Pence,” and the Six Pence surcharged “Five Pence,” by
Messrs. De La Rue & Co. are found so watermarked. The plates of the Four
Pence and One Shilling, which only contained thirty stamps in three
horizontal rows of ten, admitted of the paper being so cut that the words
“Crown Agents” are only found watermarked in the margins of the sheets of
these two values.

The sheets printed from Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s plates were even
less adapted to the perforating machines used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co.
for stamps of their own design printed on “Crown C.A.” paper, than, as we
have seen, were the Perkins-Bacon plates to that paper. These machines,
to which we give the name of “comb,” perforate the top and two sides of
every stamp in an entire horizontal row at each descent of the pins.
The second descent of the pins, therefore, perforates the bottom of
the stamps in the first row and at the same time the top and two sides
of the stamps of the second row. This process is continued through the
sheet until the bottom of it is reached, when the last descent of the
pins perforates the bottom of the lowest row of stamps, and at the same
time continues the vertical lines of perforation into the bottom margin
of the sheet. If the sheet has been put to the machine in an inverted
position, it is the _top_ margin we find perforated vertically. The
machines are, however, so constructed that in the centre of the long line
of pins two of the vertical lines of the “comb” are placed much closer
together than the rest, in order to perforate each side of the narrow
central space separating the panes of stamps—_vide_ our description of
the paper watermarked “Crown C.A.” This arrangement of the pins makes the
machine utterly useless for perforating a row of more than six stamps
placed close together. In consequence of this, the stamps of St. Vincent,
and those of other Colonies for which Messrs. De La Rue & Co. use the
old plates of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., have to be perforated by a
different make of machine to that they usually employ for colonial stamps.

For the stamps of St. Vincent three varieties of perforating machines
have been used by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. First, a comb-machine of the
gauge of 14, similar to the one they employ for perforating the current
One Penny &c. of Great Britain, in which the horizontal line of pins is
long enough, without the interposition of two vertical lines placed close
together, to perforate a row of ten or more stamps; second, a single-line
or guillotine-machine with 12 holes in a space of 2 centimetres; and
third, a similarly constructed machine to the second, but with a gauge of
14.

In order to distinguish between the perforations of the
guillotine-machine gauging 14 and those of the comb-machine which also
gauges 14, it is necessary to have either a block of at least four
stamps, or a vertical strip with the top and bottom margins of the
sheet attached. By examining the points where the lines of perforation
intersect each other, or noticing whether _both_ margins of the sheet
have been perforated through or not, it is possible to decide the nature
of the machine. If, at the point where a vertical and a horizontal line
of perforation intersect, there is one hole common to both lines, this
hole being of the usual size, or if either the top or bottom margin of
the sheet is imperforate, then the perforation must have been done by
the comb-machine. On the other hand, if the lines of perforation cross
each other so that there is no one hole common to both lines, or if there
appears to be such a one that it has evidently been made larger by the
passage of a second pin, or if the top and bottom margins of the sheet
are _both_ perforated through, then we may be equally certain that the
perforation has been performed by the guillotine-machine.

The comb-machine perforating 14 is far more regular in the spacing of
the pins than the guillotine-machine of the same gauge. If a long line
of perforation of the latter be examined, it will be found that here and
there the holes are not in line, and also that there is a slightly wider
distance between certain of them, although the gauge of the perforation
does not perceptibly vary from 14.

The guillotine-machine gauging 12 is more irregular still in the spacing
of the pins, as an examination of our illustration No. 21 will show. For
instance, the tenth hole from the bottom is further from the ninth than
it is from the eleventh, and the second and third holes from the top, and
also others, will be seen to be more or less out of line. The gauge also
varies; for if two centimetres be taken up the central line, commencing
with the fifteenth hole from the bottom, that space will be found to
contain eleven holes, _plus_ the distance between the eleventh and
twelfth, which is equivalent to a gauge of 11¾.

For some reason Messrs. De La Rue & Co. do not appear to have made
much use of the comb-machine for the stamps of St. Vincent; it may be
because their machines were in constant requirement for British stamps.
The One Penny, and “2½ Pence” on 1d., rosy-lake, two of the first three
values printed by them, were perforated by this comb-machine; but with
the exception of one or two other stamps that we shall specify in our
notes to the various issues, the remainder, including all the stamps
now current in the Island, have been perforated by one or other of the
guillotine-machines.

We have not thought proper in our Reference List to make any distinction
between the two machines gauging 14, nor have we catalogued stamps
showing part of the words “Crown Agents” in the watermark, as we feel
that had we done so we should have been adding a fresh terror to stamp
collecting, already over-burdened by the weight of “varieties.”

The gum on all the stamps of Section II. is usually white, but sometimes
varies to a pale yellow.

The colours of the stamps are for the most part brighter than those used
by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co., and the combination of the line-engraved
plates with the colours, paper, and perforations of Messrs. De La Rue
& Co. produce certainly some of the finest stamps that have ever been
printed.


Issue 19.

_January 1883._

  1d., drab.
  4d., bright blue.

These two stamps, the first to be printed for the Colony by Messrs. De
La Rue & Co., were chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of February,
1883, so we may safely put down the date of issue as January. The colours
of both values were unchanged, and, allowing for the difference of
appearance in Messrs. De La Rue & Co.’s stamps, caused by the whiteness
and surfacing of the paper, there is hardly any change to be noticed even
in their shades. The One Penny is perforated 14, the machine used having
been the “comb.” The Four Pence is also perforated 14, but not having
been able to examine a block, or even a pair of these stamps, we are
unable to say which of the two machines was used. In all probability it
was the guillotine-machine.


Issue 20.

_February 1883._

  “2½ PENCE,” in black, on 1d., rosy-lake.

Although a surcharged, this is by no means a provisional stamp, since it
was made to obviate the necessity of making a plate for the new value
of Two Pence Halfpenny required for the Postal Union rate, and, with
a change of colour of the One Penny value on which the surcharge is
printed, it has remained current ever since its issue in February, 1883.

It was chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_ of March, 1883, and is dated
February in the last edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue_. The surcharge is
printed in black, in block figures and capitals 3 mm. in height, and the
extreme length of the whole surcharge is 16 mm. A bar, 1 mm. in width,
and 14 mm. in length, is printed at a distance of 1 mm. below the “2½
PENCE,” and the surcharges are so printed on the sheet that these black
bars fall more or less exactly on the lower labels of the stamps, and
obliterate the original values. Like the stamps of the last issue, the
sheets were perforated 14 by the comb-machine.

We have been shewn some specimens of the One Penny rosy-lake, which their
owners fondly imagined were stamps that had escaped the surcharge “2½
PENCE.” This is not so, as the One Penny stamp was afterwards issued in
exactly the same colour as the surcharged variety we are now considering:
_vide_ Issue 25.


Issue 21.

_October 1883._

  4d., dull blue.
  6d., bright green.
  1s., orange-vermilion.

In the _Philatelic Record_ of November, 1883, the editor chronicles the
two higher values of this issue, on the authority of Dr. Viner, but they
were not noticed in the _Timbre-Poste_ until January, 1884. We have every
belief that the Four Pence, dull blue, was issued with the two other
values, but we can find no contemporary record of it. It is called “_bleu
terne_” and dated 1883 in the First Supplement (published July 1884), to
the 6th Edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue_. This settles the question as
to its colour at least, for although M. Moens’ in the current edition of
his _Catalogue_ has dropped the term “_bleu terne_,” and substituted
for it two colours, “_outremer_” and “_bleu foncé_,” we cannot help
thinking that in this instance he has followed the lead of the London
Society’s _West Indian Catalogue_, which employs precisely these terms
in describing the colour of the blue Four Pence perforated 12, ignoring
the dull blue stamp altogether. The stamps so described in the London
Society’s list certainly belong to a later printing, and we believe them
to have been non-existent in July, 1884, when M. Moens issued the First
Supplement to the 6th Edition of his _Catalogue_. The colour of the
Four Pence of this issue is a dull dirty blue, inclined to grey-blue,
and cannot possibly be mistaken for any of the shades of the Four Pence
of the next issue. It is a very rare stamp, particularly unused. All
the stamps of this issue are perforated 12 by the guillotine-machine
described in our note to Section II.


Issue 22

_September 1884._

  ½d., dark green.
  4d., ultramarine, with light and dark shades.

In the _Philatelic Record_ of March, 1884, will be found an account of
a spurious provisional Halfpenny, for which the _Deutsche Philatelisten
Zeitung_ seems to have been responsible. The stamp is described as the
Six Pence, green, divided vertically, and each half surcharged in black
“_Halfpenny_.” In the June number of the _Philatelic Record_ the editor
says: “The result of enquiries made of the Postmaster of St. Vincent is
that no such stamp has been issued. There are still large supplies of
the small ½d., orange, on hand, which is attested by the fact that the
watermark of this stamp has not yet been altered to C.A. and Crown.”
The new Halfpenny printed in green, and perforated 12, was afterwards
chronicled in the October number of the same journal.

We believe it was at this time that the third and last printing of a blue
Four Pence was made by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., and that this is the
ultramarine, or dark blue stamp, that is dated by the London Society as
having been issued at the end of 1883. Both the stamps of this issue are
perforated 12, and this is the last instance in which a machine of this
gauge was used for St. Vincent stamps.

The variety of the Halfpenny printed in orange-yellow, but otherwise
identical in all other respects with the green Halfpenny of this issue,
has been known to us for some two years. A specimen of it was found
by our publishers in a collection they had purchased, and at least
two others are known, one of which has recently (January, 1895) been
advertised for sale. All these are unused, and are printed on “Crown
C.A.” paper, gummed, and perforated 12. We have catalogued this stamp as
a variety “prepared for use, but never issued,” and, although it would be
indiscreet to repeat here all the gossip we have heard on the subject,
this fairly represents the case, as far as the evidence that has reached
us can be trusted. One thing is at least certain, and that is, none of
these yellow Halfpennies ever reached the Island officially.


Issue 23.

_March 1885._

  “1d.” in black, on “2½d.” on 1d., rosy-lake.

This provisional stamp was made in the Island by surcharging “1d.” in
black on the Two Pence Halfpenny of Issue 20, the surcharged value of
that stamp being obliterated by two black bars printed across the sheet.
The numeral “1” is 8½ mm. in height, and 1½ mm. in width; it has usually
a straight serif, and a foot 3½ mm. long; the letter “d” is 4 mm. in
height, and its extreme width is 3 mm. The bars that obliterate the
original surcharge “2½ Pence” are each ½ mm. wide, and there is a space
of ¾ mm. between them; between the upper of these two bars and the foot
of the figure “1” there is a space of 3¼ mm. The top of the “d” is about
level with that of the figure “1,” but the position of the letter varies,
and it is sometimes a little higher or a little lower than the numeral.
Between the “1” and the “d” there is a space of 1½ mm. The only variety
of the surcharge that we have found is a stamp which has the serif of
the numeral “1” sloping upwards. There appear to be no other varieties
of surcharge on the sheet, unless we reckon as such the slightly varying
positions of the letter “d” or a type of the figure “1” which has the
right hand projection of the foot broken off.

This provisional One Penny was chronicled in the _Philatelic Record_
of April, 1885, and there can be no doubt it was issued in March. Its
perforation is of course the same as that of the Two Pence Halfpenny of
Issue 20.


Issue 24.

_April 1885._

  ½d., dark green, shades.
  1d., carmine.
  4d., red-brown.

The One Penny and Four Pence of this issue were chronicled in the
_Philatelic Record_ of May, 1885, and these two at least were issued
in April. There is no such certainty with regard to the Halfpenny,
dark green, perforated 14, as this is another St. Vincent stamp that
altogether escaped being noticed in the periodicals. The earliest record
of it we can find is in Mr. Gilbert E. Lockyer’s _Colonial Stamps_,
published in April, 1887. In this work it is grouped with other values
as having been issued in “1885-86.” This is a little vague, but we do
not suppose that Mr. Lockyer had any more precise information about the
date of issue than we ourselves have now. Taking into consideration that
the Halfpenny, dark green, perforated 12, of Issue 22, September, 1884,
is rather a rare stamp either unused or used, we are inclined to assign
to it as short a life as possible, and we believe that the Halfpenny
perforated 14 must have been sent out by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. in
April, 1885, rather than in June, 1886, with the new printings of the One
Penny and Four Pence.

The colour of the Halfpenny is dark green, varying in shade, and it does
not differ in this respect from the Halfpenny of Issue 22. The impression
is sometimes rather blurred, or woolly, and when this is the case the
letters of the inscription appear narrower, and have badly defined edges.

We have called the colour of the One Penny, “carmine,” and that of the
Four Pence “red-brown.” In the _Philatelic Record_ of May, 1885, they
were called “bright-rose” and “reddish-chocolate,” but in July, 1886, the
editor of that periodical, says, “… we think it better to explain that
the colour of the One Penny of 1885, when compared with the more recent
issue, must be rather termed ‘vermilion-red’ than ‘bright-rose.’”

The Four Pence is rather scarce even used, and unused it is decidedly
rare.

All the stamps of this issue are perforated 14 by the guillotine-machine,
and the Halfpenny is one of the values that still remain in issue in the
Island.


Issue 25.

_June 1886._

  1d., pink, shades.
  1d., rosy-lake.
  4d., purple-brown.
  4d., lake-brown, shades from deep to pale.

The change in colour of the two values of this issue was first chronicled
in the _Philatelic Record_ of July, 1886, where they were spoken of
as “recent arrivals,” and their colours described as follows: “The
present colour of the One Penny is a decided pink, and it is printed in
water-colour; while the Four Pence is a very dark puce-brown.” For the
One Penny we have adopted the term “pink,” but prefer “purple-brown” to
“puce-brown” for the Four Pence. Besides the usual pink shades of the
One Penny we have found that stamp in a colour identical with some of
the specimens of the rosy-lake One Penny, which, surcharged “2½ Pence,”
appeared in 1883. We have given this stamp a separate number in the
Reference List, as, had we been content to include it as a shade of
“pink,” it might in time have come to be considered as an error of Issue
20, without surcharge, which it certainly is not. There must have been
a great number of printings of the One Penny made since 1886, as the
stamp is still current. They are now coming over, in 1895, in shades
undistinguishable from the carmine stamp of Issue 24.

If there are any shades of the purple-brown Four Pence they are very
slight. It is by no means so scarce a stamp as the red-brown Four Pence
of the last issue, but it is not nearly as common as any of the shades of
the lake-brown Four Pence, and we think there could only have been one
printing of it. The Four Pence, lake-brown, is certainly the result of
later printings, but we cannot say for certain when the first of these
was made; the earliest date we have found on one is October 2nd, 1886.

All the stamps of this issue are perforated 14 by the guillotine-machine.


Issue 26.

_October 1888._

  6d., dark lilac.
  5s., lake.

The Six Pence, dark lilac, was first chronicled by the _Timbre-Poste_
of November, 1888, although by some oversight M. Moens in the current
edition of his _Catalogue_ has dated it December, with the Five Shillings
lake. These two stamps were probably sent out together, and issued in
October, 1888.

The Six Pence is a dark lilac, more inclined towards blue than red. We
are certain that this, and not the red-lilac, was the first printing, as
the specimen in the “Tapling Collection,” which came over at the time, is
dark lilac.

We have recently seen two unused specimens of the Five Shillings,
watermarked Crown C.A., which in colour are almost identical with the
Five Shillings of Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.’s printing (Issue 14). An
examination of the stamps showed that they had no gum, and that the paper
was very white and without surface, clearly showing that the stamps had
been tampered with. We have no hesitation in condemning these varieties,
as being only the ordinary lake stamps with the colour changed.

All the stamps of this issue are perforated 14; the Four Pence and Five
Shillings are done with the guillotine-machine, but the Six Pence is one
of the later instances in which the comb-machine was used.

The Five Shillings, lake, is still current.


Issue 27.

_August 1889._

  “2½ Pence” in black on 1d., milky-blue, shades.

The issue of this stamp must have taken place in August, 1889, as it
was chronicled in the September number of the _Philatelic Record_ of
that year. The editor seems to have been rather confused in his ideas
about St. Vincent stamps, as in April, in noting the change of colour
of the Six Pence from green to lilac, which had taken place six months
previously, he surmised that the Six Pence of the former colour had been
used up for making provisionals, and he now speaks of the “2½ Pence” on
One Penny, lake, as having been issued in 1882, whereas it was not issued
until 1883.

The surcharge “2½ Pence” does not call for any remarks, as it is
identical with that of the same value of Issue 20. The stamp remained
current until August, 1890, when the supply seems to have become
exhausted, owing possibly to large purchases for philatelic purposes, and
it became necessary to make a provisional, pending the arrival of a fresh
supply from the printers in England.

It was perforated 14, and is the last stamp in St. Vincent for which
Messrs. De La Rue & Co. used the comb-machine. Its colour is a pale
milky-blue, not unlike that of one of the Six Pence values of St. Helena,
and a few slight shades are to be found.


Issue 28.

_August 1890._

  “2½d.,” in black, on 4d., lake-brown.

As we have said in our note to the foregoing issue, this provisional
was made locally, during a temporary dearth of the De La Rue surcharged
Two Pence Halfpenny, by surcharging “2½d.” in black on the Four Pence,
lake-brown, of Issue 26, the original values being obliterated by black
bars printed across the sheet. These bars are 1 mm. in width, and do not
extend right across the sheet, but only reach to within 2 mm. of the
frames of the right and left hand stamps in the rows. The total length of
the surcharge, including the period after “d.,” is 10½ mm. The height of
the large figure “2” is 4 mm.; its width is 2½ mm., and it has a curved
foot. The small figure “1” is rather more than 2 mm. in height, and the
small figure “2” is the same. The “d” is 4 mm. in height by 2 mm. in
width, and is followed by rather a large full stop placed within 1 mm. of
it. The surcharges are printed from type, and a good many minor varieties
are to be found, of which the principal is one in which the fraction line
is omitted. Other varieties consist of the large figure “2” with a break
in the body just above the foot; small figure “2” with a break in the
curve of the head; small figure “1” with differently shaped serifs; and
fraction lines of varying lengths in different positions; but none of
these varieties are of any great importance.

We take the date of issue from the list of provisional stamps furnished
by Mr. Frank W. Griffith, late acting Colonial Postmaster of the island,
published in the London Society’s _West Indian Catalogue_.


Issue 29.

_November 1890 to 1891._

  “2½ Pence,” in black, on 1d., bright blue; shades.
  6d., pale red-lilac.
  6d., deep red-lilac.
  1s., vermilion-red.

In this issue we have grouped together the stamps printed subsequent to
the issue of the provisional “2½d.” on Four Pence, lake-brown, up to the
end of 1891, but for none of which can we give more precise dates. All
these stamps are perforated 14 by the guillotine-machine.

The Two Pence Halfpenny differs from the previous printing of the
same value in the colour of the stamp, which is now in varying shades
of bright blue, instead of in milky-blue as before. When in sheets,
or blocks, it can also be distinguished from its predecessor by the
perforation having been done by the guillotine-machine, whereas the Two
Pence Halfpenny of Issue 27 was perforated by the comb-machine. Its issue
was chronicled in the _Timbre-Poste_ of January 1891, in the following
terms: “Le 2½ pence, surcharge noire sur le 1 penny, est imprimé en blue
vif. Ce timbre vient de nous parvenir ainsi en remplacement de celui,
même valeur, dont la surcharge avait été appliquée sur le 4 p. lie de
vin.” From dated specimens we have seen, we infer that the issue took
place in November, 1890, or even before that date.

We are altogether in the dark as to when the first printing of the
red-lilac Six Pence took place. Although this stamp in both its shades of
pale and deep red-lilac differs materially from the dark lilac stamp of
Issue 26, we can find no chronicle of it anywhere; but we do not think
we are far out in dating it at the early part of 1891. In describing
the Six Pence of Issue 26, we said that the lilac colour of that stamp
inclined more towards blue than red. In both shades of the Six Pence
we are now considering the red predominates over the blue, so that the
colour almost approaches lake. It is necessary to be quite clear on this
point, as there seems to have been only one printing of the dark lilac
Six Pence, and it is bound, sooner or later, to become a much rarer stamp
than the red-lilac one, which has already had a currency of four years.

There is much the same difficulty with regard to the date of issue of
the One Shilling, vermilion-red. This stamp differs both in colour and
perforation from the orange-vermilion Shilling of Issue 21, which was
perforated 12, but it was unnoticed by philatelists until Mr. Gilbert
Lockyer called attention to its existence, in a letter in _Stanley
Gibbons’ Monthly Journal_ of December, 1891. In this letter Mr. Lockyer
states that Mr. E. Hawkins possesses a specimen, but there can be little
doubt that the stamp had been at least some months in issue before this
mention of it.

All the stamps of this issue are still current.


Issue 30.

_November 1892._

  “5 Pence,” in carmine, on 4d., lake-brown.

The earliest chronicle of this provisional is in _Stanley Gibbons’
Monthly Journal_ for November, 1892, which is the actual date of
issue. The stamp was made locally, pending the arrival of a supply
from the printers, by surcharging the Four Pence, lake-brown, with
“5—PENCE,” in thin block capitals, in two lines, and obliterating the
original values by bars printed across the sheet. The colour of the
surcharge is carmine, inclined to lake. The editor of the _Philatelic
Record_ evidently looked with great suspicion on the necessity for this
provisional, as when chronicling it he made this remark: “It is said
that the issue only lasted an hour, after which the price outside rose
to shillings in place of pence.” The dimensions of the surcharge are as
follows: The figure “5” is 4 mm. in height, and 2¾ mm. in width; the word
“Pence” measures 12 mm. × 2¼ mm. The width of the bar is 1 mm., and this
bar extends right across the sheet, and terminates exactly at the outer
frame of the right and left-hand stamps of each row. The space between
the bar and the word “Pence” is 5½ mm., and that between the same word
and the figure “5” is 1¾ mm. At a distance of 20 mm. above the bar there
is a row of small ornaments, two to each stamp, so grouped in pairs that
they fall exactly on the stars in the two top corners of each stamp—that
is, when the surcharges are in exact register with the sheet. It is not
easy to say what these ornaments are, or why they have been introduced.
They measure about 2 mm. each way, and are very faintly printed. As
far as we can make out they are printer’s type ornaments of a somewhat
uncommon pattern, and the illustration here given is from an enlarged
drawing of one of them.

[Illustration]

The whole surcharge—values, bars, and ornaments—is evidently done from a
_cliché_, and there are no varieties on the sheet. In the one now before
us, the third stamp from the left on the bottom row has the first “E”
of “Pence” double printed, with a space of about ½ mm. between the two
impressions. We cannot say whether this is a variety existing on every
sheet, or whether it is peculiar to this one only.


Issue 31.

_March 1893._

  4d., canary-yellow.
  “Five Pence,” in black, on 6d., dull carmine.
  “Five Pence”      ”      ”      carmine-brown.

These values were issued in March, 1893, and are perforated 14 by the
guillotine machine. The Four Pence is the old design, but with the colour
once more changed to canary-yellow. For the Five Pence Messrs. De La Rue
& Co. printed the current Six Pence in a new colour, and surcharged each
stamp, over the original value, with the words “FIVE PENCE” in a straight
line of block capitals, measuring 13½ mm. × 2¾ mm. There are two very
distinct colours of this stamp—dull carmine and carmine-brown. They were
both in existence in November, 1893, at which date they were chronicled
in _Stanley Gibbons’ Monthly Journal_.

The stamps of this issue are still current.




APPENDIX A.


SAINT VINCENT.

    AN ACT _to authorise the appointment of a Colonial Post-Master
    for the Colony of Saint Vincent, and to transfer to the
    Executive Government of the said Colony the control over the
    Post Office therein, heretofore exercised by Her Majesty’s
    Post-Master-General_.

WHEREAS it hath become necessary to provide for the appointment of a
Colonial Post-Master, and to transfer to the Executive Government of the
Island of Saint Vincent and its Dependencies, the authorities, power,
and control, over the Post Office Establishment of the said Island,
heretofore exercised by Her Majesty’s Post-Master General.

Be it therefore enacted by the Governor, Council, and Assembly of the
said Island of Saint Vincent and its Dependencies, as follows; that is to
say—

[Sidenote: Appointment of Post-Master]

1. Immediately on the passing of this Act, and so from time to time
as often as a vacancy shall occur in the said Office, there shall be
appointed by the officer for the time being administering the Government
of the said Island of St. Vincent, by Commission under his hand and
the Public Seal of the Colony a fit and proper person to be Colonial
Post-Master of the said Government, &c., &c., &c., &c.

[Sidenote: General Post Office in Kingstown.]

5. There shall be one General Post Office provided by the Executive
Government, in the Town of Kingstown, where all Letters, Newspapers,
Books, Pamphlets, and other Papers, which shall arrive in this Colony
from any place out of the same (unless excepted or exempted by any Act of
the Imperial Parliament, or by this Act) shall be brought and received,
and whence the same shall be delivered to the persons to whom addressed,
and where all Letters, Newspapers, Books, Pamphlets, and other Papers
(except such as are excepted or exempted as aforesaid) shall be posted
and received for transmission to any place out of this Colony, and whence
the same shall be despatched to all places out of this Colony; and such
General Post Office shall be in such part of the Government Buildings,
in the said Town of Kingstown, as the Governor, with the consent of the
Executive Council shall, from time to time, fix and direct; and the hours
of attendance at such Post Office shall be governed and regulated by
and according to the Rules to be made, as hereinafter provided for the
governance of the Post Office Establishment of this Colony.

[Sidenote: Postage prepayable in money until stamps provided. Proviso,
stamps may be used when provided.]

11. The Postage on all Letters, posted in this Colony for transmission to
any place out of the same, shall be paid by the sender on delivering the
same at the Post Office in money, until stamps shall be provided, under
the provisions of this Act. Provided always, that Letters written on
stamped paper, or enclosed in stamped covers, or having a stamp affixed
thereto (the stamp, in every such case, being of the value or amount in
this Act expressed, and specially provided for the purpose, under the
authority of this Act) shall if within the limitation of weight fixed
by or under the authority of any Statute of the Imperial Parliament in
that behalf, and if the stamp have not been used before, pass by the
Post free, subject only as to such Letters as shall not be sent to the
United Kingdom, to such Postage as the same shall or may be liable to,
on arrival at their places of destination, under the Laws of such places
respectively.

[Sidenote: Postmaster to collect One Penny for Local Government on all
single letters to and from the United Kingdom, and so in proportion, &c.]

12. And whereas, under arrangements entered into by Her Majesty’s
Post-Master-General, one rate, or the sum of one penny, is to be paid to
and received by the Local Government on every single Letter coming from
the United Kingdom, and received in this Colony from or through Her
Majesty’s General Post Office; and a like rate, or one penny, on every
single Letter collected in, and sent from this Colony, to the United
Kingdom, through the said General Post Office, and a double rate on every
Double Letter, and so in proportion, according to the rate or scale
governing the Postage on Letters sent by the General Post Office from the
United Kingdom to these Colonies, or from these Colonies to the United
Kingdom. Be it therefore enacted—That the Colonial-Post-Master shall
keep an account, and shall collect and receive, on behalf of the Local
Government, such Rates and Postage as aforesaid, as shall be payable for
all such Letters as aforesaid.

[Sidenote: Scale of Postage to Colony on all Foreign Letters, not passing
through the United Kingdom.]

13. On every Letter arriving in this Colony, by Her Majesty’s General
Post, from any place beyond the limits of the Colony, except from or
passing through the United Kingdom; and on every Letter posted in this
Colony for transmission to any place beyond the limits of the same,
except to or through the United Kingdom, there shall be charged, and paid
to Her Majesty, for the use of this Colony, Postage by weight, according
to the following Scale, that is to say—

    Not exceeding half-an-ounce—One rate of one penny.

    Exceeding half-an-ounce, but not exceeding one ounce—Two rates,
    or two pence.

    Exceeding one ounce, but not exceeding two ounces—Four rates,
    or four pence.

    Exceeding two ounces, but not exceeding three ounces—Six rates,
    or sixpence.

And so on in progression, an additional two rates being charged for every
additional ounce or fraction of an ounce.

16. (Provides for Registration of Letters and Book Packets, at rate of
one shilling each.)

[Sidenote: Governor to provide Postage Dies and Stamps.]

17. It shall be lawful for the Governor to cause to be provided, at the
Public expense, proper and sufficient Postage Stamps and Dies, or other
Implements for expressing and denoting the Rates or Duties of Postage
for this Colony; and such Dies, Stamps, and Implements, shall be kept
in such custody, and such Stamps shall be made or impressed from such
Dies or other Implements, and sold in such manner as the Governor, with
the consent of the Executive Council, shall from time to time direct by
writing under his hand.

_Act passed June 14th, 1860._

    NOTE.—Another Act was passed on September 10th, 1863, which
    raised the postage on letters despatched to foreign countries,
    with the exception of those going to or through the United
    Kingdom, from one penny to two pence the half ounce, and so on
    in proportion. The charge of one penny on letters coming to St.
    Vincent through the Imperial Post Office was at the same time
    abolished.




APPENDIX B.

Table of perforations of stamps printed by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon & Co.
1861 to 1881.


  ------+---------------+-----+-------------------------+----------------
  NUMBER|               |     |                         |
    OF  |               |     |                         |
  ISSUE.| DATE OF ISSUE.| WMK.| DENOMINATION AND COLOUR.|   PERFORATION.
  ------+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-----+-----+----
     1  | May 1861      |None.|1d., bright rose-red     |A.   |     |
        |               |     |6d., blue-green          |A.   |     |
     2  |     1862      |None.|6d., yellow-green        |C.   |     |
     3  | 1863-1866     |None.|1d., bright rose-red     |     |B.   |B×A.
        |               |     |6d., blue-green          |     |B.   |
     4  | August 1866   |None.|4d., deep bright blue    |     |B.   |
        |               |     |1s., dark slate-grey     |A.   |     |B×A.
        |               |     |1s., greyish-purple      |A.   |     |B×A.
     5  | April 1869    |None.|1s., indigo              |     |B.   |
     6  | October 1869  |None.|4d., deep bright yellow  |     |B.   |
        |               |     |1s., bright brown        |     |B.   |
     7  | June 1871     |Star.|1d., black               |A.   |     |B×A.
        |               |     |6d., dull blue-green     |A.   |     |
        |               |     |6d., dark blue-green     |A.[6]|     |
     8  | June 1872     |Star.|1s., bright rose-red     |     |B.   |B×A.
        |               |     |1s., deep rose-red       |     |B.   | ?
        |               |     |1s., dull red            |     |B.   | ?
     9  | Early in 1874 |Star.|1s., pale violet-rose    |     |B.   |B×A.
    10  |          1875 |Star.|1s., dark claret         |     |B.   |
    11  | February 1877 |Star.|6d., pale yellow-green   |A.   |     |B×A.
        |               |     |1s., bright vermilion-red|     |B.[7]|B×A.
    12  | July 1877     |Star.|4d., dark deep blue      |     |B.   |
    14  | June 1880     |Star.|1d., pale grey-green     |     |B.   |
        |               |     |6d., bright yellow-green |     |B.[8]|
        |               |     |5s., deep rose-red       |     |B.   |
    18  | December 1881 |Star.|½d., orange-yellow       |     |B.   |
        |               |     |1d., drab                |     |B.   |
        |               |     |4d., bright ultramarine  |     |B.   |
  ------+---------------+-----+-------------------------+-----+-----+----

[6] This stamp was used for making the provisional One Penny of Issue 13.

[7] This stamp was used for making the provisional Four Pence of Issue 16.

[8] This stamp was used for making the provisional Halfpenny of Issue 15,
and the provisional One Penny of Issue 17.




APPENDIX C.

Table of perforations of stamps printed by Messrs. De La Rue and Co. 1883
to 1893.


  ------+--------------+-----------+--------------------------+--------
  NO. OF|              |           |                          |
  ISSUE.|DATE OF ISSUE.| WATERMARK.| DENOMINATION AND COLOUR. |  PERF.
  ------+--------------+-----------+--------------------------+----+---
    19  |January 1883  |Crown “CA.”|1d., drab                 |    |14*
        |              |     ”     |4d., bright blue          |    |14†
    20  |February 1883 |     ”     |“2½ Pence” on 1d.,        |    |
        |              |           |  rosy-lake[9]            |    |14*
    21  |October 1883  |     ”     |4d., dull blue            | 12 |
        |              |     ”     |6d., bright green         | 12 |
        |              |     ”     |1s., orange-vermilion     | 12 |
    22  |September 1884|     ”     |½d., dark green           | 12 |
        |              |     ”     |½ d., orange-yellow       |    |
        |              |           |  (variety, never issued) | 12 |
        |              |     ”     |4d., ultramarine          | 12 |
    24  |April 1885    |     ”     |½d., dark green           |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |1d., carmine              |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |4d., red-brown            |    |14†
    25  |June 1886     |     ”     |1d., pink                 |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |1d., rosy-lake            |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |4d., purple-brown         |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |4d., lake-brown[10]       |    |14†
    26  |October 1888  |     ”     |6d., dark lilac           |    |14*
        |              |     ”     |5s., lake                 |    |14†
    27  |August 1889   |     ”     |“2½ Pence” on 1d.,        |    |
        |              |           |  milky-blue              |    |14*
    29  |Nov. 1890-91  |     ”     |“2½ Pence” on 1d., bright |    |
        |              |           |  blue                    |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |6d., pale red-lilac       |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |6d., deep red-lilac       |    |14†
        |              |     ”     |1s., vermilion-red        |    |14†
    31  |March 1893    |     ”     |4d., canary-yellow        |    |14†
        |              |           |“Five Pence” on 6d., dull |    |
        |              |           |  carmine                 |    |14†
        |              |           |“Five Pence” on 6d.,      |    |
        |              |           |  carmine-brown           |    |14†
  ------+--------------+-----------+--------------------------+----+---

                   * Comb-machine. † Guillotine-machine.

[9] This stamp was used for making the provisional One Penny of Issue 23.

[10] This stamp was used for making the provisional Two Pence Halfpenny
of Issue 28, and the provisional Five Pence of Issue 30.




APPENDIX D.

List of Stamps printed for the Colony of Saint Vincent by Messrs.
Perkins, Bacon & Co. from 1861 to 1881.


  --------------------+--------------------+---------------------------
   DATE OF DESPATCH.  |  DENOMINATION AND  |         QUANTITY.
                      |       COLOUR       |
  --------------------+--------------------+---------------------------
  March 27th, 1861    | 1d., red           | 934 sheets, 56,040 stamps.
                      | 6d., green         | 167    ”    10,020    ”
  July 22nd, 1862     | 1d., red           | 467    ”    28,020    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 167    ”    10,020    ”
  May 28th, 1863      | 1d., red           | 467    ”    28,020    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 668    ”    40,080    ”
  March 1st, 1865     | 1d., red           | 467    ”    28,020    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 167    ”    10,020    ”
  March 14th, 1866    | 1d., red           | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 500    ”    30,000    ”
  July 28th, 1866     | 4d., blue          | 500    ”    15,000    ”
                      | 1s., purple        | 500    ”    15,000    ”
  June 15th, 1868     | 1d., red           | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
  February 27th, 1869 | 1s., purple        | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  August 13th, 1869   | 4d., yellow        | 300    ”     9,000    ”
                      | 1s., brown         | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  February 14th, 1870 | 1d., red           | 300    ”    18,000    ”
  March 28th, 1871    | 1d., black         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
  January 5th, 1872   | 1d., black         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
  April 13th, 1872    | 1s., pink          | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  October 28th, 1872  | 1d., black         | 600    ”    36,000    ”
  July 28th, 1873     | 1d., black         | 600    ”    36,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 1s., pink          | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  August 15th, 1874   | 1d., black         | 600    ”    36,000    ”
  March 27th, 1875    | 1d., black         | 600    ”    36,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 1s., pink          | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  February 28th, 1876 | 1d., black         |1000    ”    60,000    ”
  December 30th, 1876 | 6d., light green   | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 1s., scarlet       | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  May 29th, 1877      | 1d., black         |1000    ”    60,000    ”
                      | 4d., dark blue     | 200    ”     6,000    ”
  August 28th, 1878   | 1d., black         |1000    ”    60,000    ”
                      | 6d., light green   | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 1s., scarlet       | 300    ”     9,000    ”
  May 13th, 1880      | 1d., pale green    |1000    ”    60,000    ”
                      | 6d., green         | 300    ”    18,000    ”
                      | 1s., bright red    | 300    ”     9,000    ”
                      | 5s., pink          | 100    ”     2,000    ”
  November 16th, 1881 | ½d., light orange  |1000    ”    60,000    ”
                      | 1d., slate         |1000    ”    60,000    ”
                      | 4d., light blue    | 500    ”    15,000    ”
  --------------------+--------------------+---------------------------

    NOTE.—The colours in the above list are those given in the
    printers’ books. The list will be found of the greatest
    assistance to philatelists in helping them to determine the
    relative rarity of the stamps of Section I. It must, however,
    be borne in mind that at least two other factors enter into
    this problem. These are the number of stamps that were
    surcharged “Revenue” for fiscal purposes, and also the number
    of unused stamps that were stocked by the dealers at the time
    of their issue. Take for instance the Four Pence of 1866 and
    the Four Pence of 1877, of which the numbers printed were
    15,000 and 6,000 respectively. Theoretically speaking, the
    latter should be 2½ times as rare as the former, but in reality
    it is much more so. The earlier one was stocked by the dealers,
    and is no rarer unused than used. The later stamp unused is at
    least ten times as rare as the first Four Pence in the same
    state, although the relative rarity of the two stamps when used
    is, roughly speaking, in proportion to the quantity printed of
    each.

[Illustration]