Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/609

Rh P S T-0 F F I C E 587 introduction into Tuscany, Belgium, and Bavaria, and also into New South Wales. Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Spain, Italy, followed in 1850. The use of postage stamps seems to have extended to the Sandwich Islands (1851 ?) a year before it reached the Dutch Netherlands (1852). Within twenty-five years of the first issue of a postage stamp in London, the known varieties, issued in all parts of the world, amounted to 1391. Of these 841 were of European origin, 333 were American, 59 Asiatic, 55 African. The varieties of stamp issued in the several countries of Oceania were 103. Of the whole 1391 stamps no less than 811 were already obsolete in 1865, leaving 580 still in currency. It was not until 1853 that the admirable improvement of perforating the stamp-sheets was introduced by the purchase for 4000 (pursuant to the recommendation of a select committee of the House of Commons of 1852) of a perforating machine invented by Mr Henry Archer. Other improvements of value have also been made in the obliterating process. The defacement mark now serves to show the official consecutive numbers of the town in which each particular letter was posted. For England that num ber appears within circular lines ; for Scotland, between parallel lines ; for Ireland, it appears diamond-wise. The general post-office mark also denotes the hour of posting. The metropolitan district marks indicate the office number within oval lines under the initials of each district. Paper for the embossed stamps of all the recognized values is received by the Board of Inland Revenue from all persons who offer it, under favourable regulations. The collection and sale of specimen postage stamps as a branch of commerce lias already attained dimensions little anticipated by those who watched the origin of the new pursuit, as a sort of toy for children, some quarter of a century ago. Before stamp- collection became conspicuous commercially, it came to have a recognized educational value, in its degree, as an amusing aid to the early knowledge of geography, more especially in the political aspect. When the legislation of August 1848 directed tlie introduction of postage stamps into France the first endeavour of the postal administration was to make a contract for their manufacture in England. But the terms proposed were thought to be too high. A contract was then made with M. Hulot of the Paris mint, and the die approved of was engraved by M. Barre, also of that establish ment. M. Hulot became &quot; director of the manufacture of postage stamps,&quot; and under the early contracts was allowed, in lieu of salary, one franc (lOd.) on each thousand stamps for the first two hundred millions, 9d. per thousand for the next two hundred millions, and 8d. per thousand for all above. In 1869 these terms were reduced to 6d. per thousand upon the first five hundred millions, and 5d. upon all above. 1 The cost of mere manufacture was slightly below that of the stamps of the United Kingdom, each million being estimated to cost about 25, 10s., of which sum paper, printing, and gumming absorbed somewhat more than 20.- During the war, in November 1870, a contract was entered into between the Provisional Government and a M. Delebecque and others for the manufacture of postage stamps at Bordeaux. The contractor bound himself to deliver, after a day determined, 4000 sheets of stamps daily, each containing 300 stamps, at the price of 3d. for each sheet. The stamps were to be of the several values of 8d., 4d., 3d., 2d., Id., Jd., and of one, two, three, and four centimes respectively, in such proportions as the post-office should direct. The first plate which was sent to the press was made from a matrix drawn with the pen ; afterwards lithographic processes were employed. The post-office suspended the contract by notice in March 1871, but was immediately obliged by the communal insur rection to license its continuance, and the manufacture was resumed at Bordeaux until June. On the whole, 125,387,075 postage stamps were produced from the presses at Bordeaux. 3 The first postage stamp used in Germany was issued in the king dom of Bavaria in 1849. It is of quite inartistic character, though originating in a state so famous for its cultivation of the plastic arts. The earliest type shows with the name of the country only the postal tariff. None of the many subsequent varieties displays the royal effigy ; even the embossed royal arms were not used until 1 Ordinances of the minister of finance, 30th January 1860 and 30th January 1869 respectively, as cited in Rothschild, Hist, de la Poste- aux-Lettres, ii. 130-133. 2 Rothschild, ii. 125. 3 Ibid., ii. 202. 1866. Stamps made specially for the use of the army bear the figure sometimes of a Bavarian trooper, sometimes of an infantry man or artilleryman. The earliest Prussian stamp is of November 1850, and bears the effigy laureatcd of King &quot;William, in filigree, to which in 1861 succeeded the Prussian eagle. The duchy of Anhalt and several petty principalities placed themselves under its wing by adopting almost from the outset the Prussian stamp. Three weeks after its first appearance in Prussia, Hanover (December 1850) issued a stamp bearing the name of the kingdom with the royal arms. The first stamp having the royal effigy is an envelope of 1857. The effigy appears first upon adhesive stamps in 1859. The earliest Saxon type (1850) shows merely the postal tariff, but the second, of the same year, bears the king s head. The first Baden stamp resembles that of Saxony. The head of the grand- duke appears upon an envelope of October 1858. From 1860 the adhesives bear the arms of the duchy. Within the Thurn and Taxis district stamps were first used in 1852, and they continued until 1866. The earliest stamp of Schleswig-Holstein is that of an insurrectional Government patronized by Prussia and bears the national arms. The insignia of Denmark take their place in 1852 and continue until 1864. In that year separate stamps appear for Schleswig and for Holstein, to be succeeded for a short time by a common one in 1865. In January 1868 the postage stamps of Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, Oldenburg, of the two Mecklenburgs, of Brunswick, of Schleswig-Holstein, and of the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Liibeck virtually disappear and are replaced by the new stamp of the North German Confederation. For a while the postage envelopes of such of those states as had issued any continued to appear, but with the significant super-addition of the confederation stamp. That, in its turn, after a currency of nearly four years, made room (15th December 1871) for the imperial stamp of the new Germany. The grand-duke of Baden presently adopted it. Only Bavaria and Wurtemberg retain their special postage stamps and their separate administration. Certain tariff stamps, how ever, for merely fiscal purposes continue to be used in Saxony, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Brunswick, Oldenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg- Schwerin, Schaumburg-Lippe, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, and in the city of Bremen. 4 This brief review of atelic phenomena in Germany alone the limits of this article make it impossible to give similar details for the rest of Europe may suffice to show that the pretension of stamp-collectors to illustrate, in degree, the course and currents of political geography has its justification in fact. The earliest postage stamps of Austria-Hungary date from 1850, In Aus- and display the imperial arms. It is only in 1858 that the emperor s tria- head takes their place. In 1863 and 1864 the armorial eagle Hungary reappears, followed again and continuously, as regards adhesive stamps, by the imperial effigy. The stamped wrappers for news papers and books bear sometimes a figure of Mercury, sometimes the double-headed eagle. Stamped envelopes were first issued in 1861 ; they bear, indifferently, the imperial effigy or the armorial eagle. The imperial stamps are adopted in the principality of Liechtenstein. The special stamps for Hungary bear date from 1868. The postal card is of Austrian origin, and was first issued in August 1869. Taking all kinds of postal stamps together, the aggregate number of types (39) and of varieties (123) issued through out the empire from 1850 amounted in 1883 to 162. 5 In the Russian empire the province of Finland takes the initia- In Rus- tive. As early as 1845 its lion within a crowned escutcheon appears sia. upon a postal envelope. Its adhesive stamps (1856) date a few months earlier than the earliest formalized issue for the empire generally (1857). These Finnish stamps are of similar type to the envelopes, but they contimie to bear the arms of the province only until 1860. The Russian stamps bear the imperial eagle and the imperial crown ; but none of them bears the head of the emperor. For a short time (1858-1864) unhappy Poland has the appearance it is little more of a certain differentiation in the stamps issued at Warsaw from those of the empire at large. But early in 1865 these slight peculiarities disappear, along with the local postal administration of Warsaw. All the Polish stamps are now obsolete, and have been superseded by those of the Russian empire. 6 Many other local posts, however, survive in all parts of the empire ; and their stamps have peculiarities which are eminently curious. Some bear the arms, as in the case of Finland, of a province or of a great town. Others, and the greater part, bear symbolic and curious emblems : at Kherson, a wheatsheaf, a scythe, and a rake ; at Elizabethgrad, an open book, sheaves, a scythe, and a plume of feathers interlaced ; at Tamboff, a beehive ; at Bogorodsk, Saint George on horseback. The varieties of Russian local stamps are so great, and some of them so scarce, as to cause to the ardent 4 Bulletin de la Socitte franqaise de Timbrologie, 1875, No. 1 ; Rothschild, op. tit., pp. 251-266. 5 Gray, Illustrated Catalogue of Postage Stands, 6th ed., pp. 1-9 and 79-82 ; Rothschild, id supra. 6 Gray, Illustrated Catalogue, 6th ed., p. 167.