(Continued from Bulletin No. 10, p. 38).
"THE ADHESIVES: Stanley Gibbons' catalogue list of these is sufficiently comprehensive to warrant the omission of the stamps being mentioned in detail here - value for value. These notes will therefore provide general information and emphasise anything which may afford interest to the specialist. The stamps were typographed by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., wmk. CC., perf. 12½ ; the first two, 1d. and 6d" were issued on 1st April, 1870, though there is just a possibility that they may have been put into use immediately on receipt of the consignment on February 14th, 1870. I have seen it recorded that the 1d. was employed for the local rate and for newspapers, and the 6d. for letters to Great Britain; but I have a 6d. used on cover (JY 13 76) from St. Christopher to Barbados, whereas another letter to Great Britain bears ten 1d. stamps (DEC 27 1874). In the 1d. value, where three shades are listed (dull rose, magenta and pale magenta) it is the dull rose which is by far the scarcer; it also appears (infrequently) with sideways watermark. The green and yellow-green of the 6d. I do not consider to be markedly different in shade. In the CC, perf. 14 stamps (1875-76) again the same two values; the 1d. magenta is known bisected diagonally or vertically for use as ½d.; the 6d. is recorded imperforate between, in a pair. As the need for a 2½d. rate did not arise until after July 1st, 1879 - when St. Christopher joined the U.P.U. - it is difficult to understand why the 1d. should have been bisected (in order to provide a ½d. value); the first real evidence for a halfpenny stamp was the introduction of the ½d dull green in 1882 for a reduced rate for newspapers. The Gazette of March 11th, 1882, lists the rates to certain islands as follows:-
POST OFFICE NOTICE
'AFTER this date the Postage to the under-mentioned places will be reduced to:
Names of the Places
Antigua, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Nevis, Tortola, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin's, Saint Thomas, St.Croix, Crab Island, Porto Rico. March 11th, 1882.'
It is concluded from the above notice that the 1d. postal card was issued on or about March 11th, 1882.
As the 1d. stamps could not have arrived much before June 1882, it may be that the use of cut 1d. stamps was officially allowed during the period from March to June. To return to the 2½d. and 4d. of 1879 (S.G.9 and 10), only minor shade variations occur here; the 4d. is known with sideways watermark. The change of watermark from Crown CC to Crown CA took place in 1882, the perforation remaining 14. The 1d. dull magenta (S.G. 12) is a scarce stamp unused and not common used as this shade had a comparatively short life; the 1d. carmine-rose, its more common brother, having made its appearance about March 1884. In the carmine-rose there is a particularly deep shade; the only major 'variety' is a malformed 'E' in the word 'ONE' of the value occurring on the sixth stamp of the sheet of 20; in this the right limb of the 'N' of 'ONE' is also slightly thinner. The 1d. occurs bisected. Of this series other scarce stamps are the two shades of the 2½d (pale red-brown and deep red-brown) and the 4d. blue in unused state. All the values come either with white or yellowish gum. The ½d. is recorded with sideways watermark. The sheets of 20 of this issue (5 x 4) each bear the Plate Number in white on a solid circle of colour within a circle, with De La Rue's current (reference) number (e.g. 40) in colour in an oblong box with indented corners (quite distinct from the Plate Number mark). All the ordinary (unsurcharged) stamps were printed from one key plate of 20 cliches (four horizontal rows of five), the values being printed, from separate plates, in a blank horizontal space at the lower part of the design, so that the panes (sheets) of all denominations are of the same size with the stamps arranged in exactly the same way."
(To be concluded).