390 Timehri. 
sheet with regular intervals between; a number of labels of the value 
required, similar in quantity to the number of stamps on the sheet, were 
then printed, cut out with scissors, pasted on the bottom of each im- 
pression and the whole then transferred at one operation to the 
lithographic stone. The white line above the value of these stamps 
was accounted for by the imperfect juxtaposition of the two portions of 
the specimen, caused by the workman not pasting the label high 
enough to touch the upper portion of the design. This issue has been 
the subject of an able paper written by Mr. M. P. Castle, M.V.O., dealing 
lengthily with the subject. The outcome of Mr. Castle's researches has 
been to modify the theory of the double dies. The theory now advanced 
is, that the first parent die was a complete engraved design of the 1e. stamp, 
including the value. In support of this we have the remarkable fact 
that none of the 1 cent stamps of the vermilion shade: which was the 
first colour in use as is established by the numerous postmarked 
specimens in existence, has the shghtest trace of a white line, or any 
other mark which would betray a process of construction of this shade. 
While the 1 cent value in the red-brown shades, the earliest postmark of 
which is 30th March, 1857, and the 4c. blues, all show in a more or less 
marked degree that process of construction which has been described 
above. The want of precision and hurried workmanship in putting on 
the value labels, are in many instances, flagrant. 
In the printing from the original le. die in the vermilion shade, no 
varieties have been found. In the later printings in the redish brown 
shades four distinct varieties of the value label ‘one cent” has been 
discovered. These for convenience of description are lettered as 
follows :— 
(a) the vermilion shade with regular lettering. 
(b) O of cent Elongated ; nt slant slightly. 
(e) O small and slanting, ¢ bold. 
(d) O narrow but upright, ¢, thin, serifs thin prolong to 
left and away from ¢. 
(e) One Narrow, Measuring, 3 mm. 
These varieties, and the signs of composite construction of this 
stamp, indicate that the original complete die was not utilised, and 
it is surmised that an order for a fresh supply of these stamps having 
been received by Messrs. Waterlow & Sons, late in 1856; recourse was 
made to the complete lithographic stone of the 4c. value, presumably 
hecause the complete stone of the le. may have been destroyed and the 
original die misplaced. 
