Curiosities from the Post Office. 255 
ransacked, and so great was the desire to unearth these 
treasures that even the archives of the public buildings 
in Georgetown did not escape the searchers' fingers. The 
consequence was that a few specimens were found (tho' 
none, I believe, of the 1 850 pink, the existence of which, on 
account of their rarity, is even denied by some) and one or 
two successful finders found themselves well rewarded 
for their trouble. The value of these stamps fell some- 
what, but very slightly, as the dealers were crafty, and 
only produced them one by one. Since then they have 
fallen still more in value, but can only be obtained for 
large sums of money ; the two or three rarer ones, indeed, 
not at all, except perhaps when a fine collection is broken 
up and sold. 
Other countries have given birth to stamps almost 
as valuable, if not quite so, as British Guiana, notably 
the Confederate States of America, Mauritius, Reunion 
Island, &c. ; and to show that I am not romancing 
I may mention that there exists at Nuremburg in Ger- 
many a factory for the production of forged rare postage 
stamps. Such counterfeits would not after inspection 
impose on a man who had made philately a study ; but 
others would inevitably be deceived. The older issues 
of stamps were moreover so abominably printed, being 
in some cases mere wood-cuts, that the forger now 
has a comparatively easy task in imitating them. 
All old valuable adhesives are much prized if they have 
been preserved intact on the envelope they originally 
franked. 
In Germany, philately is encouraged in schools, as 
tending to (each geographv and history, which it un- 
11 1 
