house-to-house delivery of mails at either place.

Gambia joined the Universal Postal Union on January 1st, 1879; the
Imperial Penny Postage rate was adopted from December 25th, 1898; and
the unit of weight for colonial and foreign letter postage was raised
from half an ounce to one ounce on October 1st, 1907. The Cash on
Delivery system was introduced on October 15th, 1908.

The following table gives an outline of the postal business, the large
fluctuations in the revenue being chiefly due to the fluctuations in
the demand for postage stamps from dealers and collectors:--

Year Revenue Expenditure Letters Parcels
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1895 L686
1896 1,506
1897 1,845
1898 2,140
1899 589
1900 459 66,612 782
1901 769 77,937 1151
1902 1,452 77,918 1340
1903 553 94,365 1532
1904 597 94,358 1677
1905 2,731 L808 0 0 91,768 1554
1906 1,317 712 15 10 98,379 1994

[page 16]

CHAPTER II.

"Cameo" Issue of 1869.

[Illustration]

The _Philatelist_ for March 1, 1869, contained the first intimation of
the preparation of stamps for the Colony of

"GAMBIA.

"We are proud to announce the preparation of stamps for this
African settlement. In a central circle is Queen Victoria's
coroneted head in white relief; in straight bands above is
GAMBIA; below, the value, which, as well as the spandril
ornamentation, is embossed in white. The stamp is nearly
square, and the specimens possessed by our correspondent are
imperforate. Values:

4 pence, deep brown.
6 " " blue."

[page 17]

The stamps were manufactured by Messrs. de la Rue & Co. by a double
process of flat printing and of relief embossing, the flat printing
being doubtless effected first and the embossing afterwards. This
combination was unusually effective, and the finished stamps rank
among the handsomest adhesive postage stamps known to collectors.

As embossing evenly over a large area presented considerable
difficulties, the plates were made up of fifteen stamps only, in
three horizontal rows of five stamps. The plates for both processes
evident