nevertheless one of the great
rarities to-day, especially in an unused condition. Used copies are
worth about L65, and unused about L120.

[Illustration:]

Transvaal, 1878. _Error_ "Transvral."--This error occurred once in
each sheet of eighty of the 1d., red on blue, of the first British
Occupation. It was evidently discovered before a second lot was
required, as it does not recur in the next printing of 1d., red on
orange. It is a very rare stamp. Used it is worth about L50, but
unused it is one of the great rarities, and has changed hands at about
L150.

[Illustration:]

Ceylon, 1859, 4d. and 8d., imperforate.--Several of the first issues
of this colony, designed and engraved by Messrs. Perkins Bacon and
Co., and issued in 1857-9, are esteemed as great rarities in an
imperforate and unused condition. The 4d., 8d., 9d., 1s., and 2s. are
the rarest. The 4d., so long ago as 1894, fetched L130 at auction.
These stamps are amongst the few great rarities that may be entitled
to rank as works of art, and every year they are more sought after and
more difficult to get in fine condition.

[Illustration:]

[Illustration:]

IX.

The Romance of Stamp Collecting.

The story of the development of stamp collecting, and of the trade
that has sprung up with it, is full of romance.

Our publishers' business, with its world-wide ramifications, was begun
by young Gibbons putting a few sheets of stamps in his father's shop
window. The father was a chemist, and it was intended that the lad
should follow in his father's footsteps; but the stamps elbowed the
drugs aside, and eventually yielded a fortune which enabled this
pioneer of the stamp trade to retire and indulge his globe-trotting
propensities to the full. He sold his business for L25,000, and, still
in the prime of life, retired to a snug little villa on the banks of
the Thames. The business was converted into a Limited Liability
Company, and the Managing Director may be said to be a product of the
original business, for it was a present of a guinea packet of Stanley
Gibbons's stamps that first whetted his appetite for stamp collecting,
and eventually for stamp dealing. Mr. Gibbons had for a great many
years conducted his business from his private house. The new broom
changed all that, and opened out in fine premises in the Strand,
W.C., where the Company now occupy the whole of one house and the
greater part of the adjoining premises. In every room busy hand