These provisionals, erroneously called (as they always will be) "wood-blocks," were issued early in 1861, and the ordinary specimens are of considerable scarcity even used, and very difficult of acquisition unpostmarked; much more then are the errors, caused by the unintentional inclusion in the group of stereotypes of each value of one block of the other denomination.
These two stamps—the One Penny in blue, and the Four Pence in red, instead of vice versâ—are well-known rarities used, and there are only three known copies in an unused condition; one of these, obtained by its owner during the period when the wood-blocks were in issue at "face," realised five-and-thirty years later no less than £500. "Prodigious," but true!
Another desirable Cape stamp owes its rarity to having been printed in a small quantity on a paper in use for a short time only—the Five Shillings, orange-yellow, of 1883, on paper watermarked with a Crown and "CA". For some three to four years, 1883-87, these stamps were purchasable unused at the post-office; and now—£100, perhaps.
Cayman Islands, that hotbed of official speculation and jobbery, furnishes a more modern instance—instances would be more correct—of sudden and excessive rise in price, if not in philatelic worth; certain provisionals, made by surcharging higher value stamps to meet the usual, and often avoidable, shortage. Fortunate, indeed, from the investors' point of view, are those who, subscribing to some "new issue" service, managed to obtain even single copies of these scarce labels at a small percentage over face.
Ceylon! The name raises a vision of the gorgeous East, and, to the philatelist, of rare imperforates, issued in the early days before Philately was. Who in the end of the 'fifties would have thought of investing in, say, a block of four of the Fourpence, dull rose, and, having held it for forty years, receiving the handsome return of—what shall I say?—£750? And yet it would be so.
Another Ceylon which has appreciated at a rapid rate is the Two Rupees Fifty Cents issued in 1880; for long it was catalogued and obtainable at 7s. 6d., but on suddenly becoming obsolete (through a change of postal rates) its price began to rise by leaps and bounds, until it is worth about twice as many shillings as it formerly was pence.
A glance at the catalogue prices of the first Cyprus set of Edwardian stamps, which were printed on paper known to philatelists as "Single Crown CA"—i.e., one entire watermark to each stamp—is a mild example of the abnormal rise which took place in nearly all colonial stamps, bearing the head of King Edward and printed on this "single" paper, when the unexpected change was made in 1904 to a "multiple" paper—that is, one in which the watermarks were arranged very closely together, so that each stamp must show parts of three or four of the devices. Stamps sold in 1902 or 1903 at a little over their original cost jumped up and up in price until they fetched, even at auction, 700 or 800 or even 1,000 per cent. over "face": small fortunes were made; but, as has happened, the rise was permanent and still continues.
The quaint "Fiji Times Express" stamps, produced by private enterprise, and which were the forerunners of a most interesting series of stamps, many rare, were issued within the memory of many collectors—One Penny, Three Pence, Six Pence, and One Shilling—and yet that set of four stamps, dating from only 1870, is worth five hundred times "face," a fair return even for a wait of forty years. Certain stamps of a subsequent (1874) issue are now also very scarce; but they are varieties as distinguished from the normal printings, and scarcely come within the category of stamps obtainable by the casual purchaser.
The pretty embossed Gambias, particularly those printed on the old "Crown CC" paper, afford another instance of unearned increment: the set of seven values was, say in 1885, to be bought for 3s. or 4s.—now it is valued at about £6.
The reward of any far-seeing investor who had happened to purchase the Four Annas, red and blue, issued in India in 1854, would have been a rich one had he noticed an inversion of the Queen's head as regards its frame—copies of this rarity are known on the entire original envelope, so evidently they were, even if noticed, regarded merely as the results of carelessness. It would have been a (perhaps fatal) shock to any specialist in Indian stamps who had happened to purchase one of these rare errors still on the original, to find that he, by the irony of fate, had addressed and presumably stamped that very envelope thirty or forty years previously. The stamp bought originally for a few pence would have represented to-day, say, £130 unused, £70 used.