Another interesting stamp was issued in the island of Trinidad in 1855. In this case, the stone, after the designs had been placed upon it, was very deeply bitten with acid, so that it might properly be called etched and the impressions from it be said to be typographed from stone. This stone was used in 1855, 1858 and 1860. Owing to its friable nature and want of care the stone deteriorated, so that the last impressions from it are little better than blurs.
Having considered the design and the methods of preparing plates and printing stamps the next thing to attract our attention is the paper. We here show you some photographs of paper. These were not taken by reflected light but by transmitting light through the paper, so that we have the fibre and structure of it.
The two varieties of paper most used for stamps are termed wove and laid. Wove paper has an even texture suggestive of cloth. Like cloth it may show no grain when held to the light or it may have the appearance of interwoven threads. The paper ordinarily used for books and newspapers is wove. There is a very thin, tough wove paper, much like that familiarly known as "onion-skin," which is called pelure by philatelists. On a few occasions a wove paper, which is nearly as thick as card board, has been used for stamps.
Laid paper shows alternate light and dark lines, parallel and close together. These lines are called vergures. There are usually other lines, an inch or more apart, crossing the vergures at right angles.
Ribbed paper has much the appearance of a fine closely laid paper. It is, however, a wove paper with a corrugated surface. In oriental countries, especially Japan, a peculiar, tough, cottony paper is produced. It is sometimes wove and sometimes laid, usually thin and hard to tear. I believe this is made from rice straw. Paper which has thin lines about the distance apart of the ruled lines in writing paper is called batonné, from the French baton, a stick or rule. If the paper between the batons is wove, it is called wove batonné. If the space is filled with fine laid lines, it is called laid batonné. Quadrillé paper has laid lines which form small squares. When these lines form rectangles, it is called oblong quadrillé.
