F. G. Clapp.—The Richmond stamp is a fraud. Look a little sharper, and you will find the 2c. current issue with a white line inside the frame of the triangle. There is a new issue of U. S. envelopes. The water-mark has been changed.
L. H.—The gold coin has no premium, owing to the monogram. I should prefer to see the Blood, Boyd, and Bouton stamps before making any definite answer, as you do not give the dates of the letters to which they are affixed.
Murray Campbell.—The various Confederate bills are worth very little. The stamp-dealers sell them very cheaply.
E. P. Tripp.—The revenue-stamp is worth 2 cents. The 1c. 1851 without the outer line at the bottom, and the same stamp perforated (1856) with the line are the scarce varieties.
Roy Thompson.—There is no premium on the fractional currency used during the war, unless it is perfectly fresh and has never been circulated.
C. G. Atherton.—Sverige means Sweden. The French stamp is a revenue, not a postage-stamp. The Brazil is a newspaper-stamp.
E. C. Crosett.—The scarce variety of the 7c. 1870 U. S. is the one without the line around the inner circles of the bulb.
J. K.—The Kew-Kiang, Wuhu, etc., are Chinese local stamps, and were issued primarily to sell to collectors. I would not advise buying them, as, speaking philatelically, they are simply trash.
A. E. Barrow.—English stamps surcharged I. R.—Official, are simply official stamps used for governmental mail matter. The blue, green, and red "Jenkins Camden Despatch" are either reprints or counterfeits. In either case they are of no value. The New Zealand and Confederates mentioned by you are all catalogued regularly.
A. B. Johnson.—The 1882 re-engraved of U. S. 1870 have most of their lines deepened. It is almost impossible to explain by words, but a single look at the originals and the re-engraved will show you once for all the difference. The embossing of the U. S. stamps was made on the supposition that the cancellation of an embossed stamp would make it impossible to use the stamp a second time. Possibly it would do so if the embossing were strong enough to pierce the stamp with numerous holes, but practically the idea was a failure. Clear embossing may be measured by a millimetre scale.