Frederick John Melville

“ At present the staple trade of the Colony is ground nuts, but efforts are being made to induce the natives to take up other products.
Postally there is little to record prior to 1866, which is the date ascribed by Mr. F. Bisset Archer, Treasurer and Postmaster-General, to an alteration in the scale of postage, the half ounce weight for letters being introduced. The rate to Great Britain was, we believe, from that date 6d. per half ounce.
Mr. Archer also gives this year (1866) as the date when the first postage stamps of the Colony were issued. ”

“ The plates for both processes evidently fitted each other with precision, though in the printing occasionally the embossing is slightly out of register.
The paper is white wove and has no watermark, and the stamps were not perforated. There are two colours of the gum, one being the usual clear white: the other is a pale yellow colour, which may, however, be due to climatic influence, particularly as it is a noticeable feature of a number of the later issues.
The colour of the 4d. value varies in shade from a deep chocolate brown to brown and pale brown. The 6d. is pale to deep blue. ”

“ Essays were prepared by making impressions from this key plate, shewing the profile of the Queen to left in a circle, and the words postage—postage at the sides, the top tablet being left blank for the name of the Colony, and a space for the sexagonal tablet of value at bottom also being left blank. The essays consist of such impressions with the name Gambia and the proposed values painted in by hand, to shew the approximate effect of the stamps which would be produced from this key plate. Only a very few such essays are known. ”

“ INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
n collecting the stamps of Gambia one cannot too strongly emphasise the necessity for guarding the stamps of the "Cameo" series against deterioration by the pressure of the leaves in an ordinary unprotected album. In their pristine state with clear and bold embossing these stamps are of exceptional grace and beauty. Sunk mounts or other similar contrivances, and a liberal use of tissue paper, should be utilised by the collector who desires to retain his specimens in their original state. ”

“ At first the stamps were perforated by a single line machine gauging 14. A single line machine, as its name implies, simply makes a single long row of holes in one direction—
In the present case, where the sheets were so small, the row is much longer than necessary, so in the sheets it extends through the margins on all sides, as in plate II.
[pg 29]
The horizontal rows may be perforated first (one row at a time) , and then the sheet is turned sideways and the vertical divisions are similarly perforated. ”

“ The watermark on this issue appears variously upright or sideways, varieties of each being inverted. The normal "sideways" may be taken as from left to right. Portions of the marginal lettering and the vertical division lines of the panes are also to be found. The following is a synopsis of these varieties—
The subject of perforations is of peculiar interest in this and the next issue of the stamps of Gambia, as while to a certain extent the printings are to be differentiated by shade the chief distinctions may be made in the case of blocks and sheets by the perforations. ”

“ All the sheets with this perforation appear to have one printer's guide dot in the centre of each side margin.
The next form of perforating machine introduced in later printings of the Crown and C.C. 1880 issue is known as a comb machine. The comb machine perforates three sides of a stamp at once, and the form of the first comb machine was arranged thus—
The arrangement of the teeth of the comb fitted the arrangement of the panes of the regular Colonial postage stamps printed by Messrs. ”

“ Archer that a Government steamer maintains weekly [pg 15] communication between the Capital, Bathurst, and M'Carthy's Island both for passengers and mails. There is no 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. ”

“ And may affix a penalty not exceeding ten pounds, to be recovered summarily before the Chief Magistrate, or two Justices of the Peace, or, in default of payment, imprisonment not exceeding two weeks for a contravention of any such regulation. ”

“ The issue of these two Provisional overprints, following upon the appearance in 1905 of the 5d., 71⁄2d. and 10d. stamps, brought a good deal of censure from philatelists, who considered that the Colony was descending to undignified means of increasing the revenue by the sale of stamps to collectors. At the instance of Lord Crewe an inquiry has lately been held into the reasons for the emission of various Colonial postage stamps, and the report of the Governor of the Gambia is quoted in the printed report of the Commission:—
"The Governor of the Colony states that as the supply of the 1⁄2d. ”

“ Chapter V. Issue of 1886-87.
n 1886 a number of the stamps began to appear on the paper watermarked Crown C.A., the initials of "Crown Agents." The colours were changed, and a new value inscribed "21⁄2 penny" on the value tablet was added. The values and colours are—
All values exist with the embossing double ”