1879-83-Nos. 189-191 and 205-211. "Specimen" in small red caps. I have No. 191 (90c) surcharged in brown.

1895 Nos. 264 and 267-278. Handstamped in magenta or black. I believe there were printed 425 sets of lc and 5c and 325 sets of the others. I believe both types of $1 were included. The same set surcharged in indigo blue "Universal Postal Congress." There are said to be seven varieties of the alignment. These were for presentation to the delegates to the Universal Postal Congress, held in Washington, D. C., from May 15 to June 15, 1897.

1898-Nos. 279-284. “Specimen" handstamped in very small black type. Printed of 1, 4, 6, 10 and 15c, 750 each; of 5c, 850 and 100 copies of each of these 13 stamps.

Trans-Mississippi-Nos. 285-293 handstamped "Specimen" in magenta or black; 100 sets of these stamps printed.

Pan-American-Nos. 294-9. Handstamped "Specimen" in small type, black or magenta.

1902-03-Nos. 300-314. Handstamped "Specimen" in small black type; possibly also in magenta but have not seen or heard of them.

Departments-Nos. 1500-1592. "Specimen" overprinted in small red or blue caps. Ten thousand sets up to and including 90c were printed and 1000 sets of the dollar varieties of State; later 10,000 were printed on horizontally ribbed paper of 1c Agriculture, Executive, Justice and State. These were prepared for sale to collectors at face value, but were ungummed and unpopular. The 1c of each Department sold fairly well

scarce and the surcharged set sold well. The following complete sets were sold: Agriculture 352, Executive 3561, Interior 75, Justice 150, Navy 102, State (up to and excluding 90c) 245, Treasury 72, War 104.

On the 21st stamp of some sheets an error is found in the surcharge "Sepcimen," instead of "Specimen." The following are reported: Agriculture 1, 2, 3, 12, 15 and 24c; Executive, none; Interior, 2c; Justice, 1, 2 and 3c; Navy 1, 2, 7, 12 and 30c; P. O., 1, 2 and 10c; State, 1, 2, 3, 7, 24 and 30c; Treasury, none; War, 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 24, 30 and 90c.

The following are reported on the soft porous paper of the American Bank Note Co.: 1c Executive; 1 and 7c Navy, and 1 and 7c State. Possibly only one 7c on the soft paper exists. As the surcharged Department stamps were placed on sale in Washington, D. C., in 1875, it is difficult to explain these soft papers, as the American B. N. Co. contract is dated Feb. 4, 1879.

Special Delivery No. 1890, overprinted "Specimen" in red, 600 copies printed. No. 1894 handstamped "Specimen” in magenta or black, 300 printed. No. 1894, overprinted "Universal Postal Congress" in red, 125 printed. No. 1895, handstamped "Specimen", in black and possibly in magenta. Number printed un

known to me.

1865-Newspaper Nos. 2004 & 2002 (5 and 10c). "Specimen" in large Gothic type, in red. No. 2003 (25c) similarly in blue. Jan. 1, 1867. 1000 copies of each of these three stamps were printed. I have the 5c with "Specimen" in handwriting, but I know nothing of its history.

1875-Nos. 2005-2028 (2c-$60). Overprinted "Specimen" in gothic in two styles, viz., like the surcharge of 1861 issue and one smaller. I do not know the color or number issued.

2029-2051

1879-Nos. (2c-$60) and 2052 (1c). Overprinted "Specimen" in small red type. The 9c (2010) is from a continental plate.

1889--Same as above (except 9c omitted) in small black type. I have never seen this and do not know how many were printed. Mr. J. B. Leary in Bulletin 105, page 68, says several complimentary sets were given to privileged parties.

1894 Nos. 2087-2098. "Specimen" handstamped in magenta or black.

Same set as above, overprinted "Universal Postal Congress" in indigo blue. I do not know positively how many were printed, but possibly 125 sets.

1899 No. 2094-8, Reprints were handstamped in magenta or black.

*114 1907

6h buff

.05

*156 1916-18 60h deep blue ...

.09

*157

66

80h orange br'n

.10

*158

66

90h red violet..

.10

160

66

2k dark blue.. .06

IN

IN THE year 1848, the late W. B. Perot, then the owner of the Par-laVille property, was the Post Master at Hamilton and used as the Post Office a portion of the ground floor of the building on Queen Street, now the Little Green Shop. In addition to his salary he received the prepaid postage on the Inland letters posted at his office at the rate of one penny per ounce, in cash, no postage stamps being printed, the same practice existing with reference to the other Post Masters and Assistant Post Masters, who were required make an annual return of the amounts received by them for postage.

to

Letters posted in Hamilton were stamped with a circular postmark having "Hamilton" in the upper part of the circle and "Bermuda" in the lower part, both in capital letters, and within the circle the date in two lines.

"Postmaster stamps," so called, were issued by some Post Masters in the United States, on their own authority, in the years 1845, 1846 and 1847, and possibly Mr. Perot became aware of this and decided to try the experiment in Bermuda, but, not having any local means of having a die prepared to make stamps from, he utilized the current postmark. Strange to say, it was not until about the year 1900 that the Philatelic world first became aware of the existence of the Perot Stamp, and when this transpired a younger contemporary of Mr. Perot, whose place of business then adjoined the post office, and who sometimes assisted the Post Master, said that he well remembered the preparation and issue of these stamps, and that they were stamped by Mr. Perot on sheets of paper, a dozen on each sheet, and sold for one shilling per sheet, the purchaser cutting them out singly and affixing them on the letters, instead of paying the postage.

The stamps were prepared by removing the moveable parts of the postmark die containing the month and the day of the month, and by Mr. Perot writing

on each impression of the stamp "One penny" above the year, and his signature "WBPerot," below the year.

It is believed that only two specimens of this stamp are known in England, one in black and the other in red. There does not appear to be any authentic information as to the number of these stamps now in Bermuda, but there is one at least, and it is quite possible that others may come to light in future.

The illustration of the Perot stamp in Stanley Gibbons' Catalogue bears the date 1849, but the date of the issue of these stamps is given as 1848, and the known specimen now in Bermuda is dated 1848. It is probable therefore that the stamps were in use for several months at least, and it is strange that so few specimens are known to exist.