I diversi bolli che verranno apposti sovra la carta provvisionale non filagranata, saranno pienamente conformi agl'impronti infra delineati, i quali unitamente ai loro modelli, ed agli esemplari della carta suddetta sono stati depositati negli Archivj nostri giusta il disposto dall'articolo 2' delle mentovate Regie Patenti delli 7 dello scorso novembre. _Modelli de' Bolli._ Mandiamo il presente pubblicarsi ai luoghi, e modi soliti, ed alle copie che ne verranno stampate nella Stamperia Reale prestarsi la stessa fede che all'originale. Dat. in Torino li tre dicembre mille ottocento diciotto. _Per detta Eccellentissima Regia_ _CAMERA_ FAVA.] The foregoing statement is open to much question, in view of the lapse of twenty years since the matter was first aired in _The Philatelic Record_. If authentic, these would be the earliest denominated stamps for the prepayment of postage, the Dutch _stuiver_ in use in the colonies being a copper coin equal to about one penny. Perhaps the introduction of the matter in these Chats will, in the light of increased modern facilities for research, bring the subject before the notice of our Dutch philatelic _confrères_. The Sardinian letter sheets of the early nineteenth century are now tolerably well known to stamp-collectors. They, however, represented a Government tax on the privilege of letter-carrying, rather than a direct prepayment of postage. These were the product of a curious anomaly in the exercise of the postal monopoly by the Government of Sardinia. It was forbidden to send letters and packets otherwise than through the Government post; but as this latter was very inefficient, and in many parts of the country was practically non-existent, the authorities established by decree, in 1818, a system whereby the people for whom the Government post was inconvenient, if not absolutely useless, could send their letters by other means. To effect this the senders had to supply themselves from a post-office with a stock of special letter sheets, stamped with a device of a mounted post-boy, within a circular, oval, or octagonal frame, at a cost of 15, 25, or 50 _centesimi_ apiece. The use of these stamped letter sheets, bought from the post-office, was an authority for their conveyance by private means, but not through the ordinary channels of the Sardinian postal organisation. Thus, while the Post Office took its full charges for the conveyance of such letters, it did not perform the work of collecting, transmitting, and delivering them. The three denominations, 15, 25, and 50 _centesimi_ were used for letters conveyed varying distances according to the Government postal tariff, from which, however, the actual messenger derived no benefit, his remuneration being over and above these official charges. [Illustration: SARDINIAN LETTER SHEET OF 1818: 15 CENTESIMI. THE 25 CENTESIMI LETTER SHEET OF SARDINIA.