In the plate stage proofs are more common than die-proofs, but still in many cases they are scarce compared with the stamps; yet, by a strange inversion of scarcity value, one can obtain a magnificent proof of the famous "twelve pence" black stamp of Canada for fewer shillings than the stamp itself costs in pounds. The old-fashioned collector used to say he only wanted "stamps," and turned up his nose at a "proof," but the modern advanced school is changing all that. The old idea is the more ridiculous when one considers that the Connell essay of New Brunswick (it was never issued for postal use), if perforated and gummed, _though still not an issued stamp_, fetches £30, while an imperforate proof costs 20s. More absurd still is it where philatelists, in the desire to establish _rariora_, are inconsistent enough to deem an undoubted "proof" of Cape Colony, the celebrated 1d. red-brown triangular stamp on paper watermarked Crown over CC, as an issued stamp, and to pay a fabulous sum for the privilege of possessing it. The price--if its rarity be the token by which price may be gauged--was cheap enough; there are about ten copies known to collectors, all the specimens being unused, but by that same token we know that it was never used in the post nor issued to any post-office. [Illustration: AN EXCEPTIONAL BLOCK OF TWENTY UNUSED ONE PENNY BLACK STAMPS, LETTERED "V.R." IN THE UPPER CORNERS FOR OFFICIAL USE. (_From the collection of the late Sir William Avery, Bart._)] In regard to the actual stamps, there is much in the modern advanced collection which has not yet been fully appreciated even by the majority of collectors. Much less has it been grasped by the uninitiated vendor of "finds" among old letters and papers. It is but little known that a stamp in itself may be very common, but in a pair it may be of a high degree of value. This is putting it by extremes; but in the case of early imperforate stamps it is a fact that many of the first issues of Great Britain, her colonies, Holland, Belgium, German States, Uruguay, Chili, and other countries, the stamps are readily accessible as single copies, but pairs, much less blocks of four, are almost unheard-of rarities. Our own first stamp, the Penny Black, may cost 6d. to 1s. for a single used specimen, but a pair fetches 6s. to 7s. 6d., and a block of four would be worth 40s. to 50s. Alas! that many a one even among collectors has never yet realised that it is vandalism to take the scissors to a fine block of imperforates, simply because he is a collector of the one-stamp-of-a-kind order and has no use for a block.