My endeavour in this chat will be to indicate the character of the stamps which have risen in the philatelic period 1862 to 1911, all of which may be classed as "Collector's Consols," but most of which are at this date and at present prices likely to yield an excellent return in the future. To take our own country first, for here purchases would have been made at first-hand, that is, at the post-office, there are many stamps, some of comparatively low facial value, that would have formed most desirable investments _if_ one had only been able to prophesy, and prophesy correctly. The most notable examples amongst British stamps of rapid and great appreciation in value are the Twopence Halfpenny of 1875, with error of lettering, the Two Shillings, orange-brown, the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83, the Five Pounds--both telegraph and postage in the earliest shade--and certain "Officials": there are, of course, others which show an even greater appreciation on their original face-value, but the reason in that case is that small printings were made of certain stamps from a particular plate or on certain paper--"abnormals" to give them their usual name--and such stamps were not obtainable except by accident. The Twopence Halfpenny error, though not known to the philatelic world until 1893, was present in every sheet printed from Plate 2 of that value, to the number of no less than 35,000, and yet, in mint unused condition, it is a very scarce stamp, probably worth £25. And yet none amongst the thousands who purchased and used one of these errors thought--even if he noticed the fact--that a mistake in one of the corner letters would some day cause a great rise in value. Another well-known example is the Two Shillings, brown: issued originally in 1867, the first colour of that value was blue; but in 1880, to avoid confusion with other stamps, it was changed to orange-brown. It is said that only 1,000 sheets, or 240,000 stamps, were printed, a large number certainly, but comparatively small when it is remembered that of some stamps many millions were issued; small, too, when it is considered that the minimum charge on telegrams was a shilling, and foreign postal rates were high. An early price in dealers' catalogues was seven shillings and sixpence; now a fine unused copy realises more pounds than it formerly did shillings.