The _desiderata_ of British stamps--ignoring the "abnormal" varieties of plate and paper--are the Ten Shillings and One Pound of 1878-83. Few among the great multitude of collectors purchased the two stamps, each on Cross _paté_ paper and each on that watermarked with a Large Anchor, when current. But those few who did, and who kept them through the years when the rise in value was very slight, ultimately realised at the top of the market--say, £175 to £200--towards the end of the 'nineties. The £1 "Anchor" on bluish paper, which one could have bought in 1882 for twenty shillings, is now priced at £80, showing a profit which makes many a collector in these days sigh over lost opportunities. Five Pounds is a high facial value, but that sum invested in the purchase of the telegraph-stamp, or of the postage-stamp which superseded it, would now be represented approximately by £100; but in the case of the Five Pounds postage-stamp, the paper must be "blued"--"naturally," and not through the medium of the blue-bag--and the colour should be of a vermilion almost merging into orange, and not the scarlet-vermilion in which this stamp finished its career in 1902. In a somewhat different category are the various Official stamps, but as they were obtainable up to about 1890 by any respectable applicant at Somerset House, the earlier varieties may fairly be included. Sets bought during the 1884-90 period appreciated very little until towards the close of the last century, when they attained high prices, the One Pound "I.R. Official" in brown-violet, on Imperial Crown paper, being the rarest, even rarer than the similar stamp on the Orb paper, which without the Official overprint is rarer than the normal variety. Of subsequent Official stamps, _not_ obtainable for the asking, special mention should be made of the three high values of the Edwardian issue--Five Shillings, Ten Shillings, and One Pound: in 1903 mint PAIRS of the three stamps were sold for forty guineas, and single sets for £25. Nowadays, pairs--the particular ones above referred to were subsequently severed--would probably fetch a sum running into four figures. It may be interesting to record a few of the notable rises in value, in the space of a comparatively short period, of stamps issued in one or other of the British colonies, or in some foreign country.