At present, the current Five Shillings stamps of Montserrat, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, &c., are catalogued, unused, at about 25 per cent. over face, as once were the Two Rupees Fifty of Ceylon, the Five Shillings St. Vincent, and the Five Shillings Victoria, blue on yellow; without recommending it as an investment, it is by no means impossible that within twenty years from now a Montserrat Five Shillings may be worth £10 or even £15. Incomparable as regards romantic interest and actual value, the first two stamps of Mauritius have been, ever since their discovery in the 'sixties, the _desiderata_ of every collector. Other stamps--and there are several--may be rarer; but, as examples of a genuinely necessary issue, small in quantity, the One Penny and Twopence "Post Office" of sixty-four years ago will always be looked upon as the ultimate, even if seldom attained, goal of the Philatelist. [Illustration: THE KING'S COPY OF THE TWO PENCE "POST OFFICE" MAURITIUS.] [Illustration: THE MAGNIFICENT UNUSED COPIES OF THE ONE PENNY AND TWO PENCE "POST OFFICE" MAURITIUS STAMPS ACQUIRED BY HENRY J. DUVEEN, ESQ., OUT OF THE COLLECTION FORMED BY THE LATE SIR WILLIAM AVERY, BART.] Originally looked upon as errors of engraving--"POST OFFICE" instead of "POST PAID"--on the sheets of what is now known to be the second issue of Mauritius, it was many years before they took their position as a rare and distinct emission; now something under thirty copies are known, and their status is firmly established. From philatelic records we learn that the first-known copies changed hands for the merest trifle: to-day they are catalogued at £1,000 and £1,200 respectively, in used condition. In 1894 a firm of stamp-dealers acquired a well-known collector's unused _mint_ copies of these stamps at what would now be the very low price of £680: they went into the collection of the late Sir William Avery, and have now passed to another famous collector at the record price of £3,500 for the two. For romance, however, nothing approaches what occurred early in 1904. A collector, visiting a friend resident in the north-west of London, mentioned his hobby to his host, who, remarking that he once collected stamps, brought out his almost-forgotten schoolboy album. Looking casually through the old collection, the guest saw, to his amazement, what proved to be the finest known unused copy of the Twopence "Post Office," purchased by its owner forty years previously for a few pence: this stamp was sold shortly afterwards at auction for £1,450, and now adorns the fine collection of Mauritius stamps owned by King George V.