The method of cutting up the sheets of Crown C.A. paper was to guillotine the half sheets horizontally in half and then twice vertically, dividing each horizontal half into three small sheets, the half C.A. sheet of paper yielding six small Gambia sheets (plates XII. and XIII.). The operators both at the guillotine and at the press seem to have taken the utmost care to arrange all the small sheets uniformly for passing through the press, as the varieties shewing the watermark from left to right are rare. The diagrams on plates XII. and XIII. will illustrate more clearly than a verbal explanation the precise method of dividing up the Crown C.A. paper. The early printings of the Crown C.A. issue were perforated with the comb machine described in the previous chapter, but in the later printings a new comb machine was introduced, which has not the narrow spaced teeth in the margin, and, consequently, has not the double row of perforation on the right hand margins of the sheets. The perforations produced by the two machines gauge the same, and are not distinguishable in single specimens or blocks, but only in sheets or specimens with pieces of margins. The effect of the two different combs on the sheet may be compared on the two sheets of the 6d. value illustrated on plates X. and XI. We may note (plate VIII.) the second comb with the teeth extending [page 41] through the top margin, leaving the bottom margin blank, shewing that some of the sheets were perforated from the bottom, which would produce this effect. Unused imperforate copies exist of all values in the following shades-- Imperforate 1/2d. grey-green. " 1d. pale crimson. " 2d. orange-yellow. " 2 1/2d. pale ultramarine. " 3d. pearl-grey. " 4d. brown. " 6d. slate-green. " 1s. deep violet. Copies in trial colours, perforated 12 instead of 14, exist as follows-- 1/2d. rose. 1/2d. violet. 1/2d. dull green. 1/2d. pale dull orange. 3d. olive-green. On some of the sheets of the 1/2d. value stamp 2 shews a slightly elongated left stroke of the letter m in Gambia; No. 5 on the same sheet shews a similar defect in the right stroke of the letter. (See plate III., which reproduction, however, only shews the variety on stamp 2.) Stamps Nos. 1, 12, 13 on the same sheet illustrated shew a peculiarity in the form of a broken nose. We have not been able to trace other copies shewing a similar defect, so possibly it is simply due to over-inking or faulty inking of the colour plate. The plate of the 3d. was altered in the final printing, two additional printers' guide dots being added in the [page 42] left margin, and the top and bottom dot on the right being removed (plate VIII.). This was printed in pearl-grey only.