NEWSPAPER AND PERIODICAL STAMPS. SERIES OF 1875-1885. Plate impression, 24 by 35½ mm., in color, on white paper, perforated 12. June 1st, 1885, 1 cent, black. Jan. 1st, 1875, 3 cents, " to April 25th, 1879. 9 " " " " " 2 " " 4 " " 6 " " 8 " " 10 " " 12 " carmine, 24 " " 36 " " 48 " " 60 " " 72 " " 84 " " 96 " " 1 dollar 92 " deep brown 3 dollars vermilion 6 " light blue 9 " orange 12 dollars rich green 24 " purplish slate 36 " dull red 48 " light brown 60 " rich purple These stamps were not reprinted in 1874, but samples ungummed and surcharged "specimen" were sold to collectors. OBSERVATIONS. A slight change in the regulations now prohibits postmasters from selling these stamps even to publishers, but the money is received and the requisite amount in stamps placed upon the stubs and cancelled. The amount sold and the amount used in an office should now correspond. The stubs are sent periodically to Washington with the accounts, compared and destroyed. Used specimens and even unused specimens are likely to grow rare in collections. XXVII. OFFICIAL STAMPS. A thorough understanding of the use of these stamps will best be obtained by a brief review of the system it for a time supplanted, which was briefly designated as the "Franking Privilege." As early as the 1st Session of the Second Congress the necessity and propriety of providing for the carriage of official correspondence and the correspondence of Government officers and Members of Congress upon public business was recognized, and Chapter 7, Section 19, approved February 1st, 1792, of the Acts of that Sessions provided: