Portrait of President Washington, faced ¾ to left in an oval, 19½ mm. wide by 21½ mm. high, with a back ground of colored lines, crossed at right angles and bordered by a colorless line. Solid colored label bordered by a colorless line above and below the oval, inscribed in colorless ordinary capitals, above "_Post Office_," below "_Five Cents_." Foliated ornaments in the four corners, the upper enclosing small colorless labels inscribed in small colored capitals "_New_," at the left "_York_," at the right, the whole surrounded by a colored line forming a rectangle. Engraved on copper at New York by Messrs. Rawden, Wright and Hatch. Plate impression 20½ by 28 mm., on slightly bluish paper. 5 cents black. In most of the catalogues this stamp has been described also, as on white paper. Such specimens are shown, but they are produced by some chemical action of the gum used to fasten them to letters, or of the composition of the paper or other accidental causes. Specimens may be also found of a buff color as if steeped in coffee, another changeling produced by the action of strong gum. Each stamp is signed A. C. M. in red ink. They are generally cancelled with a pen and blue ink, or by the word "Paid" hand stamped in red ink, or by the dating stamp. There is another type of stamp said to have been issued by the postmaster of New York in 1849. The design is two concentric circles, the inner 13½, the outer 17½ mm. in diameter. In the center, "_One Cent_" in two lines of ordinary colored capitals, about 2 mm. high. Between the circles, above, "_U. S. Mail_;" below, "_Prepaid_" in similar letters 2½ mm. high. They were printed in black on small squares of rose colored paper, and afterwards on paper varying from bright yellow to pale drab and generally glazed. This stamp was chronicled in Kline's Manual, first edition, 1862, as a "Carrier Stamp," and has since been alternately considered a governmental, or a local stamp. Upon what ground it is so confidently asserted to have been issued by the New York postmaster, and its date assigned to 1849, seems never to have been stated. It is certain however that if it were issued prior to 1851, it did not prepay any authorized government postage, and if issued after 1847, such an issue was forbidden by law unless authorized by the Postmaster General. It is hardly to be supposed that the postmaster of New York City would have openly violated the law. The inscription, "U. S. Mail," does not prove anything but probably means "prepaid to the U. S. Mail," and the stamp is probably the issue of some of the local delivery companies. V. STAMPS OF THE ST. LOUIS POSTMASTER.