Both values, as well as the One Penny and Six Pence of Issue 7, and other stamps current during the later years the stamps of Issue 11 were in use, are not uncommonly found with a curious obliteration of an upright oval, pointed at the top and bottom, and divided across the centre by a double line. The upper part contains the letters “G.B.,” and the lower “40 c.” The cancellation made its appearance upon these three stamps about the end of 1878, or early in 1879, and was first thought to be a surcharge. The credit of its explanation is due to the editor of the _Foreign Stamp Collectors’ Journal_, who made enquiries at the Post-office, and who stated in the numbers of that journal for December, 1879, and July, 1880, that “in addition to the ordinary mail steamers from the West Indies, letters are conveyed to England by the French Packets running intermediately. These letters are stamped as above; the G.B. signifying ‘Grande Bretagne,’ and the 40 C., the amount payable to the French Post-office for their services.” “The stamp ceased to be employed for its original purpose some time ago, but is now used instead of the ordinary cancellation stamp, which is worn out.” Its use as an obliterating stamp must have been continued at least up to some time in 1882, as we have frequently seen it on the Halfpenny orange of Issue 18, a stamp which was not issued until December, 1881. Issue 12. _July 1877._ 4d., dark deep blue. A consignment of 200 sheets—6,000 stamps—of the Four Pence value, printed in very dark deep blue, was sent out to St. Vincent on May 29th, 1877. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we have no reason to doubt the stamp was immediately put in issue, and that it was first used in July of the same year, but had it not been for the record in the books of the printers, we should have had a good deal of difficulty in assigning a date to it. Most of the principal catalogues, including the London Society’s list and the current edition of M. Moens’ _Catalogue Prix-Courant_, give 1876 as the date of issue, but the stamp is not catalogued in the 1877 edition of the last mentioned work. The solitary chronicle of it we can find in philatelic literature is in the _Timbre-Poste_ of May, 1878, where we find it recorded in the following terms: “Réapparition du 4 pence, en bleu foncé, mais avec étoile en filagramme.”