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There were eight stamps in the setting, four having a central device like the stamp shown, and the other four being of a different design. It is interesting to remark that most of these type-set stamps show an evidence of their provisional nature and the stress under which they were made, in the paper on which they were printed.
It was usually writing paper, such as would be found at a stationers at that period. Some of the rare type-set stamps of British Guiana were printed on the paper used for lining sugar barrels. The stamps of the first issue of Shanghai supply an unique variety in typographed stamps.
To this class belong the stamps of the first issues of British Guiana, Hawaii and Reunion, which rank among the greatest philatelic rarities. We show you here a number of type-set stamps. The first was used in the Hawaiian Islands, in payment of postage on letters between the different islands. There are a number of plates of these stamps, of different values, and each containing ten varieties.
Another form of typography is found in stamps which are composed of printer's type and ornaments. These are usually called "type-set", to distinguish them from stamps produced by the normal process of typography. Stamps made in this manner are often of a high degree of rarity, having been produced in remote parts of the world, where facilities were limited and the use of stamps restricted.
From these casts other casts are taken in type-metal. A sufficient number of these casts are clamped together or fastened to a backing of wood and thus form a plate. This process is not much used for stamps. It may interest you to know that most of our large newspapers employ this process. The type-set forms are, of course, flat.
A supply of the required 2 c. stamps was provided by a locally type-set design enclosed in a ring. It is said that this delivery of letters was discontinued soon after it was started, hence rarity of the stamp. Only eleven copies of this quaint postage stamp are known, and its market value is probably somewhere about £600. Moldavia, 1858, 81 paras.
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