The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-21 00:00:00

PENNY POSTAGE.

The Post Circular, a London publication devoted
evclusively to the circulation of information respecting
the subject of postages, and of which twelve numbers
have now been published, presents its readers with an
engraved plate of the stamp cover, which will be used
if this measure come into operation. The engraving
is very neat, and is broader, but not so long, as the
back of an ordinary sized letter; a blank of an oval
shope is left in the middle, where the sender will insert
the address of his letter ; below that is marked " Price.
d.—matter not'to exceed one half ounce'," which will
accordingly be altered to 2d. 3d. &c., according as the
letter may weigh one ounce, two ounces, &c. A sup-
ply of these is intended to be kept at the stamp-office,
by stationers, and other shopkeepers. In speaking of
this part of the subject; the Post Circular says,—

" A plate of this description having been produced, any
number of fac-simile plates can be made from the original one,
so that numerous impressions may be taken at one operation ;•
the plates being so adjusted as to admit of large sheets of
paper being impressed at once, and those sheets cut up to the
proper dimensions in the usual manner, practised printers
would give any required number of envelopes ; the original
plate would at all times be preserved to make fresh plates
from as those in use were worn out. As to speed of execu-
t" on, about 1,000 impressions per hour can be well printed
from one plate only ; and one plate is capable of enduring
many millions of impressions—say 10,000,000—without any
very material deterioration, if carefully adjusted, in the first
instance, to the machine by which they are printed, and if
the paper on which they are printed be not too harsh in its
texture, and free from grit.—As regards the- difficulty of the
execution of the plate, but little need be said, for there is
nothing more absurd than to suppose that what can be ef-
fected by one man or men is not to be accomplished by
others, when the process is purely mechanical. But if ghch
a stamp be combined with any peculiar paper, also requiring
the use of machinery in its manufacture, (which involves an
outlay of great capital,) forgery may be completely guarded
against. A forger could not produce this stamp, on a paper
expressly manufactured by order of the government, in suffi-
cient numbers to be profitable, (were he able to secure a safe
market for them,) for less than an outlay of several thousands
of pounds. He must first learn how to engrave the stamp ;
then possess a very complicated machine to engrave it; he
must possess a costly machine to print it ; he must also com-
mand a paper-mill, with other very costly machinery, to
make the paper ; and, lastly, possessing all these, he is at
the mercy of not less than a dozen persons absolutely neces-
sary for these several processes, any one of whom may inform
against him."

To this it might have been added, that the profit
likely to arise from such a forgery would be very small,
almost nothing compared to the successful counterfeit
of a bank-note plate.