The change in colour of the two values of this issue was first chronicled in the Philatelic Record of July, 1886, where they were spoken of as ?recent arrivals,? and their colours described as follows: ?The present colour of the One Penny is a decided pink, and it is printed in water-colour; while the Four Pence is a very dark puce-brown.? For the One Penny we have adopted the term ?pink,? but prefer ?purple-brown? to ?puce-brown? for the Four Pence. Besides the usual pink shades of the One Penny we have found that stamp in a colour identical with some of the specimens of the rosy-lake One Penny, which, surcharged ?2½ Pence,? appeared in 1883. We have given this stamp a separate number in the Reference List, as, had we been content to include it as a shade of ?pink,? it might in time have come to be considered as an error of Issue 20, without surcharge, which it certainly is not. There must have been a great number of printings of the One Penny made since 1886, as the stamp is still current. They are now coming over, in 1895, in shades undistinguishable from the carmine stamp ???? of Issue 24.
If there are any shades of the purple-brown Four Pence they are very slight. It is by no means so scarce a stamp as the red-brown Four Pence of the last issue, but it is not nearly as common as any of the shades of the lake-brown[93] Four Pence, and we think there could only have been one printing of it. The Four Pence, lake-brown, is certainly the result of later printings, but we cannot say for certain when the first of these was made; the earliest date we have found on one is October 2nd, 1886.
All the stamps of this issue are perforated 14 by the guillotine-machine.
If there are any shades of the purple-brown Four Pence they are very slight. It is by no means so scarce a stamp as the red-brown Four Pence of the last issue, but it is not nearly as common as any of the shades of the lake-brown[93] Four Pence, and we think there could only have been one printing of it. The Four Pence, lake-brown, is certainly the result of later printings, but we cannot say for certain when the first of these was made; the earliest date we have found on one is October 2nd, 1886.
All the stamps of this issue are perforated 14 by the guillotine-machine.