Page 103 - Prepaid Reply Cards

6. THE SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DOUBLE CARD WITH PREPAID REPLY

THE 1894 UK REPLY ADHESIVE STAMP ESSAY
In 1894 the UK produced essays in different stages of printing of a stamp to be used to prepay the reply to
letters going abroad. The stamps were designed to be sold in pairs, one for the question letter and one for the
reply letter. Several stages of printing of the essays exist based on the «Queen Victoria» head plate of the 1 ½ d
1887 stamp. The aim was for stamps to receive a second imprint indicating provisions for their usage and – never
seen before or after on UK stamps – the country name «United Kingdom». For the overall stamp design a
preliminary design sketch exists. From the version with full text overprint, only a block of eight stamps is know
with overprints in different colours, now part of the RM Phillips collection of the British Postal Museum.

Perforated single of the 1894
essay stamp with alternate
background design

Sketch of the final design of a full pair of the proposed UK reply
letter stamp
(sketch by the author, based on the Phillips collection block)

Imperforated block of six of the 1894
UK reply letter stamp essay

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