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In France , most revenues on parchment documents were in ink, hand stamped (figure 1).
But in Great Britain a system of embossed revenues was used.
Parchment expands and contracts with the humidity of the air, so that an embossing directly on to it gradually flattens out. To prevent this, a paper ‘base’ was glued to the parchment and stapled to it with a short piece of silver strip which pierced both.
The example, figure 2 has embossed revenues for £1.15.0. On the back (figure3), the turned-over ends of this strip were then sealed off with a small printed ‘cypher label’ (figure 3 and a close up figure 4) bearing a crown and the royal initials.
This 'cypher label' was the same size as the imperforate 1d Red stamp (figure 5) introduced in 1840, which at the time was probably regarded as essentially just another revenue.
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