To all postmasters
TO ALL POSTMASTERS
GENERAL POST OFFICE
Edinburgh, April, 1840.
I BEG to inclose you two Specimens of the Penny and Two-penny stamped Covers and Envelopes, and two of the Penny adhesive Labels, (the Two-penny one is not yet ready) which I must beg you will carefully preserve, in order to compare them in case of doubt with the stamped Letters that may pass through your Office. In the event of your suspecting that the Stamps used on any Letters are forged, you will not detain the Letter, but simply take the Adress, and report the circumstance to me without loss of time, in order that the Party to whom the Letter is directed may be at once applied to. You will observe, however, that the adhesive Stamps vary almost in all cases, one from another, having different Letters at the bottom corners, and I point this out that you may not be misled by the circumstances, and be induced to suspect Forgery, where the variation of the Stamps has been intentional. The Numbers on the Covers and the Envelopes also vary. You will carefully Stamp with the Cancelling Stamp that has been forwarded to you, the stamped Covers and Envelopes, as well as the adhesive Stamps, the two former must be struck on the figure of Britannia, and in case of more than one adhesive Stamp being attached to a Letter, each Stamp must be separately obliterated. The use of the Cancelling Stamp, however, will not dispense with that of the ordinary dated Stamp, which will be struck on the Letter as usual. Where the value of the Stamps is under the rate of Postage, to which a Letter if pre-paid in Money would be subject, you will Surcharge the Letter with a Pen in the usual manner.
You will acknowledge the receipt of this Letter and the Specimen Stamps by return of Post.
By Command,
EDWARD S. LEES,
SECRETARY.