The majority of stamps bear a portrait, usually that of a sovereign. The
stamps of our own country present a portrait gallery of our great and
heroic dead, for by law the faces of the living may not appear on our
stamps or money. This is the reverse of the rule in monarchical
countries, where the portrait of the reigning sovereign usually adorns
the postal issues. The likeness most frequently seen on postage stamps
is that of her most gracious Majesty the Queen of England. For more than
half a century her portrait has adorned the numerous stamps of Great
Britain and the British Colonies, beginning in 1840 with a beautiful
portrait--painted by an American, we may be proud to say--the portrait
of the girl queen, wearing her coronation crown, and continuing, until
to-day she wears a widow's veil beneath the crown of the Empress of
India. In the issue by which Canada commemorated the sixtieth year of
Her Majesty's reign the two portraits are happily combined.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Canada Postage", 1837-1897, ½ cent]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Haiti", 1 cent]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Tonga", 2 d.]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Samoa Postage", 2½ pence]

[Illustration: Stamp, Siam]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Republic Liberia Postage", 1884-1892, 8 cents]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Holkar State Postage", ½ Anna]

Following the lead of Europe and America, other countries have placed