Another and much more common error in the early days of stamp
production was the careless placing of one stamp on a plate upside
down. Stamps so placed are termed _tête-bêche_. They have to be
collected in pairs to show the error. The early stamps of France
furnish many examples of this class of error. They are also to be
found on the 6d. and 1s. values of the first design of the stamps of
the Transvaal, on the early issues of Roumania, on some of the stamps
of the Colombian Republic, and other countries.

Stamps requiring two separate printings--_i.e._ stamps printed in two
colours--have given rise to many curious errors in printing. A sheet
passed through the press upside down after one colour has been printed
results in one portion of the design being inverted. In the 1869 issue
of the stamps of the United States no less than three of the values
had the central portions of their designs printed upside down. The
4d., blue, of the first issue of Western Australia is known with the
Swan on its head. Even the recently issued Pan-American stamps,
printed in the most watchful manner by the United States official
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, are known with the central portions
of the design inverted, and these errors, despite the most searching
examination to which each sheet is several times subjected, escaped
detection, and were sold to the public. When, however, it is
remembered that stamps are now printed by the million, it will be
wondered that so few mistakes escape into the hands of collectors.

As a bit of conceit, the issue of what is known as the Connell stamp
is probably unequalled. In loyal Canada, in 1860, Mr. Charles Connell
was Postmaster-General of the little colony of New Brunswick, which in
those days had its own government and its own separate issue of