King Bomba of Sicily. The most eminent engraver of his day--Aloisio--was
commissioned to prepare an exact likeness of His Sacred Majesty. After
much ministerial tribulation the portrait was approved and engraved, and
to this day it is regarded as a superb piece of work. A special
cancelling stamp had to be designed and put into use which defaced only
the border of the stamp and left the sacred portrait untouched. During
the preliminaries necessary to the production of the sacred effigy the
fate of ministers and officials hung in the balance. One official was
actually marked for degradation for having submitted a disfigurement
which turned out to be a carelessly printed, or rough, proof impression.

Numerous stamps have been designed, especially of late years, to
represent some historical event in connection with the country of
issue. The United States, in 1869, in the confined space of an
unusually small stamp, endeavoured to represent the landing of
Columbus, and in another stamp the Declaration of Independence. In a
much more recent series, stamps of an exceptionally large size were
adopted to give scope for a Columbus celebration set of historical
paintings, including Columbus soliciting aid of Isabella, Columbus
welcomed at Barcelona, Columbus restored to favour, Columbus
presenting natives, Columbus announcing his discovery, the recall of
Columbus, Isabella pledging her jewels, Columbus in chains, and
Columbus describing his third voyage. Greece has given us a set of
stamps illustrating the Olympian Games. But collectors look with
considerable suspicion upon stamps of this showy class, for too many
of them have been produced with the sole object of making a profit out
of their sale to collectors, and not to meet any postal requirement.

Crude productions of peculiar interest belong more to the earlier
stages of the introduction of postage stamps. Local attempts at