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at the Durban Museum (Census number 97).
Only two covers bearing a pair of 3d embossed Natal stamps are recorded, paying the 6d double

local rate. The first is to the missionary Reverend Grout, at Umsunduzi, care of G. C. Cato who was

the first Mayor of Durban (Cover number 98, Figure 12).
Finally, while a pair of the 3d embossed stamp is the largest recorded multiple and pairs on or

off cover are rare, there are seven recorded used examples of embossed 3d pairs, where the stamps
are tête-bêche. Only one of them is on cover or front and it may be considered the most important

cover of the embossed issue (Census number 99, Figure 13). The cover is part of the well-known
correspondence to the Dean of Pietermaritzburg, and the pair is cancelled with a large pen cross.

The manuscript-cancelled stamps in this correspondence originated in Umhlali or Pine Town; given
that the Umhlali correspondence all have manuscript town cancels, it is perhaps more likely that
this cover originated in Pine Town.
Finally, there are two covers franked by both a 3d and 6d stamp to make up the local 9d rate (6d
number 4 and 6d number 5, Table 1), but these covers will be illustrated in the next part of this article.

This will provide a census of the 6d embossed stamps on cover, and describe the local uses of this value.

The use of 3d embossed stamps on international mail, their combination usage with other
embossed stamps on cover, as well as the local Natal uses of the 6d stamp on cover will be covered
in part 2 of this series of articles.

As this article was at the final proof stage, a 3d embossed cover from Pietermaritzburg to Umzinto
(Census number 62.1) was sold on 30 July in the Stanley Gibbons ‘Stamps and Postal History of
the World’ auction (lot 746).

Figure 1. Census number 72. 16 May 1859. 3d cancelled in manuscript ‘Umhlali’ on Crimean War patriotic
cover to Verulam.

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