PROVISIONAL.--A make-shift intended to supply a temporary want of the proper stamp, which may have been unexpectedly sold out, or may not have been supplied owing to lack of time.
RE-ISSUE denotes the bringing again into use of a stamp which has become obsolete, or at any rate has been long out of use at the post-office; it sometimes implies a new printing.
REMAINDERS.--Stamps printed during the period of issue and left on hand when that issue has gone out of use.
REPRINT.--Strictly a REPRINT is an impression taken from the identical original die, plate, stone, or block, after the stamps printed therefrom have gone out of use. The term is used to include printings from new plates or stones, made from the original die. And _see_ GOVERNMENT IMITATIONS.
RETOUCH, RE-SET, RE-ENGRAVED, RE-DRAWN, RE-CUT.--All these terms have a somewhat similar meaning, and imply repairs to, or alterations of, the die, plates, stones, or blocks: instances of most drastic re-engraving are known, _e.g._, that of the 1848 Two Pence ("Post Paid") of Mauritius, the plate of which was so altered as to produce a practically new stamp, the Two Pence, "large fillet," of 1859; and the Half Tornese "Arms" of Naples, which had the entire centre removed from each of the two hundred impressions on the plate and replaced by the Cross of Savoy. To differentiate--_retouching_ is generally undertaken to remedy minor defects caused by wear and tear: _re-setting_ suggests slight re-arrangement of stamps made up, wholly or partly, of printer's type; _re-engraving_, the replacing of parts of a design worn away by use or intention: _re-drawing_ rather leads one to infer that the original design has been reproduced in an improved form; and _re-cutting_ implies going over the original die, &c., and strengthening the engraving, with, perhaps, slight accidental variations of the design.
REVENUE.--This word indicates availability for fiscal use, as distinguished from postal use. A stamp may be available for either purpose, or for one only; the use is almost invariably indicated by the inscription.
REVERSED.--Backwards-way; "as in a looking-glass." The term is often, but quite erroneously, used for INVERTED--which see--implying upside-down.