The _Barbados_ collection, which was shown by His Majesty at the Imperial Stamp Exhibition held by the Junior Philatelic Society in London in 1908, was exceptionally rich in the scarce "1d." on 5s. provisional, of which there were no fewer than a pair and two single copies, four in all, in the unused condition, and five used pairs and a number of single used copies.
_Hong Kong_ and _Grenada_, _Bermuda_, _Trinidad_ and _Turks' Islands_ have also been arranged and exhibited, as well as a small but choice collection of the stamps of _Nevis_, which contains, among other items, the beautiful card proofs of the first 1d. in green, 4d. in dull purple, 6d. in orange, and 1s. in lake. There are two reconstructed sheets of the 1d. perforated 13, and the 4d. rose, unused; the 6d. grey and 1s. green, used and unused. Of the 1867 set the 1d. is shown unused, the 4d. both used and unused and the 1s. used. Of the lithographs there are four mint sheets of the 1d., a mint sheet of the 4d. and another of the 6d., the 1s. in light and dark green; and there are two entire sheets of the 1d. perforated 11½.
[Illustration: THE TWO PENCE "POST PAID" STAMP OF MAURITIUS.
Unique block showing the error (the first stamp in the illustration) lettered "PENOE" for "PENCE".
Comparatively little is known of the stamp-collections of other monarchs, but both King Alfonso of Spain and King Manuel are known to have formed collections of the stamps of their respective realms. The Spanish King's expressed desire to add the stamps of Portugal to his collection led to the reprinting of certain of the obsolete stamps of which the dies were on hand at the Lisbon Mint; these are the stamps known as the "King of Spain Reprints," a complete set of which was presented by King Manuel to the Reference Collection of the Royal Philatelic Society.
His Imperial Highness the late Grand Duke Alexis Michaelovitch was a member of the Philatelic Society. His early death lost to Philately a collector with a keen sense of the beauty of condition. Although only nineteen at the time of his death, he had been engaged for some years on a semi-official work on the history of the postal issues of Russia, and his collection was strong in the stamps of his own country and in Russian proofs and essays. His collection covered a very broad field, and he acquired the Peru section of the Koster collection _en bloc_. When the first Castle collection of Australians came on the market, the young Grand Duke acquired a number of its choicest copies, including some plated items. Some of the rarities he showed in London on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Philatelic Society (1894) were brilliant used copies of the 2 reales Spain of 1851 and 1852; the Poste Locale of Switzerland unused; the "1 Pranc", error for "1 Franc", on the 37½-centime bistre, Luxemburg; the Hanover 10 gr. used; Oldenburg ¹/₃ gr. black on green; Nevis 6d. lithographed (in two shades); Trinidad 1858 6d. and 1s. unused; Uruguay, Diligencias 60c. and 80c. unused; entire sheets of Bergedorf essays in green of all values; and a beautiful and much admired group of thirty-two Russian essays.