Church of Scotland
Reward stamps

As stated in the introduction Gilbert E. Oliver, of Edinburgh, was a Banknote , Security and General Purpose Engraver, who set up business in 1863. He was responsible for some remarkable examples of the engraver's art, including the superb series of sets of Reward Stamps which were published, by him, on behalf of the Church of Scotland, between the years 1890 and 1913. How these worked is unknown because no albums have been noted by me though they are said to exist, and only unused examples of the stamps circulate. Additionally while in most years it appears that only five new stamps were produced and occasionally sheets of 30 appearing, the different series would continue in production for years after first issue. Perhaps the sunday school teacher handed them out at random, or perhaps the children selected one from those available. It would be interesting to see an album. It may be that they were not strictly attendence stamps, but may have been given out as rewards for good work. The stamps were issued on a variety of coloured papers and different coloured inks adding a wide range of stamps to collect.
 

Series 2 Four of the five Scottish Saints set first issued in 1892, but which continued for subsequent years in continued production. The pink paper is one of the four colours used.   Series 3 From 1896, the full set of five in blue on pink paper, and four of the blue on series.           Series 5 A set of religious motifs issued in 1897. This is four of the five stamps printed on yellow paper.     Series 7 From 1898, and printed on thicker paper. This is a strip of five stamps from the sheet of 30.       Series 10. Sheets of 30 stamps with a collection of images together with reprints the ‘5’ numerals of series one. These are individual stamps from the black and the blue on white paper sheets                               Series 11 Again in sheets of 30, and composed of various religious images. Below is a block of eight stamps from the blue sheets