Brazil (1895?) – Southern Cross (fiscal stamp)
An oddity I picked up at a stamp show, this is a fiscal stamp (as evidenced by the words ‘Thesouro Nacional’ at top). Its design shows it to be a close relative of the Brazil Southern Cross stamps of 1887–90 but it is not listed in the Gibbons Simplified catalogue and I know no more about it. According to information from Ron Webb, a collector of Brazilian fiscal stamps, such stamps were issued in 1895 and 1903; this is probably the 1895 issue.