The earliest sheets known are from June 19. Variety a is shown in Figures 6 and 7. This sheet is published in the Meter Stamp Society Bulletin, No. 257 (Fall 2002), p. 10.

The eagle motif was introduced because the National Postal Forum design was authorized only for that show. The USPS itself designed the stamp. There is one short wide and one thin bar on, respectively, the lower left and right edges of the backing. There is one pair of blank labels outside Neopost. Figure 8. The bars are used to guide the cutting of the sheets from a roll. There is slight tagging thinning. There are also test dummies of the eagle stamp; one is Ebay Item 2970911473, a sheet of four dummies se tenant with a blank sheet. This item "predates the Orlando NPF sheets," so we know it is a test dummy. Like the ICNOVA ten-stamp 34-cent test dummy sheets--produced prior to the issuance of ten-stamp sheet 34-cent stamps on June 21, 2002 (infra)--these look very much like the issued stamps, but there are subtle differences. In the case of the eagle dummies the "US POSTAGE" appears slighly different from the way it appears on the issued stamps. There are eight sheets of variety a: one set each of $1.36, $2.72 and $6.80. Comparable: Scott 80. There is a suite of four philatelic usages from a single sheet. One of these covers is item 2939225054 on Ebay. These, and two commercial covers sent from one Neopost office to another (offered on Ebay), are the only known usages of any "eagle" variety design during the 34-cent rate--only a First Design usage would be more important than these, but no such usages are known.

3. $800. One of the pair of blank sheets. Faint toning at top, stamps superb. Very slight denting in upper right selvage far from stamps. Signed "Cerizet" on reverse bottom in light pencil. Card with Cerizet notes accompanies, on which he indicates a small printed horizontal line at bottom on backing paper (unique on four-stamp sheets) and that the sheet was severed by C. Giles, who designed the NPF and flag stamps.

4. $800. One of the pair of blank sheets. Fainting toning at top, stamps superb. No dents of any kind. Signed "Cerizet" on reverse bottom in light pencil.

5. $1500. Variety a sheet with top right stamp missing. Top selvage reads "Postage Set 3/12." No toning or dents of any kind. Post office fresh superb sheet of this extremely rare variety.

6. $1800. Variety a sheet. Top selvage reads "Postage Set 4/8." Also shows order number, location, date, card and paid information--probably the only variety a sheet showing this information. Card with Cerizet notes accompanies, on which he notes that this is the sheet published in the Bulletin. Post office fresh and superb without the slightest denting or toning--one of the jewels of the webenabled stamps.

Variety b occurred no later than June 22 (Figure 9). This sheet was probably produced on June 26 and is probably part of transaction 32443. It is published in the Meter Stamp Society Bulletin, No. 257 (Fall 2002), p. 11. Here control numbers—a set of four numbers, one of which appears on each stamp (with another set appearing on the alternating sheets of multi-sheet sets)—have been removed. By the way, the Meter Stamp Society Bulletin is in error in claiming that variety a lacks the control numbers and that they were later applied—that is, that my variety a is variety b (#254, Winter 2001, 3). Although it is counterintuitive, Neopost has confirmed that it first issued stamps with control numbers, and then tried a design without them before later restoring them. Proof: transaction 32086 is MSS’s Figure 3, but it was produced on June 22, 2001, prior to transaction 32443, which was produced on June 26, 2001, and is MSS’s Figure 2. MSS’s Figure 3 should be Figure 2, and vice versa. Note that this means that absence of control numbers is an intentional design change, not an error as is widely believed. There are thirty sheets of this variety: four sets of $6.80, and one of each of the other sets. Comparable: Scott 30.

7. $1800. Variety b sheet. Top selvage reads "Postage Set 20/20." Slight dents at left and top selvage not affecting stamps. No toning. Card with Cerizet notes accompanies, on which he indicates that this is the sheet published in the Bulletin and that of all Neopost stamps only this variety shows stamps without control numbers.

The control numbers were reinstated on variety c (Figure 10) as early as June 27, 2001. The transaction number is shortened. The longer "transaction" number of earlier varieties did not actually track transactions and the numbers were not consecutive. The number was a security device designed to assign a unique number to each sheet; it was deemed unnecessary and dropped. With this variety, transactions begin to be recorded in one consecutive series regardless of the machine at which they were produced, and all events such as test dummies, incomplete credit card swipes, system downs, operations timed out before authorization obtained and so on, are assigned numbers in the series. Right tagging is missing and, on the backing, there is a thinner left bar and a thin right bar (the results of a cutting error as the roll went through the kiosk). There is one sheet.

Figure 11 shows variety d from the same transaction. It shows shortened left and no right bars on backing, two part-indicia double tête bêche and three part-indicia omitted on the two left stamps, and two part-indicia omitted on the two right stamps. There is a very wide left bar, and no bar or microprinting at right (the microprinting is "NEOPOST" repeated). There is also one sheet of this variety. This is one of four Neopost four-stamp sheets with a full gutter. These two varieties show the usefulness of keeping transactions together. The three presumably normal sheets of these two varieties have not been seen. Comparable: Scott 2513a (plate block). Only the first design and varieties a through d show medium gloss over tagging. The Rosslyn stamps show dull gloss; all others show high gloss. Note that only varieties First Design through variety d show the dark orange tagging. This color changes beginning with variety e.

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