1d. Red-brown (plate 41) tied to a letter dated April 16th 1844 to Bardon with on the reverse a Taunton date stamp for the same date. The Maltese cross of Taunton is poorly struck as was virtually always the case as shown by Rockoff and Jackson, Volume 2, pages 270/272. The example here is one of the clearer examples from the very many illustrated. Throughout the Maltese cross period, Taunton did not look after its MX and had to have two replacements. The example here has to be from the last replacement. The latest recorded date, by R&J, is February 12th 1844 hence the example here at April 16th 1844 is much later. Just two weeks after this letter, this Maltese cross was replaced, on May 1st 1844, by the numeral '776'. This example is one of the, if not the, latest usages of the Taunton cross.