They depicted a profile of Mercury, the Roman messenger god, and were not denominated, the color of the stamp indicating the value.

The higher denominations franked wrappers of bundles of newspapers and were frequently discarded.

[2] In 1856 a red, or scarlet, stamp with the Mercury design, sold for six kreuzer - 30 centesimi to frank a bundle of 10 newspapers, was issued.

[2] An unused copy, without gum and short at the left side, was auctioned for 23,000 DM by Grobe & Lange in 1996.

[4] An unused Red Mercury with original gum was auctioned for a hammer price of €40,000 plus commission, by Auktionhaus Felzmann in Düsseldorf on 5 November 2015.