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Title: Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery

Author: Clifton Armstrong Howes

Release Date: September 17, 2011 [eBook #37457]

Language: English

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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANADA: ITS POSTAGE STAMPS AND POSTAL STATIONERY***

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CANADA

ITS
POSTAGE STAMPS
AND
POSTAL STATIONERY

BY
CLIFTON A. HOWES, B. Sc., F. R. P. S. L.

PUBLISHED BY
THE NEW ENGLAND STAMP CO.
BOSTON, U. S. A.
1911

[Key to Plate XV.]

[Pg 1]

CANADA

ITS
POSTAGE STAMPS
AND
POSTAL STATIONERY

BY
CLIFTON A. HOWES, B. Sc., F. R. P. S. L.

PUBLISHED BY
THE NEW ENGLAND STAMP CO.
BOSTON, U. S. A.
1911

[Pg 2]

Copyright 1911
By the New England Stamp Co.
Boston, Mass.

Press of
NEWCOMB & GAUSS
Salem, Mass.

[Pg 3]

CONTENTS

[Pg 4]

KEY TO PLATES

Plate I.

• No. 1. 6 pence, 1851.
• 2. 12 " "
• 3. 10 " 1855.
• 4. ½ penny, 1857.
• 5. 7½ pence, 1857.
• 6. 3 " 1851.
• 7. ½ penny, 1859.
• 8. 6 pence, "
• 9. 3 " "
•   10. 1 cent,  "
•   11. 2 cents, "
•   12. 10 " "
•   13. 12½  "  "
•   14. 17 " "
•   15. 5 ""
•   16. 1 cent, 1868.
•   17. ½ " "
•   18. 2 cents, "
•   19. 5 " 1859, variety.
•   20. 3 " 1868.
•   21. 5 " 1875.
•   22. 6 " 1868.
•   23. 12½  " "
•   24. 15 " "

Plate II.

• No. 25. 1 cent, 1870.
• 26. 2 cents, 1872.
• 27. ½ cent, 1882.
• 28. 3 cents, 1870.
• 29. 5 " 1876.
• 30. 6 " 1872.
• 31. 8 " 1893.
• 32. 10 cents, 1874.
• 33. 20 " 1893.
• 34. ½ cent, 1897, "Jubilee."
• 35. 50 cents, 1893.
• 36. ½ cent, 1897, "Maple Leaf."
• 37. 2 cents on 3 cents, "Port Hood Provisional."
• 38. 2 cents, 1898, "Map."
• 39. 1 cent on 3 cents (pair), "Port Hood Provisional."[Pg 5]
• 40. ½ cent, 1898, "Numeral."
• 41. 2 cents on 3 cents, 1899, "Maple Leaf."
• 42. 2 "   "3"""Numeral."
• 43. 1 cent, 1903, "King's Head."
• 44. 2 cents on 3 cents, 1899, inverted, "Numeral."
• 45. 2 "  "3""" "Maple Leaf."

Plate III.

• No. 46.  ½ cent, 1908, "Tercentenary."
• 47. 1 " " "
• 48. 2 cents, " "
• 49. 5 " " "
• 50. 7 " " "
• 51. 10 " " "
• 52. 15 " " "
• 53. 20 " " "
• 54. 2 " 1875, Registration.
• 55. 5 " " "
• 56. 8 " " "
• 57. 10 " 1898, Special Delivery.
• 58. 1 cent, 1906, Postage Due.
• 59. 2 cents, " " "
• 60. 5 " " " "

Plate IV.

• No. 61. 6 pence, 1851, pair.
• 62. 12 " " pair from Pack collection.
• 63. 6 pence, 1851, pair.
• 64. 6 " " "
• 65. 12 " " from Worthington collection.
• 66. 6 pence, 1851, thick soft paper, from Pack collection.
• 67. 7½ pence, 1857, wide oval.
• 68. 7½ " " narrow oval.
• 69. 7½ " " pair.
• 70. 10 " 1855, pair, wide oval.
• 71. 10 " " " narrow oval.
• 72. 6 " 1859, from Pack collection.
• 73. 6 " 1851, strip of 3 on very thick soft paper, from Worthington collection.
• 74. 10 cents, 1859, black brown, from Pack collection.

Plate V.

• No. 75. 6 pence, 1851.
• 76. 6 " "
• 77. 3 " " pair.
• 78. 6 " "
• 79. 6 " "
• 80. 6 " " strip of 3 on very thick hard paper, from Pack collection.[Pg 6]
• 81. 7½ pence, 1857, strip of three.
• 82. 12 " 1851, pair from Pack collection.
• 83. 12 " " " " " "
• 84. 12 " " from Pack collection.
• 85. 12 " " pair from Worthington collection.
• 86. 12 " 1851, wove paper, from Pack collection.
• 87. 6 pence, 1851, split, used on piece, from Pack collection.
• 88. 3 pence, 1851, ribbed paper, from Pack collection.
• 89. 12½ cents, small, from Worthington collection.

Plate VI.

• No. 90. 12 pence, 1851, on cover, from Worthington collection.
• 91. 12 pence, 1851, on cover, from Pack collection (originally in Seybold collection.)

Plate VII.

• No. 92. 6 pence, 1851, very thick soft paper, split, used on cover, from Pack collection.
• 93. 10 pence, 1855, pair, narrow oval.
• 94. 10 " " block of 4, wide oval.
• 95. 10 " " strip of 3, narrow oval.
• 96. 5 cents, 1859, block of 7, upper right corner stamp is variety. From Pack collection.
• 97. 5 cents, 1859, pair and split, used on piece, from Worthington collection.

Plate VIII.

• No. 98. 6 cents, 1868, split, used on cover, from Worthington collection.
• 99. 10 cents, 1859, black brown, split, used on cover, from Worthington collection.

Plate IX.

• No. 100. 1 cent, 1859, block of 4 imperforate.
• 101. 5 cents, " " " 4 "
• 102. 2 " " " " 4 "
• 103. 12½  "  " " " 4 "
• 104. 10 " " " " 4 "
• 105. 17 " " " " 4 "
• 106. 20 " 1893, " " 4 "
• 107. 15 " 1868, " " 4 "
• 108. 50 " 1893, " " 4 "

[Pg 7]

Plate X.

• No. 109. 10 cents, 1874, block of 4 imperforate.
• 110. 8 " 1893, " " 4 "
• 111. 6 " 1872, " " 4 "
• 112. 5 " 1897, "Maple Leaf," block of 4, imperforate.
• 113. 2 " 1898, "Map,"   " " 4 "
• 114. 2 " 1903, block of 4 imperforate.
• 115. 5 " Registered, pair imperforate.
• 116. "Officially Sealed" Label, 1905.
• 117.  "  " " 1879.

Plate XI.

• No. 118. 10 cents, 1874, strip of 10, marginal imprints.
• 119. ½ cent, 1868, " " 3, " "
• 120. 3 cents, 1870, " " 3, " "
• 121. 1 cent, 1870, block of 8, " "
• 122. 3 cents, 1870, strip of 3, " "

Plate XII.

• No. 123. 1 cent, 1870, block of 12 imperforate.
• 124. 2 cents, 1872, " " 4 "
• 125. 3 " 1870, " " 4 "
• 126. 5 " 1876, " " 4 "
• 127. ½ cent, 1882, " " 12 "

Plate XIII.

• No. 128. 3 pence, 1875 (?) perforated 14, pair used on cover, from Pack collection.
• 129. 2 cents, 1872, pair imperforate used on cover, in possession of New England Stamp Co.

Plate XIV.

• No. 130. Stamped Envelope, 5 cents, 1860.
• 131.   " "   10 ""

Plate XV. (Frontispiece).

[Pg 9]

FOREWORD

Twenty years ago the Philatelic Society, London, brought out their work on "The Postage Stamps, Envelopes, Wrappers and Post Cards of the North American Colonies of Great Britain." This, of course, included Canada, but since that time no special work, treating exhaustively of the postal emissions of this important Colony, has been placed before the philatelic public. It seems opportune, therefore, particularly in view of the general popularity of the stamps of the Dominion, to present this volume for the favor of the stamp collecting fraternity and especially of that considerable portion which is interested to the extent of specializing in the beautiful issues that Canada has given us.

This work had its inception in the now popular handbook idea, but in looking over the ground it was soon realized by the author that there was need of and material enough for a much more extended treatment of the subject than could be encompassed in the limits of the usual brochure. Plans were therefore laid for a thorough study of all available material, and in furtherance of this it was found necessary to make a special trip to Ottawa, where, in the library of the House of Commons, is to be found the only complete set available of the Reports of the Postmasters General of Canada. These naturally proved a mine of first hand information which was availed of to its full extent; and in this connection must be expressed the deep appreciation of the assistance rendered the author by his friend M. Henri R. Landry, through whose influence and untiring interest the way was made easy for convenient and rapid examination of these invaluable files. Thanks are also due Mr. Edward Y. Parker of Toronto, for notes and specimens furnished, as well as Mr. A. McKechnie of Ottawa.

But documents and descriptions are not enough for the thorough study of any subject which concerns tangible objects, and three famous collections were inspected for first hand information upon the stamps themselves. To Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack of Lakewood, N. J., Mr. George H. Worthington of Cleveland, Ohio, and the lamented Mr. John F. Seybold, late of Syracuse, N. Y., are due not only the author's fullest thanks for opportunities freely given to examine their magnificent collections of Canada, but the debt extends to philatelists in general for thus being enabled to share, through study, description, listing and pictorial reproduction, in the results of their specializing. Mr. Pack's wonderful array of rarities, beautiful copies and[Pg 10] remarkable series of shades has been largely used in the compilation of the stamp lists. This collection though since much enlarged and improved, obtained the gold medal at the International Philatelic Exhibition in London, 1906. Mr. Worthington's fine collection has also been used in the same way and has furnished much information concerning plate numbers and marginal imprints. Mr. Seybold's covers were particularly interesting in showing the actual use of the stamps, the cancellations employed, and various other features to be gleaned from the study of original covers, particularly of early date. Selections for illustrative purposes were made from all three collections, as will be noted.

Mr. John N. Morse and Mr. Edwin F. Sawyer, both of Boston, have very kindly placed their collections of post cards and envelopes, respectively, at our disposal for purposes of study.

Again, the philatelic press has been diligently searched for articles, stray notes, etc., which would illumine the pathway, particularly by throwing side lights on various phases of the subject. Prominent among these were the articles on Canada by Messrs. C. B. Corwin, D. A. King and J. R. Hooper in the Metropolitan Philatelist for 1890-91, and by Mr. Donald A. King in Stanley Gibbons' Monthly Journal for 1896-97.

It can readily be seen from the foregoing that the limits of a handbook were soon passed, and the question really became one of a pretentious volume which should be all that thorough research could offer and ample means produce. A glance at the present work shows that this was no small proposition, and to any one with experience in philatelic publishing it was apparent that the desired production would mean a heavy balance on the wrong side of the ledger. The author does not pose as a philanthropist, but he feels he has discovered such in the publishers of this volume. With the broad-minded policy that whatever helps Philately benefits all, even indirectly, the New England Stamp Company of Boston, having become greatly interested in the monograph, accepted the burden and became responsible for the publication of the work. The advantages of the co-operation of such a well-known firm are manifest, and the author takes great pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to this Company, through whose munificence it has been possible to produce this volume in its present form.

C. A. HOWES, B. Sc., F. R. P. S. L.

Boston, U. S. A.
December, 1910.

[Pg 11]

INTRODUCTION

The Dominion of Canada, as we know it to-day, is a confederation of the former British Colonies and unorganized territories of North America which lie to the northward of the United States. The single exception is the Colony of Newfoundland, which so far has resisted all overtures looking to its absorption. The Dominion was formed in 1867 by the union of the then Colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to which the others were added subsequently. At that time the Colony of Canada consisted of two provinces, Ontario and Quebec, known also as Upper and Lower Canada respectively. It is with these two provinces that our philatelic story of Canada begins.

But first let us delve a bit into earlier times and trace the development of the territory we are going to consider, as it may prove interesting for its historical value. Passing by the claims of the Norsemen in the tenth century to a somewhat vague exploration of the eastern American coast, we come to the discovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot in 1497, and it is upon this fact, in part, that England subsequently based her claim to the whole of North America. But for the most part the territory included within the well populated portion of the present Dominion was explored and settled by the French. In 1534 Jacques Cartier entered the St. Lawrence River and took possession of the country in the name of France, and in 1608 the first permanent settlement was made at Quebec by Samuel de Champlain. The name of the colony was apparently furnished by the Indians, for in the manuscript narrative of Cartier's second voyage,[1] under "Vocabulary of the natives," is found: "They call a town—Canada." Baxter says: "There can be no doubt that the word Canada is derived from Kannata, which in Iroquois signifies a collection of dwellings, in other words a settlement."[2] French control continued until the middle of the eighteenth century when, in the war with England, the decisive victory of Wolfe over Montcalm at Quebec, in 1759, practically brought it to a close, and by the treaty of Paris in 1763 Canada was permanently ceded to Great Britain.

[Pg 12]Tracing the development of the Colony under English rule, we find that by the so-called "Quebec Act" of 1774 it was placed under the administration of a Governor and Legislative Council appointed by the Crown. Following the American Revolution, however, there was a large immigration of former colonists into Ontario, and because of their English stock, while Quebec was French, a separation was deemed advisable. By the "Constitutional Act" of 1791 this was effected and two Colonies, Upper Canada (or Canada West) and Lower Canada (or Canada East) were constituted, each with its own separate government. Just fifty years later, in 1841, they were reunited under the single name of Canada. This brings us near the opening of our philatelic history. The united provinces had an area of about 350,000 square miles and a population, in 1850, of some 1,800,000 people. The Governor was appointed by the Crown and chose his own Executive Council; a Legislative Council of life members was also appointed by the Crown; and a Legislative Assembly was elected consisting of an equal number of representatives for each province. The Governor was made Governor-General of British North America.

The advantages of the union of Upper and Lower Canada gradually became so manifest, that a convention was held at Quebec in 1864 for the purpose of considering the advisability of uniting all the provinces. The result bore fruit in the passage of an Act of Union by the British Parliament on March 29, 1867, under which Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were formally united as the Dominion of Canada, the actual event being consummated on July 1, 1867. Subsequently, on July 20, 1871, the Colony of British Columbia, and on July 1, 1873, the Colony of Prince Edward Island, were added to the Dominion. In 1869 the vast territories of the Hudson's Bay Company were acquired by purchase, and out of them the province of Manitoba was formed and admitted to full privileges in the Dominion on July 15, 1870.

The absorption of the Company's Territories is interesting for, as we all know, this was a trading concern whose sole commodity was fur. The Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the continent were the mecca of hunters and trappers, and their chief prey from the time the first French explorers began to search the Canadian lakes, and later when the Hudson's Bay Company succeeded to the French domain, was the beaver. In fact the early history of Canada was largely bound up with beaver catching and the sale of the skins, and for nearly a century the northern territories, both under French[Pg 13] and English rule, were organized with a view to this traffic. In the early days of the Company the "standard of trade" of the Northwest was a beaver skin. Thus the beaver naturally became emblematic, which resulted later in its use as the "crest" of the Canadian coat-of-arms, a place that it retains to the present day over those of the Dominion. In this connection it would be unjust to omit a mention of that other symbol dear to the Canadian heart—the maple leaf. Like the rose, the thistle and the shamrock of the Mother land, the beautiful tree of the Colony, so widespread, so useful, and so gorgeous in its autumn coloring of red and gold—the blazon of the English arms—became a favorite emblem of the people. The particular variety that is so used is of course the rock or sugar maple (acer saccharinum).

Turning now to early postal history, it is necessary to go back to the reign of Queen Anne, although Canada was not then under British dominion. In the year 1710 an Act was passed by the British Parliament "For establishing a General Post-Office in all Her Majesty's Dominions," which not only repealed all previous enactments but placed the postoffice establishment on a new basis. A "General Post and Letter-Office" was established in London "from whence all letters and packets whatsoever may be with speed and expedition sent into any part of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to North America and the West Indies, or any other of Her Majesty's dominions, or any country or kingdom beyond the seas," and "at which office all returns and answers may be likewise received." For the better "managing, ordering, collecting, and improving the revenue," and also for the better "computing and settling the rates of letters according to distance, a chief office is established in Edinburgh, one in Dublin, one at New York, and other chief offices in convenient places in Her Majesty's colonies of America, and one in the islands of the West Indies, called the Leeward Islands." "The whole of these chief offices shall be under the control of an officer who shall be appointed by the Queen's Majesty, her heirs and successors, to be made and constituted by letters patent under the Great Seal, by the name and stile of Her Majesty's Postmaster-General." "The Postmaster-General shall appoint deputies for the chief offices in the places named above." The rates to New York under this Act were fixed at 1 shilling per single letter. Other rates were charged to other parts of the American continent according to the distance from New York.

In 1753 Benjamin Franklin received the royal commission as Deputy Postmaster-General for the American Colonies. No man in America had[Pg 14] been so identified with the interests of the Colonial postoffice as he, and from 1737 he had been postmaster of Philadelphia. All his energies were devoted to his new work and when Canada passed by treaty to Great Britain in 1763, as already mentioned, his jurisdiction was extended to cover the new territory. It is thus curious to record that the (afterwards) first Postmaster-General of the United States was also the first Postmaster-General of Canada.

In the evidence given by Franklin before the House of Commons in the year 1766, in regard to the extent of the post-office accommodation in North America, he made the following statement:—

By 1774, however, Franklin, then in England as the Representative of the Colonies, had become obnoxious to the British Government, and on January 31st of that year was removed from his office. After the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Hugh Finlay, who had previously been postmaster at Quebec, received the appointment of "Deputy Postmaster-General of His Majesty's Province of Canada." He had in 1791 eleven post-offices under his management, one as far west as Mackinaw and one as far east as the Baie des Chaleurs. There was a weekly mail between Quebec and Montreal and a monthly mail for the Western country. From a Quebec almanac of 1796 it appears that there were seven post-offices in Upper Canada and five in Lower Canada. At that time mails were despatched monthly to England, and semi-weekly between Quebec and Montreal, or Halifax. At the Baie des Chaleurs the visits of the postman must have been few and far between, as they were only favored with a mail "as occasion offered."

In 1800 Mr. George Heriot succeeded Mr. Finlay. At this time New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were all under the authority of the Canadian administration. The number of post-offices was increased to twenty-six.

The following is taken from the advertising column of the Upper Canada Gazette in 1807:—

W. ALLAN,
Acting Deputy-Postmaster.

Mr. Heriot resigned in 1816 and was succeeded by Mr. Daniel Sutherland who, on his accession to office found Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island withdrawn from Canadian charge. New Brunswick, however, continued to be included, but appears to have been withdrawn in 1824, so that from that year until the federation of the Provinces in 1867 the Postmaster-General was concerned only with Canada proper. Mr. Sutherland established a daily mail between Quebec and Montreal and a weekly mail between Montreal and Toronto. In 1827 there were 101 post-offices and 2,368 miles of established post-route, the number of miles of mail-travel being 455,000 per annum. The letters that year were estimated at 340,000 and the newspapers at 400,000.

The following extract from the Quebec Mercury, published on July 18, 1829, conveys some idea of the postal communication with England at that period:—

In the Montreal Courant, dated September 2nd, 1829, was the following paragraph, showing the improvement which had been effected in the communication between Prescott and that city:—

[Pg 16]

Even so late as 1833, newspaper proprietors found it (particularly in the Upper Province) better to employ their own couriers. As a proof of this we transcribe from the Queenstown (Niagara) Colonial Advocate of that year, the following advertisement:—

Mr. Thos. A. Stayner succeeded Mr. Sutherland in 1831, at which time there were 151 post-offices. Through Mr. Stayner's recommendation a uniform rate of 1s. 2d. sterling, per half ounce, was adopted in 1841 between any place in Canada and the mother country. This resulted from the establishment of regular steam communication across the Atlantic in 1840, by means of the Cunard Line between Liverpool and Halifax.

During all this period the carrying of letters was a profitable business. There was, for example, a profit of $21,000 in 1824 and of $47,000 in 1831, all which sums were duly remitted to England to swell the Imperial revenue. The rates, however, were exceedingly high. It cost eighteen cents to send a letter from Toronto to Kingston, and thirty cents to send one to Montreal. The charge for sending a weekly paper through the mails was a dollar a year, as much as the paper now costs, and the postage on a daily was over two dollars a year.[3]

The net revenues of the post-office given for 1831 must have dropped considerably, for we find that in 1845 the surplus of the Canadian Post-office was but £7184 ($35,000) against the $47,000 given above for fourteen years earlier. This amount rose to £22,188 ($110,000) in 1848, fell to £15,725 ($78,500) the next year, and had risen again to a basis of £20,000 ($100,000) in the year previous to the introduction of postage stamps and the reduction of rates. The inland postage rates then in force, as charged under the Imperial Laws, were, for a letter not exceeding ½ ounce in weight:

[Pg 17]

For one hundred and forty years Great Britain had managed her colonial posts, or at least directed them, when on 28th July, 1849, the British Parliament passed an "Act for enabling Colonial Legislatures to establish Inland Posts."[4] This was the signal for the voluntary withdrawal of most of the colonial postal systems then under Imperial direction, and for the establishment of local systems where none had previously existed. Because of its historical interest we quote from the provisions of the Act as follows:—

Canada lost no time in taking advantage of the above Act, and in the next year (1850) passed the required ordinances for the transfer of its domestic postal system to the control of its own Government. The next chapter will therefore start the Canadian postal history proper.

[Pg 18]

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY MATTERS

The most important of the British North American Colonies in 1850 were Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Though not united politically, they yet had the common bonds of fatherland, of race, of mercantile interest, and the mutual dependence that comes, or should come, from propinquity under these conditions. It is not surprising, therefore, that all three should make provision for assuming control of their domestic postal systems in the same year, nor that they should adopt practically identical ordinances for this purpose, and should make common postal rates for their internal and inter-colonial mail matter. Still less surprising is it when we recall that it was but the breaking up into sections of what had previously been a homogeneous postal system for the whole of British North America, operated under the Imperial Laws as detailed in the last chapter.

While the project of turning over local postal systems to the colonies was taking shape in the British Parliament, Canada "took time by the forelock" and made preparations for obtaining its own postage stamps.

A year later, after the passage of the enabling act by the British Parliament, which has been already quoted, the Canadian Parliament took up the consideration of the main subject and on the 10th August, 1850, passed what is known briefly as The Post Office Act, the provisions of which that are of most interest to us being such as follow:[Pg 19]—

The passage of the above Act and its approval by the Queen in Council gave opportunity for preparations to be made to carry out its provisions, the date being set for the 6th April, 1851. Three weeks previous to the appointed time the following notice was sent out to postmasters in anticipation of the transfer.

T. A. STAYNER.
Deputy Post Master General.

[Pg 24]

Meanwhile, under the authority given the Governor in Council by The Post Office Act, an agreement had been drawn up between the post office Departments of Canada and the United States for the purpose of establishing and regulating the interchange of mails between the two countries. This was signed on the 25th March, 1851, and was communicated to the Canadian post-masters by the first department order, as follows:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
TORONTO, 2nd April, 1851.

By Command,
W. H. GRIFFIN.

Both the Post Office Act and the above Department Order treat of the disposition of periodicals and other printed matter without giving the rates of postage required thereon. A subsequent Order gives us these rates:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
TORONTO. 17th April, 1851.

JAMES MORRIS. Post Master General.

It is of course understood that the above does not apply to newspapers, which were charged to a nominal rate of ½d. each, the term newspaper being considered to aply to periodicals issued not less often than once a week.

A supplementary order was issued, a couple of days later than the preceding, which announces a book post with England. It is a bit curious as prohibiting the use of postage stamps in prepayment of the charges, at a time when their introduction was supposed to be an improvement in the postal service.

[Pg 27]

The Department Circular No. 5, published from Toronto on 20th June, 1851, contains but one paragraph of interest to us.

On the 30th August, 1851, the Canadian Parliament passed an Act to Amend the Post Office Act. The only section of any particular interest to us is the following:—

But in the meantime the postage stamps, which will now be our main study, were issued to the public, and we will therefore turn back to the period of their birth and trace their history, together with the development of the post that accompanies it, through the nearly sixty years that have since elapsed.

[Pg 28]

CHAPTER II

THE ISSUE OF 1851

According to all good catalogues, the date of the first issue of stamps for Canada is the year 1851. If we find some more precise statement put forth in a special article on the subject, the date is apt to be given as the 6th April, 1851. If we go back into the dusty archives of the Canadian Post Office Department, we find the circular announcing the forthcoming stamps is dated a fortnight later than the hitherto supposed correct date for their issue. We reproduce it here in its entirety:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
TORONTO, 21st April, 1851.

J. MORRIS, Post Master General.

From the above it is plainly evident that the new stamps were not placed in use on April 6th, the day of the transfer of the Post Office to Provincial control, as is usually stated. Furthermore, as this order announcing them states that the stamps are "about to be issued," it is evident that they did not appear concurrently with the order, which is dated April 21st.[7] As a matter of fact the first supply of the 3 pence stamps was only received by the Department from the manufacturers on April 5th, the day before the transfer, and the second supply on April 20th, the day before the above circular was issued; while the 6 pence and 12 pence stamps did not arrive until May 2nd and May 4th, respectively.[8] In a letter to Mr. Donald A. King,[9] dated 2d March, 1904, from Mr. William Smith, Secretary of the Department at Ottawa, the latter states "that postage stamps were issued to the public for the first time on 23rd April, 1851." This agrees with the other known facts, and can doubtless be taken as the correct date for the 3d. stamp. The 6d. stamp we have no further details for, but it was doubtless in use by the middle of May. For the 12d. stamp we have, fortunately, all the details, as will appear subsequently, and can give the exact date of issue as June 14, 1851.

At the time of the transfer, the Postmaster General issued a lengthy set of Regulations and Instructions for the Government of the Post Office Department in Canada, and it is perhaps best to reproduce here such sections as may prove of interest in connection with the use of the stamps, various rates of postage, etc., etc.

It strikes one as curious, in glancing over the above, to note the several half penny and one penny rates, as well as two at 7½ pence, and to realize that no stamp of the lowest value, at least, should have been arranged for whereby these amounts could have been prepaid by means of stamps. To be sure, the 7½d. rate could be obtained by halving a three penny stamp in conjunction with a 6d. stamp as was the common practice in Nova Scotia, but no such combination is known on a Canada cover.

Of the three stamps issued, the first and most typical of Canada was the 3d. which was designed, so Mr. C. N. Robertson of Ottawa tells us, by Sir Sanford Fleming, a civil engineer and draughtsman. The central feature is a representation of the beaver in its native haunts, above which is the royal crown of England resting on a rose, thistle and shamrock, with the letters V and R (Victoria Regina) at either side. A reference to figure 6 on Plate I makes further description unnecessary. The normal color was a bright red.

A quite marked variety of this stamp occurs in what is generally known as a "double strike" or "shifted transfer." It is not due to accidental light contact of the sheet in printing, previous to the heavier impression in a slightly changed position, as is often suggested, but is a true plate variety, caused by a slight impression of the transfer roller in the wrong position on the plate previous to the heavy impression sunk in the proper position. This fact is shown by its being found in pairs and blocks with the normal stamp. It is recognized by the letters EE PEN being "doubled" at the top, making it appear as if a line had been drawn through the words and giving it the name, occasionally used of the "line through threepence" variety. The figure 3 also appears doubled at the bottom. Its position in the sheet has not been determined, but it occurs on all papers.

The 6d. stamp is in the usual upright form, containing a portrait of Albert, the Prince Consort. It has been impossible to trace the original of the picture, though diligent search has been made. The rose, thistle and shamrock again appear on the stamp, at either side of the oval frame and separating the inscriptions. Figure 1 of Plate I gives an excellent reproduction of this value. The normal color may be said to have been a slate violet.[Pg 33]

The 12d. stamp is very similar in design to the 6d. stamp, but contains a portrait of Queen Victoria. This beautiful head, so often seen upon the early British Colonial stamps, was taken from the full length painting by Alfred Edward Chalon, R. A., which was ordered by the Queen for her mother, the Duchess of Kent, as a souvenir of Her Majesty's first visit to the House of Lords. The occasion was the prorogation of Parliament, on July 17, 1837, and the Queen is portrayed in her robes of state, because of which fact the painting is sometimes described as "in Coronation Robes," but this is erroneous.[10] The stamp is illustrated as figure 2 on Plate I, and it will be noticed that the inscriptions in the oval frame are this time separated on either side by the royal crown. The color is black.

The peculiarity in the expression of the value of this stamp as "Twelve Pence" instead of "One Shilling," which would seem to be the natural form for such an amount in English money, was long a moot question amongst collectors. It was even suggested as an "error" of the American manufacturers of the stamp! But the controversy has been practically settled by reference to the monetary conditions of the period. A glance back at the rates of postage we have already quoted will show that it was generally necessary to give them in two forms, "currency" and "sterling." The somewhat depreciated Canadian currency required fifteen pence, as will be noted, to equal the shilling sterling—a point that is brought out on the two stamps issued subsequently for the British Packet rates. Add to this the fact that in New England the "shilling" was a current expression for 16⅔ cents (10 pence currency), while in New York it represented 12½ cents (7½ pence currency) and we can readily see that in Canadian territory contiguous to these sections the number of pence to a "shilling" might often be a debatable quantity. As a matter of fact the French Canadians of Lower Canada made general use of the "shilling" as reckoned at 10 pence (20 cents) in the old currency, while the "York shilling" was extensively used in Upper Canada.[11] "Twelve pence" was without doubt wholly intentional, therefore, as the designation of the stamp, and was a happy solution of any ambiguity in its use, even if it has proved a stumbling block to the understanding of latter day collectors.

An interesting essay for this stamp is in existence, being a companion for the 3 pence "beaver," inasmuch as the shape of the stamp and the central design are the same, though on a larger scale; the inscriptions, however, are[Pg 34] on an octagonal frame around the picture instead of an elliptical one, and the value is expressed as "one shilling," with "1s" in each spandrel. It was doubtless also a conception of Sir Sanford Fleming, the designer of the 3 pence, and it would be interesting to know what the companion 6 pence may have been.

The three issued stamps were ordered from and engraved on steel by Messrs. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson of New York, who, it will be interesting to note, were the engravers of the 1847 issue of United States stamps—a fact which very likely may have had its influence on the Canadian authorities. The stamps were printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten, and had eight marginal imprints, two on each side. The imprint reads, "Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, New York.", in minute letters of the size known as "diamond" in the printing office, and it is placed opposite the third and eighth stamps of the horizontal or vertical row, as the case may be, but always with the bottom of the imprint next the stamps. This causes the imprints to read up on the left, down on the right, and upside down on the bottom margins of the sheets.

We have found but one item in the departmental accounts for the fiscal year 1851-2 referring to the stamps. This reads:—

This was doubtless simply a bill for printing, as it is altogether too small an amount to account for the engraving of three stamp dies and the making of three printing plates.

The first delivery of the stamps from the manufacturers took place on April 5, 1851, according to a valuable summary from official records, published in the Metropolitan Philatelist,[12] when 100,000 of the 3 pence value were received by the Canadian Government. A second lot, numbering 150,200 of the 3 pence, arrived on April 20th. The 6 pence value followed on May 2nd, to the number of 100,400; and the 12 pence two days later, on May 4th, when the only consignment ever received from the printers, numbering 51,400, was delivered.

The paper on which the stamps were printed was a thin, tough, grayish white variety which we should probably call bond paper, but which at that time is said to have been known as bank note paper. It was doubtless handmade, and therefore varies considerably in thickness, the two extremes being usually listed as medium or ordinary, and very thin or almost pelure.[Pg 35]

It has been the custom to assume that the first deliveries of the stamps were probably all upon laid paper, which was borne out by dates on covers or postmarked specimens of the stamps used during the first year of issue. But by June of 1852, at least, according to Messrs. Corwin and King,[13] the stamps were beginning to appear on paper which was simply wove, without any trace of the laid lines, though in all other respects similar to the first supplies. Of course a minor detail of manufacture like this would have no official cognizance, so there is nothing for us to go by in determining the quantities printed on one or the other kind of paper, or the dates of issue, save for what can be gleaned from dated covers and deductions to be drawn from them. The two varieties of paper, however, have been as productive of controversy in the case of the 12 pence stamp as the peculiar expression of its value proved.

But before discussing this question, let us see what we have to work on. The first annual report of the Postmaster General, for the year ending 5th April, 1852, contains the following information concerning the new stamps:—

The succeeding annual reports of the Postmaster General, for the years[Pg 36] ending 31st March, 1853-6, give the following table of postage stamp statistics:—

Postage stamps issued for sale as follows:—

In this annual report of 31st March, 1856, is the last account of the 12d. stamp, from which it appears that none were issued to postmasters during the fiscal year. It does not mean that none were sold or used during that period, however, for with the increasing use of stamps this was quite probable. But it is evident from the tables given that the stamp was disbursed from headquarters in very limited quantities during the four years from 1851 to 1855 only; and we are quite fortunate in being able to give the exact details of this[Pg 37] distribution. An anonymous article was published in the Metropolitan Philatelist in 1902,[14] from which we have already quoted, that contained a "Valuable summary of the first issue of postage stamps used in this Colony." The statement is made that "it is taken from official records and is absolutely accurate." We quote here the information concerning the

CANADA ONE SHILLING POSTAGE STAMP.

DETAILS OF ISSUE.

From the above it is seen that Hamilton and Montreal each received a total of 300 copies, Toronto and Bytown each 200, Ingersoll 120, Chippewa and Smith's Falls each 100, and so on down.[Pg 38]

So much for the 12d. stamp. The tables of the Post Office reports tell us also that the issues of the 6d. stamp to postmasters for these same four years totalled 102,600, or only 2200 more than the original number delivered, the second delivery of the 6d. not having taken place until March 21, 1855,[16] at the end of the last fiscal year of the four. If, then, the entire first printings of the 6d. and 12d. stamps were on laid paper, as is usually claimed, there would be no such thing as a 12d. on wove paper, and the 6d. stamp in the same state would not be found used (provided proper postmark evidence were forthcoming) before the end of March, 1855. During the same period there were at least five deliveries of the 3d. stamp, so that several things may have happened to that value. But, curiously enough, it is the other two stamps that furnish us with our best evidence.

We now come literally to the "nigger in the wood-pile." The 12d. stamp does exist on the wove paper! Mr. Worthington and Mr. Pack each possess an unused copy, and careful examination by the writer has failed to disclose any appreciable difference in the color, quality or appearance of the paper, save for the impossibility of discovering the laid lines, between these copies and those possessing proper credentials as the regular laid paper 12d. of 1851. The color of the stamp and its general appearance give no hint of the supposed irregularity, and a letter to Mr. Worthington from the well known expert, Mr. John N. Luff, gives his approval to the specimen in Mr. Worthington's collection. It was formerly considered that the supposed 12d. on wove paper was merely a proof, and in the "Catalogue for Advanced Collectors" we find the following note concerning it under Canada.[17]

As far as the writer has seen them, specimen copies have been on India paper, which is quite distinct from the regular paper of the issue, and they have been overprinted with the word "SPECIMEN" in carmine ink, either diagonally or vertically upward. The copies referred to in the paragraph just quoted probably had been treated with chemicals to remove the red ink overprint.

Of course the desideratum for the settlement of the whole question is to[Pg 39] find a copy of the stamp used on cover; but inasmuch as up to the present time but three copies of the 12d. on laid paper are known in this condition, it seems a hopeless quest. Nevertheless there appear to be several used copies of the wove paper 12d. known, the first mention we find of one being in the report of the proceedings of the Philatelic Society of London for 4th May, 1888,[18] which reads: "The business of the evening consisted in the revision of the Society's reference list of the Stamps of Canada, which was concluded, Mr. F. Ransom showing an undoubted postmarked specimen of the 12d. first issue, printed upon stout wove paper." Mr. W. H. Brouse, the eminent Canadian philatelist, also possessed a cancelled copy of this stamp, which later adorned the Ayer collection, it is understood. An editorial in the Dominion Philatelist thus speaks of it:[19]—"We have received from W. H. Brouse, of Toronto, a photograph of ... 12 pence Canada on wove paper [which] appears to be a beautiful specimen with fine margin and light cancellation." Two fine copies, one unused and one used, were sold in the auction of the Mirabaud collection at Paris, in April, 1909.

From the above it is plainly evident that the 12d. on wove paper properly exists, in spite of the "first [and only] printing on laid paper" theory, which is usually laid down as an a priori consideration. Also it appears that it is found in a used condition, though this cannot be taken as an absolute test, because of the uncertainty that may lurk in a cancellation on a detached specimen of a stamp. Only the discovery of a copy properly used on the original cover, as already intimated, can effectually settle the question of its actual issue and use. But there is a fact which doubtless furnishes the clue to the seeming mystery of its being. We have already noted that the laid paper first used varied considerably in thickness, and also that the wove paper next used was in all respects similar to the former, but of course without the laid lines. Now it happens sometimes that it is quite difficult to distinguish the laid paper, a very careful scrutiny or even the extreme resort to the benzine cup being necessary to bring out the watermarked lines, and perhaps then only in a half suspicious way. If such be the case, it is only a step further to the entire disappearance of these "laid lines," and lo, the wove paper!

Writing to Mr. F. C. Young concerning the 12d. stamp, Mr. John N. Luff says:[20]—"It is my opinion that both the wove and laid papers are quite[Pg 40] genuine and I think it is possible that both varieties might occur though there was only one lot sent out by the printers. It does not, of course, follow that the entire batch was printed on the same day or that two varieties of paper might not have been used. The early printers were not always very particular about their paper, provided it was somewhat alike in a general way. Some collectors claim that laid paper is often of such nature that the lines do not show in some parts of the sheet, and I believe there is evidence to support this theory." Finally Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack, in some notes sent the London Philatelist, sums matters up in these words:[21]—"After a very careful investigation I believe that the 12d., on wove paper, was issued, and that the stamp was on sale at the Post Office, in Hamilton, Canada West." Mr. Pack writes us further:—"When I was a boy I went to school at St. Catherines, Ontario. There were keen stamp collectors in St. Catherines at that time, not only among boys, but among grown people. That was about 1869 or 1870. I was told that part of the 12d. Canada which had been on sale at the Hamilton post office were on wove paper and I was convinced that that was the case."

Concerning the laid and wove papers of this issue Mr. King writes as follows:[22]—"The texture of these papers is virtually the same, and it is indeed often difficult, particularly in the case of the 6d., to distinguish between the laid and wove papers. The lines in the laid paper are of a most peculiar character, and cannot, as a rule, be brought fairly out by holding the stamp between one's eyes and the light. The best way to test these two papers is to lay the stamps, face down, on a black surface, and let the light strike them at about an angle of fifteen degrees, when the laid lines are brought most plainly into view. It is necessary, however, to place the specimens so that the light will strike them parallel to their length, as the laid lines run horizontally in the 3d., and vertically in the 6d. and 12d."

We now come to the most interesting and confirmatory part of our evidence. We have already referred to the fact that Messrs. Corwin & King give June, 1852, as the date when the wove paper appeared, and 1852 is given in all catalogues and lists as the year of issue for all three stamps on this paper. In their article on British North America, the above gentlemen, in discussing early dates established by entire covers for the varieties of paper that they describe, remark under the caption "Series IV." (the thin wove paper): "We took a six-pence from a letter dated June 25th, 1852."[23] This statement can[Pg 41] hardly be questioned, after the careful and minute study that they gave to the papers of this issue, and it therefore means just one thing: the 6d. on wove paper came in the first lot delivered, for we have seen that the second supply did not arrive until 1855. The fact is therefore established that the first deliveries of stamps in April and May, 1851, included the wove paper, and we therefore have here what amounts to the proper credentials for the appearance and even use of the 12d. on wove paper.

As the 3d., having been delivered first, was undoubtedly printed first, this value may have been entirely upon the laid paper, particularly as it seems to be not especially rare on this paper and has not been recorded on wove paper used earlier than the receipt of the 1852 supplies. But this of course is negative evidence, and this value may yet be found to have been printed upon the wove paper along with the other two values in 1851.

We have remarked that there were but three covers known bearing copies of the 12d. stamp. It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that we are able to present reproductions of two of them for the benefit of our readers. The earliest date is on the cover numbered 90 on Plate VI, which is in the Worthington collection. This bears the postmark of "Montreal, L. C. JY 21, 1852" in red. The stamp is a little heavily cancelled by the concentric rings type of obliteration in black. The word CANADA within the curved frame and the word PAID are stamped in red on the cover. This was a requirement of the first postal convention between Canada and the United States, signed on March 25, 1851. Section 9 reads:—

The other two covers were both the property of the late John F. Seybold, but the one upon which the stamp appears in finest condition now ornaments the collection of Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack. This is illustrated as No. 91 on Plate VI and bears the postmark of "Hamilton, C. W. NO 23, 1853." The stamp is cancelled with the concentric rings in blue, and an additional handstamp appears in red reading "CANADA—PAID 20 Cts" in two lines. The "20" is made over from "10" by the use of a pen in changing the first figure. In[Pg 42] this connection it will be remembered that 6d. currency, equal to 10 cents, was the single rate for ½oz. letters between Canada and the United States.[24]

The third cover is in all respects a companion piece of the second, bearing the same marks and (probably) the same address originally, but dated from Hamilton on "DE 8, 1853."

All three of these covers show the particular use of the 12d. stamp—simply as a multiple of the 3d. and 6d. in currency rates. That it was not issued with any intention of being especially used for the British packet rate must be evident, as we have seen that this was 1s. 4d. currency if prepaid and sent via the United States, or 1s. 1½d. currency if prepaid and sent via Halifax[25]—rates that could not be made up by means of the three stamps first issued.

On the other hand the stamp was quadruple the domestic rate, double the rate to the United States, and the single rate for the fortnightly mails from Montreal viâ Boston to Newfoundland, Bermuda and the British West Indies.[26] Probably letters in the first category were not common, and, as it happens, all our specimens fall in the second. The third category doubtless did not entail a large correspondence, particularly as the more direct route to the places mentioned, viâ Quebec and Halifax, was at the lesser rate of 7½d.[27] For the above reasons, then, the covers as we find them evidently exemplify the usual use to which the 12d. stamp was put, and explain why more were not used, as surely would have been the case had the stamp been convenient for prepaying the packet rate to England, with which there was a large correspondence.

Having now described the two main varieties of paper common to the three values of this issue, let us look at some further varieties of the stock used for the 3d. and 6d. values, which, because of their long term of use, were subject to quite a number of printings and therefore gave opportunity for the variation in paper which is a characteristic of this issue. We have already given the statistics of the receipt and issue of 3d. and 6d. stamps for the five years from 1851 to 1856,[28] and find they total 1,600,500 for the 3d. and 150,400 for the 6d. From succeeding reports of the Postmaster General we cull the following:—

[Pg 43]

On July 1, 1859 the stamps in decimal currency were issued, so the above remainders represent the last of the 3d. and 6d. stamps. Adding the receipts from the manufacturers in the above tables, therefore, to the totals already given for the years 1851-6, and then deducting the remainders (which were later destroyed), we have for the total issue of the 3d. stamp 3,528,700, and of the 6d. stamp 402,900. In these figures are of course included the perforated stamps, which we will consider later.

It will be seen from the tables that there were at least eight deliveries of the 3d. stamps and at least six deliveries of the 6d. stamps, but inasmuch as these are totalled by years, and as some of the amounts are quite large (e. g. 900,000 of the 3d. in 1858), it seems certain that there were even more deliveries and consequently more printings of the stamps than is indicated. In no other way can we account for the variety in the paper used, and also[Pg 44] the variety in the color of the 6d. stamp. The 3d. does not vary so much, probably because its shade of red did not require much mixing of inks and the ingredients were such that slight variations in the proportions did not greatly affect the tone. The normal color being a bright red, we find it running to a deeper, almost brick red in one direction, and to a vermilion in the other. As to the normal color of the 6d. it would be almost impossible to hazard a guess, if we had simply a series of one stamp of each distinct variation in color or shade in which it is found. The common run of shades is from a slate violet to a slate or "near black" with a "cast" of violet, of brown, or even green. What can one do in trying to describe the "color" of such a chameleon stamp with such an uncertain basis to work upon? The check list gives the nearest approximation to the various shades that we have been able to translate into color names, but it is almost impossible to so describe some of them as to convey the proper idea of the exact shade to the reader.

For papers used, Mr. King describes no less than fourteen.[30] Four of these are the two grades of the laid and wove "bank-note" paper already mentioned. A third variety of laid paper is described by him as entirely different, being a stout white paper in which "the laid lines are most distinct, while the paper is of a different texture and color from the regular grey shade." Mr. Pack states: "This paper is very rare, and I have never seen but very few copies."[31] Mr. King's sixth variety is described as "hard, stout, grayish wove," but we have included it with the ordinary wove paper in the check list, of which it is but a little heavier manifestation. The same may be said of his varieties XII and XIII, described as "medium" and "thick, hard, white wove paper, very slightly ribbed," respectively, which we have classed under "stout, hard, white wove paper." There is an extreme case in the 6d. stamp, which comes on a very thick hard paper, concerning which Mr. Pack says:—"The unused 6d. on very thick, hard paper is one of the greatest rarities of Canada. It is as rare as the 12d. unused. Curiously enough, this stamp in used condition is very rare in a pair or strip. So far as I know there are only two or three strips or pairs in existence. It is my understanding that the very thick hard paper stamps were printed previous to those on the soft paper." The last remark refers to the very thick, soft paper, almost a card board (Mr. King's variety XIV) which is now well known as an exceedingly rare variety. It is distinct, both in paper and[Pg 45] color, from any other variety of the 6d. stamp, the shade being a dull purple. The same may be said of the thick hard paper stamp, which appears to be in a very even shade of slate violet.

Mr. King's varieties X and XI are both peculiar, the former being a "very soft, thin, cream wove which is quite fragile and will not bear much handling," and the latter a "soft, thick, coarse white wove paper; the surface presents a sort of hairy appearance, and the quality is better than series X." The 3d. is the only value occurring in these two varieties, which we have placed under "soft white wove paper" in the check list.

Lastly comes the ribbed paper. The first variety is a very soft, thin paper on which the 3d. appears. This is Mr. King's variety VII, and he makes a variety VIII of the same paper in a "cream" tone. The same value comes on a thicker, hard paper, Mr. King's variety IX, and he lists a 6d. in violet black as well.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the first issue of Canadian stamps furnishes plenty of material for study, and is an extremely difficult series to work out and put into proper form for a reference list. Mr. King truly says:—"If the papers and shades of this series of stamps are thoroughly studied, there are more varieties than in all the other British North American stamps put together; in many cases they are minute, in others more decided, but in every case distinct." Some criticism may be made of our not using in extenso, the excellent "Reference List"[32] prepared by Messrs. King and Corwin, but it has seemed wise, in working with the specialized collections already alluded to, to condense this list to some extent; nor do we think its correctness and usefulness have been impaired thereby.

We have spoken of the three values of stamps already treated as the "first issue" of Canada. Some may cavil at this, for there are three more values belonging to the pence series which may be regarded as part of the "first issue," inasmuch as they were complementary as well as supplementary to the original three. But they did not appear until nearly four or more years later, and therefore escaped the laid paper varieties. For this reason, and because there appears another important question to solve in connection with two of them, we have reserved a separate chapter for these three. We may also say that as one of them appears in the perforated series of pence values we have left the consideration of these latter stamps until the next following chapter.

[Pg 46]

CHAPTER III

THE REMAINING PENCE ISSUES

A resume of the chief happenings of the year and other items of interest is given in the annual reports of the Postmasters General, and a brief summary of these first few years will not be without its importance here. It will be recalled that the Provincial Government took over the control of its posts on the 6th April, 1851, and by the Act to Amend The Post Office Act, passed 30th August, 1851,[33] the Postmaster General was required by statute to "report to the Governor General of the Province annually, for the purpose of being laid before Parliament at each Session, First. A report of Finances, Receipts and Expenditure of the Post Office Department for the year ending on the fifth day of April previous," etc., etc. Accordingly the first annual report of the Postmaster General was rendered on the 5th April, 1852. In it we find the following information:—

The gross receipts of the Department for the year under review are given as £71,788 18s. 5d. currency, a drop of over £20,000 from the previous year; but this is a good showing after all, for when it is remembered that the new uniform rate of postage was but one third the former average rate, it is readily figured out that correspondence nearly doubled under the new tariffs. This is confirmed by the following comparative statement of pieces mailed:—

One week preceding 5th April, 1851, No. of letters, 41,000; papers, 90,000.

One week preceding 5th April, 1852, No. of letters, 86,051[34]; papers, 101,000.

There were 243 new post offices added during the year and 1023 miles of post routes.

"An agreement was concluded with the Post Master General of the United States, which has continued in satisfactory operation since April, 1851, under which letters pass between any place in Canada, and any place in the United States, at a Postage rate of 6d. currency, per half oz., except to and from California and Oregon, when, the distance being over 3,000 miles, the rate is 9d. per half oz. Letters are posted on either side, paid or unpaid, at the option of the sender."

The total correspondence passing between the two countries is given as having a postage rating of $85,636.97.

The second annual report of the Postmaster General is dated the 31st March, 1853, and contains little of interest but statistics. 176 new post offices were established and 504 miles of new post routes added. The gross revenue of the Department for the fiscal year is given as £84,866.6.11½. and the total postage on the correspondence passing between Canada and the United States was $104,966.40.[Pg 48]

The third report, of 31st March, 1854, speaks of a large reduction in the postal charges upon newspapers circulating within the Province and on certain classes of periodical prints, which took place on Feb. 1, 1854, but gives no further details. Concerning the British packet postage, however, the report says:—

Further on are the following recommendations:—

And again:—

Perhaps the most pregnant remark is one short statement:—"The use of stamps has materially increased"; for it will be remembered that the first annual report of the Postmaster General was pessimistic with regard to the employment of stamps, fearing that their use was diminishing.

The accounts accompanying the report contain but one item concerning stamps:—

Rawdon, Wright & Co., Postage Stamps furnished Post Office
Department                                        £12.11.3

This amount was of course only for printing supplies, evidently for the 250,000 3d. stamps received during the fiscal year.[Pg 49]

In the fourth report, of 31st March, 1855, there are several items of interest. The lowering of the British packet rates proved a popular step, naturally, and the report states that "Notwithstanding the important reduction granted by the Imperial Government in the postage rate between this country and the United Kingdom in March, 1854," the results were as follows:—

British Packet Postage collected in Canada in year ending 31 March, 1855 (postage rate 8d. sterling) £16,449.14.3½.

British Packet Postage collected in Canada in year ending 31 March, 1854 (postage rate 1s. 2d. sterling) £17,495.1.4½. which was a drop of but six per cent. in receipts upon a reduction of over forty per cent. in the postal charge.

Again:—

The suggestions contained in the report for 1854 concerning the franking of official mail matter, and the payment of a fixed annual sum to the Post Office Department on this account, were acted upon, and the report states:—

The Act referred to was doubtless the following:—

There is a bit of conflict here. The "enactment clause" of the above Act makes it operative unequivocally on July 1, 1855. Yet the Postmaster General's report, just quoted, which is supposed to be for the fiscal year ending 31st March, 1855, distinctly states that the provisions of the above Act came into effect "in July last," which would seem to be July, 1854. The Act itself is not in error, so the discrepancy must lie in the Postmaster General's report. Probably the report was written much later in the year than March 31st, as it was not presented to Parliament until the fall session, and therefore gave opportunity to refer back to happenings in July.

The growth of the Department during the first four years under Provincial control is illustrated by the following table:—

[Pg 51]

The number of post offices had more than doubled; the length of the post routes had increased by fifty per cent; and although the revenue had dropped one quarter during the first year, owing to the reduction in postage rates, it had increased by half in the next three years; while the total correspondence between Canada and the United States had increased by two thirds in the same three years.

But the item that interests us particularly in this report reads:—

Thus part of the recommendation contained in the report for the preceding year was carried out.

In the accounts for the fiscal year we find the following entries:—

From this it would appear that the bill for engraving ("making") the new 10d. stamp was paid in the third quarter of the fiscal year, corresponding to the last quarter of 1854. According to the table of receipts from manufacturers in the "summary" already quoted,[35] the 10d. stamp was first received by the Post Office Department on Jan. 2, 1855. In Mr. King's "Reference List,"[36] however, the date "Dec. 5, 1854" is given as being "taken from used stamps on the original covers," but this must certainly be a mistake. The "summary" also gives the quantities issued to postmasters by quarters, and there were none issued (naturally) in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 1854. In the next quarter, ending Mar. 31, 1855, there were 16,200 issued to postmasters, so that the first issue probably took place soon after receipt, that is, in January, 1855. The total number received from the manufacturers in this first delivery was 100,080.

The plate for this stamp is stated to have been made up for printing sheets of 100 impressions in ten rows of ten, like the three values of 1851, and also to have had the eight marginal imprints. But there are reasons for[Pg 52] thinking it may have been made to print 120 impressions, ten rows of twelve each, concerning which more will be said later. Suffice it to remark here that the number delivered (100,080) is exactly divisible by 120, making 834 full sheets, which is not the case if 100 is used. The normal color of the stamp is a very deep blue.

The design of the new 10d., illustrated as No. 3 on Plate I, corresponds in general style to the 6d. and 12d. of 1851, but the portrait in the central oval is of Jacques Cartier, the explorer and founder of Canada. There has been some discussion over the identity of the original, it having been claimed that the subject was Sebastian Cabot, the discoverer, just as the portrait on the 6d. stamp has been assigned to Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Canada from 1846 to 1854.[37] Unfortunately no circular announcing the issue of the stamp has come to hand, and, as seen from the quotation already given, the report of the Postmaster General does not give us the information. It is nevertheless a fact that the portrait represents Cartier, the original being a three-quarter length painting in the Hotel de Ville at St. Malo, France, the birthplace of Cartier. The inscriptions in the oval frame are in this case separated by a small picture of the beaver at the right, and three maple leaves at the left. The value is expressed as TEN PENCE, with the numerals "10" in the lower spandrels, followed by the letters "cy" for "currency." In the upper spandrels is the corresponding value in sterling money, expressed as "8d stg". The relation between sterling and currency values and their equivalents in the decimal coinage of the United States was fixed by law, and the matter seems important enough to reproduce the statute here.

Further supplies of the 10d. stamp were not needed for three years, the next lot, numbering 72,120, having been delivered during the year ending 30th Sept., 1858, according to the table of stamp statistics. These two lots were the only ones delivered, and the balance on hand when the decimal stamps appeared being 31,200, we find a total issue for the 10d. stamp of 141,000.

Puzzling questions seem to be the rule with this first series of Canadian stamps, and the 10d. is no exception. The stamp occurs, to all appearances, in at least two sizes, one of which has been termed the "wide oval" and the other the "narrow oval." These are well brought out by illustrations Nos. 70 (wide) and 71 (narrow) on Plate IV. Very likely the peculiarity was noticed much earlier, but it seems to have been brought to the attention of collectors generally for the first time by Mr. W. H. Brouse, in a paper read before the London Philatelic Society on Feb. 3, 1894.[38] We quote this entire:—

• First (a) the long and narrow;
• Second (b) the long and broad: and
• Third (c) the short and broad.

[Pg 55]

This may have been the first record of the peculiarity in the case of the Canadian stamps, but it was at least not the first time that variation in the dimensions of certain line engraved stamps, supposed to have been produced from the same original die, had been noted and discussed. We refer to the case of the early Ceylon stamps, which furnished food for contention in the philatelic press for many years. The first mention of a difference in the length of these seems to have been in December, 1864.[39] Ten years later the reference list of Ceylon prepared by the London Philatelic Society[40] noted the fact that the stamps of 1863 on unwatermarked paper were in general about a millimeter shorter in the vertical dimension than the succeeding issue on paper watermarked Crown C C, although the engraved designs were otherwise absolutely identical. Major Edw. B. Evans, in his catalogue,[41] appends a note on the unwatermarked stamps of 1863 as follows:—

[Pg 56]Later, in 1887, Mr. T. K. Tapling, writing in Le Timbre-Poste,[42] claims the difference cannot be due to shrinkage of paper because the stamps have all shrunk evenly, and attributes it to some defect in the process of making the plates. He reasons thus:—

As a matter of fact the stamps did not shrink evenly, but very unevenly. Mr. W. B. Thornhill, writing on these same stamps in 1889,[43] says:—"You can hardly find two stamps of exactly the same measurements in the same value, though the difference in many cases is too small to signify"; and he proceeds to show the extreme variations in a carefully prepared table including every value on every variety of paper for issues from 1855 to 1867. The greatest variation in the vertical dimension seems to be about 1 mm. in 26 mm., or roughly 4%, and in the horizontal dimension about ¼ to ½ mm. in 19 mm. or roughly 1¼ to 2½%. These dimensional differences being so palpably existent, therefore, what factors are we to consider in looking for their cause? There seem to be but three: first, an original die or matrix for each different size; second, one original die only, whose impressions on the printing plate show variations resulting from the process of transferring them; third, a printing plate with all the impressions exact duplicates of the one original die, but whose reproductions in ink on dampened paper are varied by the shrinkage of the paper in drying.

Mr. Thornhill convinces himself by inspection that the first proposition is untenable; in fact its absurdity is at once apparent on a little thought, for the engraving of the original die is a laborious and costly piece of work, and that very fact, coupled with the comparative ease of exact reduplication by mechanical processes on the printing plate, furnishes the chief reason for the employment of this method of producing stamps. Since there is such[Pg 57] a variety in the size of the stamps, therefore, the first theory would indicate many original dies, and this we know was not the case. Its refutation indeed is seen in the stamps themselves; for each original die, if differing in size from its fellows, meant a separate engraving, and it is humanly impossible to make these separate engravings exact duplicates, whereas, on the other hand, no appreciable variation in line or dot can be detected on the same stamp in its different sizes save the general expansion or contraction of the design, which is proportionate in all its parts. The different die or matrix theory is therefore thrown out on grounds of impracticability and absurdity.

Accepting the one original die proposition, then, Mr. Thornhill agrees with Mr. Tapling in turning down the shrinkage of paper theory and favoring the second supposition, that the variation comes on the plates and is due to the process of transference. Let us glance at this a moment. The original die is engraved on a block of soft steel of very fine and even quality. When finished it is tempered to a very great degree of hardness. Next the engraving is transferred by tremendous pressure to a transferring roller of similar soft steel, which is in turn hardened. In this process there might be an opportunity for a slight variation in the size of the transferred impression, due to the expansion and contraction of the steel in the tempering process. Next, this hardened transfer roller is impressed upon the printing plate of soft steel as many times as there are copies desired. These naturally all agree among themselves and with the transfer roller impression in size. Now when the printing plate in turn receives its hardening, there may again be a chance for a slight difference between the transfer roller and the plate impressions; but it is wholly unlikely that the plate impressions will vary much among themselves, otherwise the perfection of Mr. Jacob Perkins' invention, the chief merit of which was exact reduplication, would be impaired. As a matter of fact, the high grade and even quality of the steel necessarily employed, and the care naturally taken in hardening the plate, preclude any other than an even variation, if any, due to the tempering process. This means that such variations would be practically constant over the printing surface of the plate, and that therefore the impressions would still remain practically identical in size.

Where, then, does this bring us? With such numerous and well defined variations in dimensions in the printed stamps, we should look for the cause in the simplest and most natural method by which they could readily be pro[Pg 58]duced, which is furnished by the third theory presented. Concerning this we quote from the London Philatelic Society's work on Ceylon:[44]—

So much for the Ceylon stamps, which we have discussed in extenso; but we have only to substitute in every case a reference to the first Canadian issues, particularly the 10d. which we started out with, to make the discussion apply with equal force in this case as in the other. The question is the same—the variations occur in the same way, the method of engraving and reproduction is the same, and the varieties in the paper are very similar.

Major Evans, in a reply to Mr. Thornhill's paper,[45] states that he tried some experiments in wetting a thin, tough note paper, and found an expansion of three per cent., while by stretching it he increased the expansion to eight per cent, without difficulty! Yet the greatest variation in Mr. Thornhill's table was only four per cent. Major Evans then tried some of the 1863[Pg 59] Newfoundland stamps, which he judged were on paper of almost the same nature as that of the unwatermarked Ceylons of the same year, and they gave precisely similar results.

Mr. Frank C. Young, who was in the printing business, also tells of similar experiments which he carried still further.[46]

Looking back now at Mr. Castle's tables,[47] we find his greatest variations in length amount to ¾ mm. in 22 mm., or roughly 3½%, and in width 1 mm. in 18 mm., or roughly 5½%—results entirely within bounds according to Major Evans' and Mr. Young's experiments, and doubtless settling once and for all the reason of the "three distinct varieties in design" of Mr. Brouse.

As for the paper actually used for the printing of the 10d. stamp, we find it a hard, white wove variety varying very much in thickness from a very thin, almost pelure quality, through which the design is quite plainly evident, to a medium and finally a considerably thicker quality. The pelure paper seems naturally to be the one on which the greatest variation in dimensions occurs, the long and broad size of the stamp coming principally on the thicker paper,[48] which is supposed to shrink the least upon drying and therefore keeps the printed impression nearest the size of the plate impression. The long and narrow impression, being the commoner variation, was prob[Pg 60]ably due to the paper being fed to the press the same way of the "grain" as a rule, while the short and broad variation, which is much scarcer, occurred by an occasional sheet of paper being fed the other way of the "grain." That paper has a "grain" is readily proved by tearing a piece in one direction and then tearing it at right angles to the first tear; one will be found much easier of accomplishment generally than the other, and this "grain" doubtless has its due effect in the amount of shrinkage in one way or the other upon drying a dampened sheet.

One further variety we have to record in the 10d. stamp, this being a "shifted transfer" variety similar to that occurring in the 3d. value. In this case we find the letters A D A and S of "Canada Postage," and P E N of "Pence" showing a distinct doubling at the bottom, the transfer roller evidently having been set a little too high at first and a very slight impression made on the plate. The stamp has not been seen in a pair to prove its character absolutely, but it bears all the ear-marks of being a proper plate variety and not due to a careless impression when printing.

To continue again with the Postmaster General's reports. We find in that for 31st March, 1856, a note to the effect that the postage on letters to France had been once more reduced, this time to 10d. currency per ¼ oz., which gave further employment to the new 10d. stamp. There is also some information concerning the registry system, but this will be treated later under that head. One item is found in the accounts to interest us:—

As only 3d. stamps were received during the year, this of course refers to that value, and the price charged is found to be practically one shilling, currency, per thousand, or twenty cents American money.

In June of 1857 the Canadian Parliament made further changes in the newspaper rates, etc., according to the following Act:—

Although the enactment clause made the above Act operative on 1st August, 1857, because of which we should not expect it to affect the Postmaster General's report for the year ending 31st March, 1857, yet we find[Pg 62] this report dated 30th September, 1857, thus including the year and a half from 1st April, 1856. Among other items of interest in this report we find the following:—

The above is the only reference we have to the issue of the 7½d. stamp. The accounts for the fiscal year ending 30th September, 1857, contain the following item:—

which must include the cost of dies and plates for the two new values. There is no record of the date of issue of the 7½d. stamp, as far as our research has gone. The London Society's work[50] gives it as June 2, 1857, but upon what authority is not stated. It will be recalled that a stamp of this value was suggested, in company with the 10d., in the Postmaster General's report for 31st March, 1854, as being the reduced rate granted in that same month on letters sent "direct from a Provincial Port, Quebec or Halifax," to England. The Halifax Philatelist states:[51]—"This stamp was rendered necessary on account of the contract between the Canadian Government and the Allan Line of Steamers in regard to carrying the mails, and by which contract the postage was reduced." It hardly seems to have been very "necessary" when it took three years at least to bring the Postmaster General's suggestion to[Pg 63] a realization. Besides, the Allan Line steamers began their service over a year before the appearance of the stamp, and the rate it represented had even then been in force for two years, nor was it reduced for many years thereafter.

The Postmaster General's Report for 1856 says:—

The average time of passage is given as—Westward, 12 days, 20½ hours; Eastward, 11 days, 2 hours.

The design of the stamp was simply adapted from that of the discarded 12d. stamp, as will readily be seen from the illustration (No. 5 on Plate I). The inscriptions were changed to CANADA PACKET POSTAGE, which of course referred to the fast mail steamers then known as "packets," and not to any "parcel post" as is sometimes erroneously stated; and SIX PENCE STERLING, a new departure in labeling a Canadian stamp. Like the 10d. that preceded it, however, the corresponding values were inserted in the spandrels, "6d. stg." in the left hand pair and "7½d. cy." in the right hand pair. The stamp is generally listed under its "currency" value to conform with the rest of the set and avoid confusion with the regular "six pence" stamp. The normal color of the stamp is a dark green.

The 7½d. stamp is known to have been arranged on the plate for printing sheets of 120 stamps, ten rows of twelve stamps each, this being to facilitate the reckoning in English money. The eight marginal imprints appeared as on the other values. There was but one supply received, on the first order, of 100,080 stamps which, if we divide by 120, gives an even 834 sheets. Now, if we but glance back at the first supply received of the 10d. stamp[52] we find exactly the same number, evenly divisible by 120 but not by 100. The second supply of the 10d. stamp works out in exactly the same way,—72,120 makes an even 601 sheets at 120 per sheet. Is it not probable to suppose, therefore, in the absence of entire sheets or horizontal[Pg 64] rows of the 10d. stamp, that the latter was also printed in sheets of 120, as previously suggested, instead of sheets of 100 as stated in Mr. King's article?[53]

When the issue of the decimal stamps took place, on July 1, 1859, there were 17,670 of the 7½d. stamps on hand, so that the total issue of this value was 82,410 copies.

As will be gathered from Mr. Brouse's paper, which we quoted in connection with the 10d. stamp, a similar variation in the width of the oval is to be found in the case of the 7½d. stamp, but the extremes are not so great and it is therefore not so noticeable. A glance at the table of measurements[54] will show that the variation in width is confined to a half millimeter and that in height to practically the same amount. Of course the discussion and conclusions detailed at length under the 10d. stamp apply with equal force in the present instance, and the fact that the 7½d. stamp is not found on the very thin paper probably accounts for the lack of extreme variations. It was printed upon paper of the same kind as used for the 10d., but only on the medium and thicker qualities. A pair of the stamps in juxtaposition, showing the wide oval and the narrow oval, will be found as numbers 67 and 68 respectively on Plate IV.

The last—and also least—of the pence issues was the half-penny stamp. There had been a need for this value since the introduction of stamps, for there were several rates that were impossible to make up with the denominations that were issued and which therefore had to be paid in money. Among these were the ½d. charge on newspapers from 1851 to 1855, the same charge per ounce on magazines and books during the entire period, the ½d. and 1d. carrier's fees, the 1d. rate on circulars and on soldier's letters, and the several 7½d. rates for letters and for the book post with England. But the Act last quoted,[55] which restored a charge on transient newspapers, seems to have been the direct cause of the belated issue of the half-penny stamp. The circular announcing its issue is as follows:[56]—

Post Office Department,
Toronto, 18th July, 1857.

The London Society's work gives the date of issue of the ½d. value as 18th July, 1857, and it is clearly seen from the preceding notice where the date was obtained. But it is more likely that the stamp was issued on 1st. August, the day the new rates took effect.

The new stamp was very plain, as will be seen from the illustration, No. 4 on Plate I. The profile head of Queen Victoria was quite evidently taken from the head on the British penny stamp. The usual inscription, CANADA POSTAGE, occupies the upper part of the oval frame, and ONE HALF PENNY the lower part, but the value is not expressed by numerals in the corners, as on all the other stamps of the issue, the spandrels being merely filled in with a reticulated pattern. The stamp was printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten, with the eight marginal imprints as described for the series of 1851.

The tables of statistics in the Postmaster General's reports give the number of ½d. stamps received previous to 1st. October, 1857, as 1,341,600; during the next fiscal year 1,258,920 were received; and between 1st. October, 1858 and 30th June, 1859, when they were superseded, 850,100 more arrived, making a total stock of 3,450,620. The balance on hand when the decimal series was issued was 60,660, which makes the total issue of the ½d. stamp 3,389,960.

The normal color of the stamp is a deep rose. It is found printed on a soft ribbed paper, with the ribbing both horizontal and vertical, as well as on the ordinary hard white wove paper of this issue in both the thin and thicker qualities.[Pg 66]

The London Society's work has the following remarks:[57]—

We find that the original chronicle of these varieties was in Le Timbre-Poste in 1869. Concerning them M. Moens writes as follows:—

And in the next issue of the paper:—

We think all idea of a "surcharge" can be at once dismissed, as the raising of the value, particularly to 8d., would be a very foolish and doubtless wholly unnecessary proceeding, and certainly some record of such procedure would have been found ere this. The impressions were probably from rating stamps that were accidentally struck on the postage stamps, or possibly used purposely as cancellations.

The report of the Postmaster General for the 30th Sept. 1858, notes the fact that previous to 1854 all newspapers were rated at ½d. each, but in that year were granted free transmission. Concerning the new regulations it continues:—

[Pg 67]

The same report states:—"The Department has, from 1st. January, 1859, put in operation an arrangement for the conveyance of Parcel Packets between any two Post Offices in Canada with the ordinary mails." The charge was fixed at 1s. 3d. per pound with a maximum weight of two pounds, and prepayment was enforced.

In the Department accounts we find the following:—

which was simply a printing bill. The last payment for the pence issue of stamps appears in the report for 30th Sept., 1859, and is for the deliveries during the nine months from 30th. Sept. 1858 to 30th June, 1859, when the pence stamps were retired. The charge is given in decimal currency:—

The report for 1858 gives an interesting table showing the growth of the postal business by decades for the thirty years previous. The remarkable increase during the last period, within which the Province assumed control and the use of stamps was introduced, is to be noted:—

The year 1859 brings us to the end of the pence issues, but before leaving them there is still one more question to consider, that of the perforated varieties, which will form the subject of the next chapter.

[Pg 68]

CHAPTER IV

THE PERFORATED PENCE ISSUES

The perforated series of the pence issues of Canada furnishes another one of those knotty problems for which these stamps are noted. The first intimation of the improvement that was announced officially appears in the Report of the Postmaster General for 30th September, 1857, in these words:—

One would naturally suppose that the stamps would be ordered in this condition from the manufacturers, and we think they were; but no further light is thrown upon the matter by the Reports, and other facts that persist in intruding themselves have given rise to a theory that the Department either bought perforating machines of its own and operated upon the stock on hand, or engaged some local concern to perforate the stock in question. This might have been done, but if so why were the 7½ and 10 pence stamps omitted? Again, had such been the case, it is passing strange that the ½ penny, issued unperforated but two months before the date of the report, should be approximately twice as common in that state as perforated. In the case of the 3d., taking stock on hand the 30th September, 1857, and subsequent deliveries, two-fifths of the entire issue should have been perforated, which would make the latter stamps almost as common as the earlier issues; while in the case of the 6d., under similar conditions, almost the same ratio holds, the figures being a trifle more in favor of the perforated series. This does not conform with facts at all, and it can hardly be explained by supposing that a relatively small stock of but three values was operated upon in 1857 and the improvement then dropped for a couple of years.

For further proof of the incorrectness of this theory we think the following fact speaks for itself. Appended to each Postmaster General's Report are various tables of expenditures. One of these statements is headed:[Pg 69]—

"Sums paid in discharge of Tradesmen's Bills," and in it are found the amounts paid to various parties named for all kinds of supplies furnished the Department. This is where the payments to the engravers of the stamps appear, as well as items for cancelling stamps, post-marks, etc. Now a careful examination of all items for the years 1857, 1858 and 1859 fails to disclose any payment either for purchase of a perforating machine or for having the stamps perforated by outside parties. This may be "negative evidence" but we feel that it has its due weight.

Nevertheless, we find at least two other perforations on stamps of this issue besides the regulation gauge 12, which has made it appear to some that the Department might have experimented with means of separation before settling definitely on the type adopted. The stamp operated upon was the 3d., probably as being the most commonly employed value, which would naturally be the case were the perforations the efforts of private parties. The first "irregular" perforation was listed by Major Evans[60] as gauging 13, and the London Society's work lists it as well, probably following the earlier catalog. But Messrs. Corwin and King state:[61]—"This perforation is totally unknown in America, and we doubt its existence." Neither the Pack nor the Worthington collection contains a copy and we think it can be passed by.

The next perforation is of gauge 14, and this is well known though of extreme rarity. Messrs. Corwin and King did not know of over twenty specimens in 1891. We are fortunate in being able to illustrate a fine used pair on piece of cover from the Pack collection as No. 128 on Plate XIII. Most unfortunately, however, as will be noted, some vandal cut the cover, though perhaps unwittingly, just so as to destroy most of the postmark and thus lose forever the date and place of mailing. Messrs. Corwin and King state:[62]—

In another part of the article just quoted is the following:[63]—

From all the foregoing we can seem to make but one deduction for the 3d. perforated 14 and that is—unofficial. The dated cover, if 1859, would be but a month before the issue of the decimal stamps, and the regular "perf. 12" stamps were plentifully supplied at that time. It would therefore seem that the date must have been 1857, as suggested, which would have been well ahead of the appearance of the "perf. 12" issues as we shall see later. Then the fact that the manufacturers cannot be held responsible for this perforation, and the Department accounts furnish no item of expenditure directly traceable to such work, make it seem wholly probable that it was done by private parties for their own or customers' convenience.

The "curious perforation" alluded to as just discovered was announced by the Scott Stamp & Coin Co. as follows:[64]—

[Pg 71]With regard to the deductions given, we think that what we have already presented concerning the unofficial character of the gauge 14 perforation applies with even more force in the present instance, and we unhesitatingly put these two curios in the "privately perforated" class.

Messrs. Corwin and King give further details as follows:[65]—

To return to the general subject, Mr. Donald A. King in his own article says:[66]—

The stamps in issue from the time of the announcement of perforation in the Report of 1857, to the appearance of the decimal stamps in 1859, were the ½d., 3d., 6d., 7½d., and 10d. values, but only the first three appeared with perforations. The first supply of the 10d. stamp, as we know, was received in January 1855, and was naturally unperforated. The first and[Pg 72] only supply of the 7½d. stamp was received probably in the second quarter of 1857, and these were all unperforated. The first supply of the ½d. stamp was doubtless delivered about midsummer of 1857, and these were evidently all unperforated. The other supplies received in the fiscal year of 1857 were 300,000 of the 3d. in September 1856, and the same number again in March 1857, together with the 50,078 of the 6d.[67] Evidently these were still in the unperforated class, as they were delivered before either the 7½d. or ½d. supplies. We must therefore look to the supplies delivered after the 30th September, 1857, as a basis for reckoning up the perforated series. The values and quantities given in the stamp accounts (already quoted) are as follows:—

The first thing that confronts us here is a second supply of the 10d. stamp in this supposed "perforated period," over half of which was issued for sale, and yet the 10d. stamp is practically unknown in a perforated condition! We say practically, because the London Society's work[68] remarks:—"The Seven Pence Halfpenny, green, and Ten Pence, blue, perforated, exist in the collection of a well known Parisian collector. The authenticity, however, of the perforations appears to be doubtful." We think it is more than doubtful, as it is practically certain that neither value was ever issued in this condition. Messrs. Corwin and King state:[69]—"We agree with the Society in doubting the authenticity of the 7½d. and 10 pence, perforated, as these stamps, thus treated, have never been seen in America, nor can anything be ascertained from the makers of the Stamps or the Canadian Post Office Department concerning them." The last statement is hardly convincing, for neither party referred to can give any more information concerning the other three values that we know were issued. We can heartily[Pg 73] subscribe to the next remark, however:—"We have no hesitation in pronouncing them impostors."

The date usually assigned to the appearance of the perforated stamps is January 1858. The London Society gave simply "1857," which is apparently set down merely because they have just quoted the announcement from the Postmaster General's Report for that year. Evans and Moens, in their catalogs, both name the date as November 1858. Unfortunately no more authoritative statement has been found, except that in Messrs. Corwin and King's article[70] they say "Mr. Hooper positively states that it took place in January, 1858." Mr. John R. Hooper was at that time [1890] connected with the Canadian Post Office Department at Ottawa and took pains to look up much information for the above-mentioned gentlemen. His reasons for the "positive statement" are not given, and inasmuch as he is quoted elsewhere as saying that "the records of the Post Office Department are silent as to where this perforation was performed and by whom,"[71] and also seems a little uncertain in some other details, we feel that further confirmation is needed.

In our table above we have given the supplies received after the 30th September, 1857, and deducted the remainders so as to have the actual number issued. The 10d. has already proved a stumbling block, for it was not perforated at all! Next we find the 6d. to the number of 150,000, when the total issue, including the laid paper, was but 400,000; yet the catalog value of the imperforates is some $6 for each variety, and of the perforated stamp at least $30! Can anyone doubt that all these 150,000 6d. stamps were not perforated? In the case of the 3d. we have one and a third millions to compare with a total issue of three and a half millions—about a third in the supposed perforated class. Yet the catalog value of the latter is $2.50 against 36 cents for the wove paper imperforate alone. With the ½d. stamp there are two millions against a total of three and a third millions, or about two to one in favor of the supposed perforated stamps, yet the latter are double the catalog price of the former! The only conclusion to be drawn from these regularly appearing inconsistencies in each value is that all the supplies after 30th September, 1857 were not perforated, as the 10d. stamp very glaringly intimates!

If this be so, is it not possible that the order to perforate new supplies was given to the manufacturers much later than has hitherto been thought to[Pg 74] be the case? It hardly seems likely that this improvement would be ordered for a few supplies and then dropped, only to reappear a year and a half later as a permanent feature of the new set. Once adopted it was more than likely to be retained.

Let us see, then, just for curiosity's sake, what the supplies of the last six months of issue yield us for data. For the ½d. we find 850,000, roughly, with 60,000 remainders. Call it 800,000 issued which, if perforated, would be a quarter of the total issue of ½d. stamps, or a ratio to the imperforates of one to three. This is not so far away from the catalog ratio of two to one (inversely, of course) in the value of the perforated stamps. With the 3d. stamp we have 450,000, roughly, with 20,000 remainders, say 430,000 issued. Of a total issue of 3,500,000 this represents one-eighth, or a ratio of one to seven. The inverse ratio of seven to one for catalog value comes pretty close when we compare $2.50 with 36 cents! In the case of the 6d. there are 70,000 less 17,500 remainders, or 52,500. This is approximately one-eighth the total issue of 400,000, or again a ratio of one to seven. The inverse ratio of seven to one for a catalog value would make the perforated stamp list $42 with the imperforate at $6. But both laid and wove paper 6d. stamps list at approximately $6, whereas if all had been issued on but one variety of paper we might find perhaps a single list price of say $4. With this as a basis, the catalog value of $30 for the perforated 6d. is in as close agreement with our supposition as are the others. And, best of all, the second supply of the 10d. stamp is disposed of without any difficulty whatever under this hypothesis!

It may be argued that reasoning thus from catalog prices is too uncertain to prove of value. Granted in many cases. But here is an issue from fifty to sixty years old; the stamps were regularly used in increasing numbers during their years of issue; they have always been popular and eagerly collected, so that the stock in existence has been pretty well handled and pretty well distributed. Under these conditions the catalog prices should by this time reflect fairly accurately the relative rarity of the main varieties of each stamp at least; and it is this relative rarity that we are after in order to approximate the original supplies of the main varieties. The result is certainly of more than mere interest, the agreement being such that we are tempted to lay down the following propositions in regard to the perforated stamps for further proof or disproof:—

First. The regular perforation (gauge 12) was done by the manufac[Pg 75]turers and applied to the last requisitions previous to the change to decimal stamps.

Second. The date of the supposed issue of the perforated stamps should be changed from January 1858, to November 1858 or January 1859.

Third. The quantities of perforated stamps issued are placed approximately at:—½d., 789,440; 3d., 428,200; 6d., 52,422.

In further support of the above postulates, we must say that every cover bearing any one of the three perforated stamps which we have been able to get a satisfactory date from has been postmarked in 1859! Not one has yet been seen which bore a date in 1858 even, and one 6d. from the Seybold collection, which was dated at Brantford, Dec. 29, 1857, turned out to be bad. Of course perforated pence stamps are hard to find on original covers, but it is curious that so far not one has upset the theory we have laid down.

There is one point left which perhaps needs some attention. The London Society's work lists a 6d. on laid paper, perforated 12, and Mr. King has followed by including it in his reference list. This would imply that the Canadian Government had perforated its stock on hand, in which might be a few remainders of the early laid paper issue, and naturally would go far toward confirming that view of the origin of the perforated series. But this stamp seems to be an unknown quantity, almost as much so as the 3d. "perforated 13" of Major Evans' Catalogue. Mr. Pack says:[72]—"I have never heard of the 6d. perforated, on laid paper. It is catalogued in the Society's publication, but a copy, so far as I can learn, has never been seen in Canada or in the United States."

We have been interested to track this stamp, and have apparently found the original located in the Tapling collection, now housed at the British Museum. In a catalog of the Canadian portion of this collection by Gordon Smith,[73] we find two unused copies listed on laid paper, one marked "perf. 12" and the other "forged perf." The sequel is found in the American Journal of Philately for 1891[74] in the following note:—

[Pg 76]The paper upon which the perforated pence series is found seems to give further confirmation to the theory that they came from but one or possibly two printings. Outside of the two lower values on ribbed paper, which are rare, the series seems to be entirely on a hard, white wove paper, varying in thickness from a medium to a thicker quality, which is in every way similar to the paper employed for the succeeding cents issue. On the thin ribbed paper the London Society (1889) and Messrs. Corwin and King (1891) list the ½d. stamp, but this is not found in the catalog of the Tapling collection already referred to, nor in the Pack or Worthington collections; we have therefore listed it with a query. The 3d. stamp we have seen, however, and Mr. Pack says it "is a scarce stamp even in used condition, but in unused condition I find it one of the great rarities of Canada."[75]

As noted under Chapter II,[76] the use of split stamps was not usual, as in Nova Scotia, but Mr. King chronicles the 6d. perforated, in dark violet, split diagonally and used as a 3d. in like manner to its unperforated predecessor.

[Pg 77]

CHAPTER V

THE CANCELLATIONS OF THE EARLY ISSUES

A rather interesting study, particularly for the collector of entires, is that of postmarks and cancellations, and sometimes much assistance in the solution of knotty questions is rendered by these often despised and neglected adjuncts to the proper use of postage stamps.

The early cancellations of Canada have been the subject of some attention, more so, in fact, than the postmarks, as they were required to be used on the stamps while the postmark was struck on the cover, where the date and place of mailing would be plainly visible. In one of the early volumes of reports it is stated that "Office Stamps and Seals were supplied from England on 21st July, 1851." It is presumed that this included postmarks and cancellations.

It will be remembered, perhaps, that in the circular announcing the issue of stamps in 1851[77] it was ordered that "Stamps so affixed are to be immediately cancelled ... with an instrument to be furnished for that purpose." The first one so supplied was the "concentric rings" cancellation, consisting of seven concentric circles and having an outer diameter of 18 mm. This is the most common of all, being found from the very earliest dates down to 1870, at least, as it occurs on the early shades of the "small" cents issue. It was generally struck in black ink, but may occasionally be found in a dull blue. A good illustration of this cancellation is seen on the cover numbered 90 on Plate VI.

By 1855, at least, a modified form of the concentric ring cancellation was introduced. This had a number in the center in large figures, some 8 mm. high, with four concentric circles enclosing it, the outside diameter being about 23 mm. This type was generally struck in black, but is sometimes found in a dull blue also. It can be seen on the strip of stamps numbered 81 on Plate V. The numbers, of course, were placed in the cancellations with a definite purpose, and a little study of entire covers shows that certain numbers were[Pg 78] assigned to certain post offices, as might be suspected. Number 21, for instance, is the most common one and will be found to be connected with Montreal. Further study will reveal the fact that the names of the post offices were taken in alphabetical order, and the numbers assigned to them consecutively in that way. Still further inspection develops the fact that most of the post offices were those in Upper Canada (or Canada West), while but a few of the most important ones were included from Lower Canada (or Canada East.)

Mr. Edgar Nelton seems first to have made a study of these numbers in an attempt to identify their corresponding post offices, and he published a list of some twenty-two as the result of his examination of many original covers.[78] The numbers run up to 52 at least, and using the facts that we have deduced concerning the arrangement of the names, we have endeavored to fill out his skeleton list with such offices as it seems possible may yet be identified with the corresponding numbers. We have done this with some assurance for the following reasons:—

We were fortunately able to examine a Canada Directory for 1857-8, and on looking up the postal information given therein, found a list of the money order offices then existing. This was in two sections, the first containing the names, alphabetically arranged, of 31 offices in "Class No. 1," which included most of the principal cities and towns; and the second a lengthy alphabetical list of offices in "Class No. 2." The first section had a somewhat familiar appearance, and inspection showed that a majority of the names on Mr. Nelton's list of numbered cancellations were there in proper order! But 21 more names were needed, according to the cancellation numbers, to fill out the latter series. The second section was therefore examined for such towns as had the largest populations and were presumably most important. The result enabled more than one name, already on Mr. Nelton's list, to be fitted in its proper place! Here, then, was apparently the solution of the first series of numbered cancellations, and we hazard a guess that the 52 names are the original list of money order offices, arranged when the money order system was instituted in February, 1855.

The subjoined table gives the list of post offices and their corresponding numbers, which has been worked out along the lines above mentioned. It is offered in the hope that more will be done to determine positively the cor[Pg 79]respondence between the two. The names in ordinary type are those that have been identified without any reasonable doubt; those that have been fitted in tentatively are in italics. The Roman numeral following indicates the Class to which the Money Order Office belongs.

LIST OF NUMBERED CANCELLATIONS.

It will be noticed, if Mr. Helton's list is compared with the above, that there are a few discrepancies. He assigns Toronto to No. 24, which is manifestly out of place. Owen Sound is given to No. 26, while 28 should be its location; the latter must be reserved for Paris, however, which is a first class office where Owen Sound is but second class. Richmond is given as No. 42, but as St. Catherines, a first class office, has been identified as No. 38, there seems no place for the second class office of Richmond, which should precede it alphabetically. Niagara has been assigned to No. 23, but in such case it would necessitate two blanks preceding Ottawa, so it seems that the proper number should be 25. With these few exceptions no further trouble was experienced in working out the list, and since it was drawn up Numbers[Pg 80] 2, 4, 8, 38 and 49 have been identified and tallied exactly with it! Such proof has gone far toward confirming our propositions in regard to it, and we hope for more.

A third cancellation, which was apparently used mainly for newspapers and packages, consisted of nine somewhat thick diagonal bars, the whole impression having a square outline. This was generally struck in black, but occasionally in dull blue.

Postmarks were supposed to be used only on the cover, where they would plainly exhibit the story they were to tell, while the cancellation marks were intended to deface the stamp. But sometimes the postmarks are found used for the latter purpose. They seem to be mostly of two varieties, both circular in outline, a larger one having the town name in a curve above, with U. C., L. C., C. W., or C. E., at the bottom, and arcs of two concentric circles filling in the outline between; a second being smaller with a single arc of a circle filling in the outline. The first variety is plainly shown on the cover numbered 90 on Plate VI, and the second on the cover numbered 130 on Plate XIV. The date in the center seems always to be given in full—month, day and year. The postmarks are generally in black, as usual, but sometimes in dull blue.

Penmarked specimens are sometimes met with, but not often.

With the issue of 1859 the duplex mark seems to have been adopted, with the postmark (the ordinary complete circle with the usual arrangement of name, abbreviation of province and date) and the cancellation mark (a series of parallel lines with a circular outline) on the same instrument so as to be struck on the letter together.

With the 1868 issue for the Dominion we of course find the cancellations of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, then British Columbia and finally Prince Edward Island, all of which introduce complications. A new cancellation, which seems to have been for the Dominion as a whole, consisted of two heavy concentric circles containing a number. It is one of this kind that Mr. Nelton refers to in his article as having the number 627. A notable cancellation is one in the shape of a large maple leaf.

An interesting and rare postmark which was found on the 3 cent of the 1868 issue, is thus written up by Mr. F. G. Bing[79]:—

Ottawa, 13th March, 1908.

Very truly yours,
E. P. STANTON, Superintendent.

Various new varieties came with the "small" cents issue and later, concerning which there is not so much of interest as in the earlier years of the postal service; we therefore pass them by, remarking only on the special "jubilee" machine cancellation which was used at Montreal in 1897. This was of the "flag" form and somewhat ornate, bearing the name "VICTORIA" and the dates "1837" and "1897."

[Pg 82]

CHAPTER VI

THE ISSUE OF 1859

With two valuations placed upon the cumbrous English monetary system inherited by Canada from the Mother Country—"sterling" and "currency"—and with the practical illustration of the advantages of the decimal system manifest in all the transactions with its great southern neighbor, whose currency was already legalized in the Province,[80] it was only a question of time when Canada would adopt a decimal system of its own. This was done, but all that interests us is the Decimal Postage law resulting, which is as follows:—

From the above Act we see that the transmission of newspapers has again been subjected to revision looking toward an increase of revenue, all free transmission by post being now limited to exchange copies between editors or publishers. The making of prepayment by stamps obligatory was another step which had been quite strongly recommended in the last Postmaster General's report in these terms:—

By referring to the Act subsequently passed we see that these recommendations were carried out to the letter.

In regard to the fifth section of the Act, concerning the Parcel Post, we come across another example of the curious shuffling of dates and apparent ex post facto law making which we have previously noted. In quoting the Postmaster General's report for 30th Sept., 1858,[81] we found it stated that the Parcel Post had been in operation "from 1st January, 1859," and now we have the Legislative Act providing for it passed under date of 4th May, 1859! This is going it one better on "reading history backward" by actually making it backward! The reports at least, as we previously deduced, were evidently written some time after the dates given them and did not confine[Pg 84] their record to happenings previous to those fictitious dates. Confirmation of this is furnished by the Postmaster General's report that we have to consider, that of the Hon. Sydney Smith for the year ending 30th September, 1859, the report being actually dated 20th February, 1860.

Further details concerning the Parcel Post are not given until the Report for 30th June, 1864, where we read:—

The rate is given in decimal currency, then in use, but at the time of the establishment of the Parcel Post the equivalent rate would have been 1s. 3d. currency. In the Report for 1865 it is stated that:—

In the report for 1859, mentioned above, we find the following:—

The cents issue of Canadian stamps therefore dates from July 1, 1859. The stamps themselves were merely an adaptation of the designs of the pence series to the corresponding values of the decimal currency. The ONE CENT stamp was unchanged from the half-penny except for the substitution of the new for the former value. The FIVE CENTS stamp had these words in place of the old denomination, with a quarterfoil ornament separating them at each side from CANADA and POSTAGE. Oblique figures 5 were[Pg 85] placed in the spandrels on a cross-hatched ground instead of the upright figures 3 on foliations. A similar change was made in the TEN CENTS, Roman numerals X being placed obliquely in the spandrels on a cross-hatched ground where upright figures 6 were previously on foliations; while the new denomination was substituted for the old. The sole change in the 12½ cent stamp was to substitute "12½c." in the spandrels for the former values in sterling and currency. The 17 cent stamp had the value in words replacing TEN PENCE, but the new value was so much longer that the emblems between the old value and CANADA POSTAGE were removed and replaced by two small elliptic ornaments. "8d. stg." still occupies the upper spandrels, but figures 17 are placed in each of the lower ones. The central designs in each of the above stamps are absolutely identical with those of the pence stamps that preceded them—indeed the portrait and surrounding oval with inscriptions on the 12½ c. are all unchanged. From this it is evident that the new dies were "built up" from the old ones, the central portions being transferred and the required changes in surrounding inscriptions, etc., being newly engraved. This was easy enough of accomplishment since the American Bank Note Co., who furnished the new stamps, were the successors of Messrs. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, the firm name having been changed on May 1, 1858, and the dies of the pence issue were of course in their possession. Illustrations of the five values will be found as Nos. 10, 15, 12, 13 and 14, respectively, on Plate I.

There was one addition to the list of values in this set during its period of use—a 2 cent stamp. In the Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1864, it is noted:—"A new Postage Stamp, of the value of two cents, was added to the other denominations supplied, from the 1st. August last [1864]." The Report for the succeeding year has this further to say:—"A provision has been made for the transmission and delivery of Canadian periodicals, addressed to the United Kingdom, at the reduced rate of two cents each," and it was evidently largely on account of this that the new stamp was ordered. Its design was unmistakably "built up" as with the rest of the set, the 1 cent stamp serving as the model, figures 2 being placed in ovals in the spandrels and the wording of the value being changed to correspond. (Illustration No. 11 on Plate I). The stamp was issued as stated on the 1st August, 1864.

All the stamps of this issue were, as before, line engraved and printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. The same style of marginal inscriptions as[Pg 86] in the first issue is found—"American Bank Note Co. New-York" in minute letters of the type known as "diamond," repeated twice in each margin, reading up on the left, down on the right, and inverted at the bottom of the sheet. In the 1, 2, 5 and 12½c. stamps the imprint is placed against the third and eighth stamps of each marginal row of ten, but from a block of 10c. at hand the inscriptions in the case of this value are apparently "centered" over the space between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth stamps of each marginal row, thus bringing them over two stamps instead of one. Curiously enough, the 17c. value has no marginal inscriptions at all.

The same plate variety that occurs in the 3d. stamp—the "shifted transfer" or "double strike"—is repeated in its successor, the 5c. stamp. That it is a true plate variety is abundantly proved by the fine block of seven stamps illustrated as No. 96 on Plate VII. The variety will be found in the upper right corner stamp, and the doubling of the frame lines at the left and of the oval frame line above CANADA will be readily apparent. A single copy is illustrated as No. 19 on Plate I. It seems to have been first noted by Mr. R. Wuesthoff in the American Journal of Philately for June, 1892.

A minor variety of the 5c. stamp printed from a worn plate is also to be noted, in which the fine lines of the groundwork have almost disappeared.

The entire series comes regularly perforated 12, the identical normal perforation of the pence stamps that immediately preceded it, and which we have endeavored to trace to the same source. The abnormal varieties in this series are of course the imperforate ones, and of these we present cuts of a full set in blocks of four, numbered 100 to 105 on Plate IX. That the stamps were actually issued and used in this condition is proved by copies of several with the proper postmarks of the period in the Pack collection. Mr. Pack writes of them[82]:—

Further varieties are formed by "split" stamps, as before, though these were never authorized and seldom used. We are fortunate in being able to illustrate two five cent stamps used with half of a third to make up the 12½c. packet rate. This is No. 97 on Plate VII. The postmark is unfortunately mostly torn away, but is evidently "Montreal," and the last numeral in the[Pg 87] year figures seems to be an "8," which would mean "1868." A 10c. stamp also split and used for a 5c. is shown on the entire as No. 99 on Plate VIII. The postmark is "Bowmanville, U.C., Feb. 15, 1860."

The normal colors for the stamps of this series may be given as 1 cent deep rose, 2 cents dull rose, 5 cents deep red, 12½ cents deep green, and 17 cents Prussian blue. It will be noticed that we have omitted the 10 cents—and with reason. If the 6 pence stamp of the preceding issue was difficult to select a normal color for, how shall we find one for its successor? Messrs. Corwin and King say[83]:—"The most surprising fact about this issue is the vast number of colors and shades to be found in the 10 cents. We have several hundreds of them in our collection, and are continually adding new color varieties." They run all the way from a bright red lilac through shades of violet and brown to a black brown, which is so dark and distinct that it has for years been catalogued separately.

The paper on which these stamps were printed does not show as much variation as in the previous issue. Mr. King[84] gives a list of five varieties, all of which vary considerably in thickness. It seems sufficient for our purposes, however, to list them under three heads as ordinary wove paper, a thick, hard wove paper, and ribbed paper.

These stamps were in issue from the 1st July 1859, until the series issued for the new Dominion of Canada appeared on 1st April, 1868. The stamp accounts in the various Postmaster General's Reports give the quantities received and issued, and we present here a summary of these tables as their reproduction entire would serve no useful purpose unless to show the increase in the consumption of stamps from year to year as the postal business increased.

[Pg 88]

The yearly supplies of the 2 cent stamps, first appearing in the 1865 accounts, were as follows:—

Unfortunately the stamp accounts for 1868 do not separate the supplies received in the old and new designs, so that in the case of the 1, 2 and 12½ cent stamps, which appear in both issues, the quantity delivered by the manufacturers is a total which we cannot divide with certainty. An approximation may perhaps be made, particularly with the 2 cent stamp. The balance of this value on hand 30th June, 1867, was 171,000, and the deliveries in the year ending 30th June, 1868, were 2,050,000. Inasmuch as the yearly issue of this value had been some 250,000, the probability is that the odd 50,000 delivered belonged to the 1859 series, as this would make 221,000 for the nine month's supply to 1st April; the even two millions were doubtless the order for the new series. The yearly issue of the 1 cent had been some 3½ to 4 millions; if from the 2,900,000 received, according to the 1868 Report, we take the odd 900,000, we find it makes 3,308,900 when combined with the balance on hand in 1867. This gives a sufficient supply for the nine months of the old issue and leaves an even two millions again for the new series. The 12½ cent presents a slightly different aspect. The yearly issue had been some 400,000, and the amount on hand in 1867 was 385,750—without doubt a plentiful supply for the nine months preceding the issue of the new stamps. It must be remembered, also, in all these cases, that the "amount on hand" was that of the Department's stock, and that the postmasters were of course in possession of local stocks. It therefore seems probable that the 500,000 12½ cent stamps received in 1868 were of the new series alone. The 5 and 10 cent stamps, however, which are lacking in the new set, can at once be added to their preceding deliveries, and it will be noted that no further supplies of the 17c. stamp were required during the year.

We find in the Department accounts that the American Bank Note Co. was paid $1331.70 for "engraving postage stamps" during the fiscal year, which was the final settlement with that Company.[Pg 89]

What became of the remainder of the old issue does not appear, but it seems probable that they were largely used up in the course of regular business, as no object would be gained by turning in the relatively small quantities remaining, for accounting and destruction, unless it be the 17 cent value, which had become rather useless. Curiously enough, the stamp accounts do separate the old and new issues in the "balance on hand, 30th June, 1868," which was three months after the appearance of the new set. These figures are as follows:—

Glancing now over the Postmaster General's reports for the years 1859-1868, during which the above issue was in use, and which were the last years of the strictly provincial control, we find many items of interest.

In the report for 1859 it is noted that "the issue and use by the public of Postage Stamps has increased with great rapidity since last return," and the issue of stamped envelopes "for the promotion of public convenience" is announced. These will be treated of by themselves in a later chapter. We find the experiment was made of placing street letter boxes in Toronto, and "with very encouraging results as to the extent to which the number of letters posted in these boxes would appear to demonstrate their usefulness. These Pillar Boxes are visited, at least twice each day, at suitable hours, by Post Office Messengers, in order to convey the letters deposited in them to the Post Office." Preparations were also being made to install letter boxes in Montreal and Quebec.

The Department accounts have the following entries:—

Of course the amounts all went to the same concern, as the firm name had been changed on May 1, 1858, as already noted.

The report for 1860 contains interesting statistical information concerning the growth of the Department, which it may be well to put on record:[Pg 90]—

The Report continues:—

It was eight years before these hopes were realized, however.

The "epistolary intercourse with the United States" is given for the same period, but we need only note that the postal value of the total correspondence exchanged was $83,630.97 in 1852, had increased to $187,469.59 in 1857, and then dropped gradually to $178,132.39 in 1860. The Report says:—

The accounts present a charge in favor of the American Bank Note Co. of $1697.95 "for engraving Letter and Newspaper stamps and Stamped Envelopes." Of the latter we shall have more to say in their proper place.

The Reports of 1861 and 1862 contain nothing special, and the accounts show payments of $1451.87 and $1583.63 respectively to the American Bank Note Co.

The Report of 1863 states that in November of that year an agreement[Pg 91] was entered into with the United States for the transmission between the two countries of seeds, bulbs, etc., at 1 cent per ounce, and also book manuscripts, printers' proof sheets, maps, prints, etc., at the same rate.

In January 1864, the Imperial Post Office extended to the mails between Canada and the United Kingdom regulations conceding patterns of merchandise and trade samples at the same rates as books and printed matter.

The American Bank Note Co. was paid $1946.62.

The next Report is dated 30th June, 1864, instead of the usual 30th September, and is therefore for nine months only. This was done to bring the fiscal year of the Post Office Department to correspond with the financial year of the General Government.

The enactment which was the cause of the change follows:—

There is nothing particular in the Report for these nine months to quote here, except the payment of the relatively small sum of $619.25 to the American Bank Note Co.

The Report for 1865 states that "Regulations have been adopted establishing a sample and pattern post in Canada, and packets of trade samples, or patterns of merchandise, may be sent by post between any places within this Province, on prepayment of one cent per ounce, under certain conditions to prevent an abuse of the privilege." It further announces that "Street Letter boxes are being placed in all the principal streets of Montreal."

The Reports of 1866 and 1867 were published together, but contain little of interest beyond the statistics we have already used. Payments to the American Bank Note Co. were $2630.11 in 1866 and $1699.03 in 1867. The final payment to the American Co., which we have already quoted from the 1868 report, was $1331.70. We read that "The street letter boxes put up in the city of Montreal have worked satisfactorily. The number of letters[Pg 92] and papers posted therein weekly, appeared from returns taken to be, Letters 2400, Papers 500, or at the rate of 150,000 letters and papers per annum."

Authority to establish letter boxes was given by an Act of Parliament which contains several other matters of interest and which we therefore quote.

The only other item to quote from the report of 1867 is the following:—"On 1st July, 1867 the Union Act came into operation, and brought under one central administration the Postal Service throughout the Dominion." With this statement we close the account of the Postal history of the Province of Canada, and in the next chapter open up the larger one of the Dominion of Canada, whose later issues, though not without interest, still lack the charm that time can never tear from the simple, yet dignified and beautiful stamps of the Province.

[Pg 94]

CHAPTER VII

THE DOMINION OF CANADA

Preliminary.

As outlined in our Introductory Chapter, the union of Upper and Lower Canada into the single Province of Canada had been so manifestly advantageous that it started an agitation for the union of all the British North American provinces. The result was a convention, held at Quebec in 1864, which drafted a proposed Constitution that was later embodied by the British Parliament in "An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof,"[85] which was passed on the 29th March, 1867. The preamble recites that "the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom." The Act is cited in brief as "The British North America Act 1867," and provides that the Dominion of Canada shall be divided into four provinces named Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; that there shall be a Governor General who may select his own Privy Council; that there shall be a Parliament consisting of a Senate, with members appointed by the Governor General for life, and a House of Commons of elected representatives; that the seat of Government shall be at Ottawa; that each Province shall have a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the Governor General and a local legislature similar to the Dominion Parliament; and making provision for the admission of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia and Rupert's Land and the North-western Territory. The Act took effect on the 1st July, 1867, which day is annually observed as "Dominion Day."

The first Parliament of Canada, which convened at Ottawa on November 6, 1867, was naturally largely concerned in revising and consolidating the laws of the various Provinces, and among these of course appeared the Post Office Laws. A number of changes were introduced, but many of the provisions[Pg 95] of former Acts were embodied almost as they stood in the new statute. We reproduce its most important features in our line of inquiry.

Although the above Act gives most of the groundwork upon which the Post Office Department of Canada has since been operated, save of course the[Pg 100] changes in detail that will be noted in their proper places, yet it seems advisable, in spite of some possible repetition, to quote the larger part of the Instructions sent out to Postmasters in preparation for the impending changes, because of additional details to be found therein.

Post Office Department,
Ottawa, 1st March, 1868.

[Pg 101]

[Pg 104]

A. CAMPBELL, Postmaster General.

[Pg 106]

CHAPTER VIII

THE ISSUE OF 1868

A glance at the new regulations quoted in the last chapter will show that there is no five or seventeen cent prepaid rate, and but one at ten cents—to British Columbia and Vancouver Island; as a result these three denominations are not found in the new set of Dominion postage stamps. On the other hand the half cent transient newspaper rate, the three cent letter rate, with its double at six cents, and the new British Packet rate via New York of fifteen instead of seventeen cents, necessitated these four additional denominations in the new series.

The stamps themselves are as usual line engraved on steel, and present more "continuity of design" throughout the set than before. The main feature of this design is a circular medallion bearing a diademed profile portrait of Queen Victoria to right, on a horizontally lined ground. Arched above this medallion are the words CANADA POSTAGE, and beneath it the value, both in words and Arabic numerals, a slightly different arrangement occurring on each denomination. Foliations of acanthus pattern fill in the remainder of the design, making the outline somewhat irregular. The stamps are fairly large, averaging 20 × 24 mm. in size, except the half cent, which is considerably smaller, being only 17 × 21 mm. They will be found illustrated as Nos. 17, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23 and 24 on Plate I.

The stamps were printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten, and by the imprint we find they were the product of a new concern. This imprint appears in colorless capitals on a narrow strip of color with bossed ends, and reads BRITISH AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. MONTREAL & OTTAWA. This strip is framed by a very thin parallel line, its entire width being but one millimeter, while its length is about 51 mm. It occurs but once on a side, being placed against the middle two stamps (numbers 5 and 6) of each row at a distance of about 3 mm. (see illustration 107 on Plate IX.) The inscription reads up on the left and down on the right, as before, but the bottom one is now upright, instead of being reversed.

In the case of the half cent stamp at least, we find an additional marginal[Pg 107] imprint over the second and third stamps of the top row. This consists of the words HALF CENT, in shaded Roman capitals 4 mm. high, the whole being about 40 mm. long, (illustration 119 on Plate XI). Presumably the same thing, varied for each denomination, occurs on other values of the series, as we find it does on the succeeding issue; but a strip from the top of a sheet of the 15 cent stamps proves that it was lacking on that value at least.

The normal colors of the stamps of this series are approximately:—½ cent, black; 1 cent, brown red; 2 cents, green; 3 cents, deep red; 6 cents, dark brown; 12½ cents, deep blue; 15 cents, mauve. We say approximately, since there is considerable variation as may be noted by a glance at the Reference List. Particularly is this the case with the 15 cent stamp. The earliest tint is the one we have noted—mauve; but the stamp was in practically continuous use down to 1900, and the gamut of shades and colors through which it passed in that time is almost equal to the 10 cent stamp of the preceding issue.

Of the approximate dates of issue of some of the more pronounced shades of the 15 cent stamp it is possible to give an idea through the chronicles of various contemporary magazines which noted them. The original stamp we know was in a mauve tint, and was so chronicled in the Stamp Collector's Magazine for May 1868 (VI: 71). The American Journal of Philately for April 20, 1868, (I:18) describes it as "lilac". The Stamp Collector's Magazine in December, 1874 (XII: 182) says it has "just appeared in a dull deep mauve." Next M. Moens notes that it has become gray lilac, in Le Timbre-poste for March, 1877. Again in the issue for June, 1880, he records it in bright violet, while in May, 1881, it is described as a dark slate color (ardoise foncé). In the July, 1888, issue of the Halifax Philatelist the color is said to have reverted to the mauve tint of the first printings except that it was "more bluish", and once more in May, 1890, the Dominion Philatelist states that "The Canada 15c. has again changed color. It is now bright violet." Finally, in Mekeel's Weekly for March 12, 1896, under "Canadian Notes", we read that "quite a large stock is still on hand in the P.O. Department, but no more are being printed. What are going out now are the remainders of various batches. They are coming in all shades; some being almost the first issue colors."

It remains to note two additions to this series. The first was a change in color:—the 1 cent and 3 cent stamps were quite naturally found to be too nearly alike in shade to properly differentiate them in the rush of post office busi[Pg 108]ness. Hence the 1 cent was changed to an orange yellow, appearing in its new dress in 1809. The exact date seems not to be available, but we find it first noted in The Philatelist for April 1, 1809, in these words:—"The 1 cent and 3 c. of this colony have been hitherto almost identical in hue; that anomaly is now rectified by the recent emission of the former value in bright orange." In the "Summary for the year 1809", the same paper credits the issue to January, 1869.[86]

The second addition was a 5 cent stamp, which is a bit of an anomaly inasmuch as it is a companion in size and design to the 1868 series, but was issued on October 1, 1875, after the series in reduced size, begun in 1870, had been practically completed. The explanation is simple: the die of this large 5 cent stamp had been engraved in 1867 with the other values of the first Dominion series,[87] but as there were no rates requiring such a denomination in the set, it was not issued. When in 1875 the need for a 3 cent value arose, the unused die was employed to make a plate for temporary use, until a new die conforming in size and design with the small stamps could be prepared. The large 5 cent stamp is thus really in the nature of a provisional, for its smaller and permanent successor followed it in about four months.

The statement is often made that the 5 cent denomination was required because of Canada's entry into the Universal Postal Union, which was instituted on July 1, 1875. The statement has elements of truth in it, inasmuch as the indirect results of Canada's application produced the 5 cent rate which required the new stamp; but the statement is not exact because Canada was not actually admitted to the Postal Union until three years later. The Postmaster General's Reports tell the story. The Report for 30th June, 1875 says:—

From the Report of 30th June, 1876 we find that the application of Canada for admission to the Universal Postal Union was not successful owing to the opposition of France. Because of differences with Great Britain in regard to admitting Colonies beyond the seas at the same rates as European countries, British India and the French Colonies had been admitted with a reduced rate of 6 pence per half ounce letter, so as to include cost of sea transit. France contended that Canada should be kept to the same terms. From the Report of 30th June, 1877 we learn that Canada by treaty had obtained the Postal Union rate of 5 cents with Germany, including Prussia, Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria, Baden and Wurtemberg. The letter rate with Newfoundland had also been reduced from 6 cents to 5 cents per half ounce.

The Report for 30th June, 1878 brings matters to fruition:—

The last remark refers to the treaty which took effect on 1st February, 1875, by which letters posted in Canada or the United States could be sent to the other country at the single domestic rate of three cents—of which more later.[Pg 110]

This large 5 cent stamp was of course line engraved like the rest of the series, and issued in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. The sheet bore four marginal imprints, arranged as before, but of a slightly different type from the 1868 issue. This new imprint is in capitals and lower case letters on a colored strip 56 mm. long and 2½ mm. wide, with a border of pearls, and reads: "British American Bank Note Co. Montreal." Doubtless the words "FIVE CENTS" in shaded Roman capitals would be found over the second and third stamps of the top row if one were fortunate enough to possess this portion of a sheet. The stamp is illustrated as No. 21 on Plate I, and the marginal imprint is of the type shown in illustration No. 118 on plate XI. The normal color of this 5 cent stamp is an olive gray, and it is perforated 12, as are all the other values of the set.

The paper upon which the series of 1868 was printed was in general an ordinary white wove variety which varied considerably from a very thin, almost pelure quality to a quite hard and thick variety. Laid paper also makes its appearance again in this set. In Messrs. Corwin and King's article[88] we read:—"The 3 cents on laid paper was first brought to attention in the Philatelic Record for March, 1882,[89] wherein it was stated that Mr. Tapling had a copy in his collection. The 1 cent was first mentioned in the National Philatelist for January, 1883, by Mr. Corwin, its discoverer, in these words: 'Some time since I saw noted in the Philatelic Record the existence of a 3 cent Canada stamp, emission of 1868, on laid paper. In looking through my Canadian varieties, after reading this note, I discovered also a copy of the one cent red, same emission, on laid paper'". The 1 cent yellow is likewise catalogued by the London Society,[90] but the following remark is added: "The One Cent, yellow, on laid paper, is not known to the Society. It is taken from The Halifax Philatelist for July, 1888, page 74." Concerning this Messrs. Corwin and King state:[91] "This was inserted in the Halifax Philatelist in error; so far as we know this stamp does not exist. The original sin of chronicling this stamp, however, rests with M. Moens, for in the Philatelic Record for January, 1883, the fact is stated that M. Moens states that he knows of the existence of the 1c. orange on laid paper." Mr. Charles Lathrop Pack adds his testimony against this quondam stamp:[92] "I do not be[Pg 111]lieve that the 1c, yellow, exists on laid paper, None of the large collectors of Canada or of this country have seen it, and I believe there is no real authority for listing it." There was none: and now that we have tracked it down, the laugh seems to be on the Philatelic Record, and M. Moens is absolved from his "original sin." In Le Timbre-Poste for January, 1883, under the heading Canada we read: "Semblable au 3 cents, 1868, sur papier vergé blanc, il existe: 1 cent, brun-orange." This was the information quoted in the Philatelic Record,[93] but the translator evidently mistook the proper rendering of the French color name as orange-brown, and translated it simply orange, whence the error spread. We can therefore dispose quite effectually of the question and of the phantom stamp in the same breath.

Concerning the laid paper stamps Messrs. Corwin and King say they "must have been among the first issued, as we have seen a copy of the 1 cent, red-brown, postmarked November 27, 1868."[94] That this must have been the case is proved by the existence of the 1 cent in brown-red and not in yellow, as would have been the case if the paper were used in 1869 or thereafter. Mekeel's Weekly[95] also records the 3 cent on a cover bearing date of August 31, 1868.

The 15 cent stamp was reported in the American Journal of Philately for October, 1892, in these words: "Mr. F. de Coppet has shown us a 15 c. of the 1868 issue on thin paper, horizontally laid," and the stamp is described as "violet". We have not seen a copy, but if it was in the early "mauve" tint it probably was a companion of the 1 cent and 3 cents, the latter being found on both thick and thin horizontally laid paper according to Messrs. Corwin and King's lists. If the "violet" was of the gray shades, it belonged to a later printing and not with the early stamps. Mr. Pack lists another variety still[96]: "I also have a copy of the 15 c. on distinctly soft ribbed paper." This stamp is in the lilac gray shade and therefore belongs to later printings as we shall see, for this ribbed paper is found in all values of the small stamps of the succeeding issue.

One other variety of paper needs our attention, and that is the watermarked paper. The fact of its use was early known to collectors, for in The Philatelist for February, 1870, in an article on "British North America" by W. Dudley Atlee, after the "Issue for Confederation" is the following[Pg 112] "Note.—There is also in the last series of adhesives a Three Cent printed on paper watermarked with maker's name; these were most probably issued after the thin paper and before the usual stout paper emissions." Mr. H. F. Ketcheson, commenting on the above in 1889,[97] remarks: "the one cent red also appears on same paper, as I have two specimens of each in my possession." The Halifax Philatelist,[98] in its contemporary issue, also happened to note the discovery of two more values: "Mr. F. C. Kaye has shown us the 2 cent and 6 cent of the 1868 issue, with large watermarked letters of the same type as those in the 1 cent and 3 cent." The 12½ and 15 cent were later found, but the ½ cent and 1 cent yellow have never been discovered. This latter fact doubtless determines the period when the paper was used, for, like the laid paper, if employed in 1869 or later we should find the 1 cent yellow instead of brown red printed on it. On the other hand, it could not have been used when the first consignments were being printed, probably early in 1868, or the ½ cent would be included in the series. This is determined by the fact that the first supply of the ½ cent lasted until the fiscal year of 1871-2, before any further printings were made. The watermarked paper must therefore have been used sometime during the course of the year 1868, probably the middle, when supplies of all values except the ½ cent were printed.

For the determination of the character of the watermark we are indebted to Mr. John N. Luff, whose thoroughness and acumen when delving into a philatelic problem are proverbial. The result of his study was published in 1895[99] and we take the following extracts from his interesting paper:—

Mr. Luff considers that the watermarked stamps "are on an unofficial paper used temporarily," which is without doubt the case, at least as far as the temporary nature goes. He says further: "Compared with the large number without watermark, they are sufficiently scarce to indicate a provisional use of the paper and at the same time there are enough of them to show that a considerable number of sheets were printed."

For other varieties in this series we have the ½ cent on "bluish-white wove paper", listed by M. Moens in the sixth edition of his catalogue. Messrs. Corwin and King say this "corresponds to our grayish paper, the shade sometimes being quite intense." But they list the entire series on "thin, soft, grayish wove paper", as well as the ½ cent and 1 cent brown-red on "pelure grayish paper". It may be that imperfect wiping of the plates had left an extra grayish tint upon the paper of the specimen that Moens singled out for cataloguing, just as occurred in the case of most values of the Post Office Department stamps of the United States.

Messrs. Corwin and King[100] give an extremely lengthy reference list of this issue on no less than seventeen varieties of paper, with the remark that, "every variety we mention is distinct from any other", but, with Major Evans, we must remark that "we confess we are unable to follow our friend[Pg 115] Mr. King through all the intricacies of these varieties of paper ... but the differences are, perhaps, more real than is indicted in the descriptions." On inspection the "seventeen varieties" seem to combine themselves into I: laid paper, of thick and thin qualities; II: watermarked paper; III: yellowish wove paper, very thin to very thick; and IV: grayish wove paper, from pelure to very thick. In both of the wove papers are found the differences due to the process of manufacture, the even texture of the plain wove variety and the mottled texture of the so-called "wire-wove" variety.

The paper used for this issue is responsible for variations in the size of the stamps similar in character and origin to those we have already thoroughly discussed in connection with the 7½ and 10 pence stamps of 1855-7. The design of the series is not calculated to render these variations so apparent as in the former case, but the extreme variations we have found have been carefully noted and are presented in the following list. It will be seen that the variation is confined to a half millimeter in each dimension.

It is also stated that these stamps exist perforated 11½ × 12,[101] as well as the usual 12 all around. As the perforation was done by guillotine machines, this would apparently indicate a machine of 11½ gauge used for the vertical perforations, and we should expect to find some stamps at least perforated 12 × 11½, if not 11½ all around. Such do not seem to have been reported and we have no further information concerning the variety mentioned.

For imperforate stamps in this series we find the 1 cent, yellow, and the 15 cents in a peculiar shade of brown violet. The former is known only in cancelled condition, we believe, but we are able to illustrate an unused block of four of the latter as No. 107 on Plate IX.

The only case of the use of a split stamp in this issue that we have to record is of the 6 cent, cut diagonally and used for the ordinary 3 cent rate on a letter posted at "Annapolis, N. S. JY 2,1869." While having no more authorization than any other of the occasional Canadian "splits," yet this[Pg 116] cover is particularly interesting because of its hailing from Nova Scotia, where split stamps had been used and recognized for their fractional values when the local issue was employed. An illustration of this cover will be found as No. 98 on Plate VIII.

Concerning the quantities issued of the various denominations in this series we cannot be quite as exact as in some of the previous cases. No distinction was made between the various issues in the tables of amounts received from the manufacturers, provided the denomination was the same. In the case of the ½, 3, 6 and 15 cent stamps, which were new values, the quantities given in the Report for 1868 can be used, but with the 1, 2 and 12½ cent stamps the last deliveries of the 1859 series and the first of the 1868 series are lumped together. We have already made a tentative division of the receipts for these latter values,[102] however, which we think is safe enough to use for our purposes. It must be recognized that we are approaching conditions in the business of the Post Office where the quantity of stamps used, particularly if they be of low value and are in service for a number of years, mounts to such an enormous total that the actual figures representing the numbers issued have practically no philatelic value. While interesting, therefore, the totals shown below may be "out" by several per cent without appreciably altering their usefulness—or lack of it.

With these considerations as a basis, we can lay out the series up to certain limits as follows:—

Received From Manufacturers.

The above table shows that the first deliveries of the ½ cent were sufficient to last until 1872; from that time there were yearly deliveries approximating a half million up to the issue of the miniature ½ cent in 1882. The figures for that year doubtless included a large quantity of this latter stamp, so we can safely approximate the quantity of the ½ cent of 1868 issued as 6½ millions. The large 1 cent stamp was superseded about March 1870,[Pg 117] so the above figures may very likely be reduced by say two millions in 1870, leaving 11½ millions of the large stamps, but in both brown-red and yellow. A large part of the 1868-9 deliveries must have been of the brown-red stamp, however, as the yellow one did not appear until January 1869, and from the catalog prices the former would seem to be twice as common as the latter. The large 3 cent was also superseded about January 1870, so that a considerable portion of the deliveries of 1869-70 were doubtless due its successor. Some 20 millions or more can without doubt be credited to the 1868 stamp, nevertheless.

The 2 cent and 6 cent were both superseded early in 1872, so their totals can be reduced probably to approximately 10-11 millions for the former and perhaps 10 millions of the latter.

With the 12½ and 15 cent stamps we find no successors, but we do find that none of the former was delivered after 1871, so that our total of 2½ millions is correct, barring our first approximation. From the lists of "Issues to Postmasters" it is evident that the stamp was regularly used, but in decreasing quantities, down to 1888, when the last figures "1100" appear. A summing up of these issues to postmasters (again allowing for the first approximation) gives us a total of 1,944,100 issued; but of these there were 44,086 returned by the postmasters as unfit for use, the last return (84 copies) being received in 1893. The result for the 12½ cent stamp is therefore approximately 1,900,000 issued and used, and some 634,000 probably destroyed.

The 15 cent stamp, after the amount received in the 1869 account, needed no further supplies until the 1875 account, although it was issued to postmasters each year. The changes in rates in 1875 made it again useful as a multiple of the 5 cent stamp and in connection with registration. From that time until 1893 it was regularly printed and delivered, but this was evidently the end of its usefulness, as the only receipt thereafter was of 400 in 1896—undoubtedly a small remainder which the engravers wanted to get rid of. It was regularly issued to postmasters, however, up to 1900, the last amount, 21,350 appearing in that year's accounts, though 70 copies were turned in for destruction in 1901. Some 31,000 all told were returned as unfit for use, but the rest were probably all used in the course of business.

Of the large 5 cent stamp we can only judge as with the preceding. The Report for 1876 includes the deliveries of both large and small stamps, the total being 2 millions. As succeeding deliveries of the small stamp averaged[Pg 118] a million or more for several years thereafter, it is highly probable that the above total was evenly divided and that the large 5 cent was at least printed to the number of a million copies.

Turning now to the Postmaster General's Reports for the several years during which the large sized stamps were the general issue, we find in the First Report of the Dominion of Canada, for the Year ending 30th June, 1868, the following remarks concerning the new order:—

Some statistics are also given which it will not be out of place to quote here for future comparison.[Pg 119]

There were 87 new Post Offices established in Ontario and Quebec during the [fiscal] year and 74 Post Offices and Way Offices in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. On the 1st January, 1869, there were 3638 Post Offices and Way Offices in the Dominion, and also:—

The total correspondence passing between the United States and Canada is given as $319,352.53, but with no returns from the Maritime Provinces.

The next year's Report, dated 30th June, 1869, gives the revenue as $973,056, a drop of fifty thousand dollars, due to its being the first complete year since the reduction of the postage rates. The total correspondence with the United States is also given as $227,699.13, the drop having come through the reduction to a 6 cent rate, although the Maritime Provinces were included this time. The Report also notes that "From 1st January, 1870, the Postal rate to the United Kingdom was reduced from 12½ to 6 cents per ½ ounce letter."

The report for 1870 states that the Postal Packet rate was reduced on the 1st January, 1870, but does not give the new rate. It is also said that "measures will be taken to organize the whole postal system of the new Province of Manitoba on the same footing as the rest of Canada, from an early date."

The Province of Manitoba, as we have already noted, was admitted to full privileges in the Dominion on July 15, 1870, and the former Colony of British Columbia came in on July 20, 1871. The Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1871 says of these:—

The report for 30th June 1872 states that:—

The postal revenue for the year was $1,193,062, it being the first year that the postal business of British Columbia and Manitoba was included. The former was credited with 38 Post Offices and the latter with 27 Post Offices.

It will be remembered that Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion on July 1, 1873, and the Report of that year credits the former Colony with 180 Post Offices.

The report of 30th June, 1874, states that "The System of free-delivery by letter-carriers in the principal cities, of letters and papers coming by mail has been commenced at Montreal and Toronto." This was under the authority of section 36 of The Post Office Act 1867 which we have already quoted.[103] The text of a new postal treaty between Canada and the United States is given from which we make the following excerpts:—

From the above it is seen that the double domestic postage rate on letters between the two countries, and the keeping of accounts of the total correspondence passing through the exchange offices, were done away with on the 1st February, 1875, and since that date all such mail matter has passed freely between the two countries at the ordinary domestic rates of each. The figures given in this Report were the last for the total correspondence between Canada and the United States, and were presumably for the seven months from 1st July, 1874, to 1st February, 1875: they were $478,516.91, which would represent some eight million letters were that the only class included, and all of them single letters; this would be at the rate of some thirteen million letters per year, a very respectable figure for the intercommunication of the two countries.

Because of further postal changes which came in 1875 and also the fact that a new type of stamp had gradually been replacing the large sized first issue of the Dominion during the last few years, we will close this chapter with the 1874 Report.

[Pg 122]

CHAPTER IX

THE SMALL "CENTS" ISSUE, 1870-82

In the American Journal of Philately for August 20, 1869 we find the following: "Canada is shortly to have a new set of stamps. Taking lessons in economy from our own country, it seems they are about altering their stamps to make them smaller, so as to save paper. The head will still remain exactly the same as now, but the frame and margin around the head will be considerably less." The 1869 set of the United States was then in use, and it may well be that the smaller sized stamps appealed to the authorities in comparison with their own rather large sized productions, even though their suggested parsimony had nothing to do with it. The current ½ cent stamp was taken as the model, and the other values reduced in size to correspond with it, while keeping their former colors. The main features of the designs were therefore retained.

No special announcement of the new series was made that we have been able to discover, and they were only introduced, apparently, as stocks of the large sized stamps on hand were used up. We find the first record of the change in the American Journal of Philately for February 20, 1870: "The stamps of the New Dominion have now made their appearance, altered as described by us last August." Though not specified, this referred to the 3 cent stamp, and its actual issue probably took place in January. The Philatelist chronicles it in the issue of March 1, 1870, as being of "the same colour and general description as before". [Illustration No. 28 on Plate II.]

The next value to appear was the 1 cent, which was noted in the Stamp Collector's Magazine for April 1, 1870; it was probably issued, therefore, some time in March, for the American Journal of Philately records it in its issue of April 20, 1870. [Illustration No. 25 on Plate II.]

Two years then elapsed before further additions were made, and lent some color to the report in several European journals that the cause of the new issue was the destruction by fire in Montreal of the plates of the 1 cent and 3 cent of 1868, and that the other values of the set would remain as before. The American Journal of Philately learned, however, that only the[Pg 123] press room of the Bank Note Co. was damaged, and that the plates were intact. At last the 6 cent in reduced size made its appearance and was chronicled in the American Journal of Philately for February, 1872, to be followed in the March issue by the announcement of the 2 cent. The former value must therefore have been issued in January and the latter in February. [Illustrations Nos. 30 and 26 on Plate II.]

Again in the American Journal of Philately for November 20, 1874, we find it "reported" that Canada "has issued a 10c. rose", and the next issue says it "is printed in a peculiar pale rose, we can not call to mind any other stamp of this particular tint." The actual issue therefore, was probably about November 1, 1874. Just what called forth this new value in the Dominion series does not appear, unless it be the section in the Postal Treaty between Canada and the United States which fixed the rate on patterns and samples at 10 cents for not over 8 oz., with prepayment obligatory.[104] This rate did not go into effect, however, until January 1, 1875. Of course as a multiple of the 5 cent rates which came into force on October 1, 1875, the new 10 cent stamp was very useful, but that was nearly a year subsequent to its issue. The new stamp is illustrated as No. 32 on Plate II.

The next of the series to make its appearance was the 5 cent, which was noted in the American Journal of Philately for February 20, 1876 as having "just been issued." [Illustration No. 29 on Plate II.] This doubtless means about the 1st February, so that its large sized predecessor had only about four months of life. There were now left in the large sized stamps only the 12½ and 15 cents. In its issue for May, 1872, the Stamp Collector's Magazine quoted from the Canadian Philatelist as follows:—"It is unlikely that the 12½ c. small size will be issued, as the large ones are very little used, and can now be bought at the post-office at 12 cents." This last statement is rather surprising. Nevertheless, it was announced in the American Journal of Philately for October, 1879 that "Canada will shortly issue the 12½ and 15c. values of postals in small size, to correspond with the others of the series." This paper seemed to have been usually well informed concerning Canadian postal matters, but the expected new stamps did not materialize. The dies and plates were undoubtedly prepared, for the 12½ cent stamp at least exists in a finished state, but is very scarce. Proofs of both values were illustrated in Le Timbre-Poste for November, 1888, with the following remarks: "On nous envoie les essais des futurs timbres 12½ et[Pg 124] 15 centavos qui doivent compléter un peu tardivement, la série des timbres à ce format. Nos exemplaires sont imprimés, le premier en lilas, le second en vert sur papier de la Chine." Commenting on this in the American Philatelist for December, 1888, Mr. W. C. Stone says: "We heard of these some ten or twelve years ago and saw them both last summer in New York." We have been fortunate enough to be able to illustrate the 12½ cent (see No. 89 on Plate V) from the Worthington collection, and this finished copy, with full gum, is in a bright blue as we should expect. We regret that it was impossible to locate a copy of the reduced 15 cent to illustrate as a companion piece. The reasons that the plates of these two stamps were never actually brought into use, though evidently prepared with the other values in smaller size, were probably these: The 12½ cent of 1868, as we have seen, though issued to postmasters for several subsequent years, was not printed after 1871, nor was the old stock exhausted when its use was discontinued. There was therefore no call for any supply to be printed from the new plate. The 15 cent was not printed between 1869 and 1875, and after that in such relatively small quantities each year until 1896, that, unless we are greatly mistaken, the original plate never wore out, but was used without change to the end.

The old adage that "history repeats itself" was again exemplified in Canadian stamps when in July, 1882, the ½ cent stamp, for fourteen years unaltered, was once more reduced to a smaller size than the regular series. The general effect of the design remained the same, but the foliate ornamentation gave place to angular outlines. The illustration will be found as No. 27 on Plate II.

All of the above mentioned stamps, except the ½ cent as will be explained, were line engraved on steel and printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. The marginal imprints turn out to be of three varieties in this series, and we have pieced together what information we can concerning them, for strips with marginal imprints are extremely hard to find now. The first plates made, including at least the 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 cent stamps, and probably the 10 cent as well, since that was engraved before the 5 cent, had the denomination in shaded Roman capitals, 4 mm. high, [Illustration No. 121 on Plate XI], over stamps 2 and 3 of the top row. Sometimes the shading is hardly apparent, as in our illustration, but it can be detected. Beginning over stamp 4, extending over stamps 5 and 6, and ending over stamp 7, is the inscription we found on the series of 1868 (see illustration 107 on Plate IX), "BRITISH AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. MONTREAL & OTTAWA"[Pg 125] in colorless Roman capitals in the little strip of color 1 mm. wide and 51 mm. long. This imprint is also beneath the bottom row of stamps and at each side, reading up at the left and down at the right [Illustration No. 111 on Plate X]. We have so far not seen this inscription on the 5 cent and 10 cent sheets, and doubt if it exists on the former at least.

About 1875 the engraving company seem to have dropped their Ottawa branch, for on the large 5 cent stamp, whose plate was made in that year, we find the new imprint "British American Bank Note Co. Montreal" in capitals and lower case letters on a colored strip 56 mm. long and 2½ mm. wide, having a pearled border. This imprint is found on all four sides of the sheet, as before, as reference to Plates X, XI and XII will show, and on the plates of all values. In the case of the 6 and 10 cent stamps, and perhaps some others as well, the value SIX, TEN, etc. is now found in the shaded Roman capitals over stamp number 9 of the top row, but lacking the word CENTS. Over stamp number 2 of the top row is the figure of value, 6 mm. high, [Illustration No. 118, Plate XI]. A sheet of the small 5 cent stamps which we have seen, however, does not follow this arrangement but reverts to the first style with FIVE CENTS in the shaded Roman capitals over the first three stamps of the top row only, though having the four "Montreal" imprints. Again, a sheet of 3 cent that we have examined has the word THREE alone in the shaded Roman capitals over the first two stamps of the top row, and the "Montreal" imprint at the center of the top and bottom rows only, there being nothing at the sides. A sheet of 1 cent presents still another style, having the "Montreal" imprint at top and bottom alone, and no other marginal inscriptions. We have seen no sheet or margin of the 2 cent stamp bearing the "Montreal" imprint, but it doubtless exists.

Whether the arrangement of these marginal inscriptions is a special one for each value, or whether each style described exists in all values there does not seem to be material enough at hand to determine. Probably neither statement is wholly in accordance with facts, as there must have been a great many plates of the 1 cent and 3 cent stamps, with proportionately fewer for the less used values. There seems to have been no system of plate numbering, as far as we can discover, though some margins show reversed letters or figures about 3 to 4 mm. high in various positions; they do not appear to have any special significance, however.

In regard to the ½ cent of 1882, which we excepted from the above statements, there is a special arrangement to consider. The stamp was of[Pg 126] course line engraved on steel, as before, but the plate printed two panes of 100 impressions each, side by side. These panes were the usual 10 × 10 arrangement, and were separated by a space of 11 mm. through which they were cut into two "post office sheets". The marginal inscriptions were simply the "Montreal" imprint [illustration No. 127 on Plate XII] which appeared six times—at the top and bottom of each pane, in the right margin of the right hand pane and the left margin of the left hand pane, there being no imprint in the space between the two panes. Over the top inscription of the right pane is the reversed figure 1, 4 mm. high, and in the same position on the left pane the corresponding figure 2, evidently to designate the panes.

Once again, and this time the fact was noted in some of the philatelic journals, the imprint was changed. The engraving company had been required by the Government to do its printing at Ottawa,[105] and under "Canada Notes" in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News for December 21, 1892, "Canadensis" reports: "The new plates of the Canada stamps now bear this imprint: 'British American Bank Note Co. Ottawa', instead of Montreal. The matrix being made from the old die are exactly like the previous issues." The new imprint is a copy of the first one we described, with "Montreal &" omitted. It is 40 mm. long and 1½ mm. wide and is well shown in illustration No. 123 on Plate XII. These new plates were doubtless the ones heralded in the Dominion Philatelist for September, 1892, wherein it is stated that "the present issue of Canada 3 c. Stamps are being printed and issued in sheets of 200 instead of 100 as formerly." And again in the same paper for May, 1893: "The Canada 1c., 2c., and 3c. stamps are now being printed in sheets of 200." This new sheet arrangement consisted of ten horizontal rows of twenty stamps each. The "Ottawa" imprint appears three times, once in the middle of the top margin, over stamps 10 and 11, and twice in the bottom margin, beneath stamps 5 and 6, and again beneath stamps 15 and 16. There are no imprints at the sides. The denomination appears in the top margin at both right and left and in a new style of lettering on these larger plates. Thus we find ONE CENT or TWO CENT over stamps 2 and 3 as well as 18 and 19, or THREE CENT over the first four and last four stamps in plain Egyptian capitals, (see illustration No. 120 on Plate XI).

One other imprint was used on the 2 cent value at least, but we have so far seen it on no other. It was 49 mm. long and nearly 2 mm. wide, but otherwise is a duplicate of the smaller "Ottawa" imprint. A portion of it[Pg 127] is seen in illustration No. 129 on Plate XIII. The sheet was in the 10 × 10 form, and the imprint appeared at top and bottom only, there being no other marginal inscriptions. From the sheet form it would seem probable that it preceded the use of the sheets of 200 stamps.

The colors of these small stamps were intended to be the same as those of the larger stamps they superseded, and in the main they were so. The orange and orange yellow shades of the 1 cent stamp appear to have been the earlier ones, while the yellow tints came in the later printings. The 2 cent follows the green of its predecessor very closely. The 3 cent, as might be expected, is more prolific in the variety of shades presented. The Philatelist chronicled it (March, 1870) in the "same colour as before," while Moens, in Le Timbre-Poste, was more specific and gave it as red-brown. In May, 1873, the Stamp Collector's Magazine lists it in orange-vermilion, while The Philatelist says vermilion and Le Timbre-Poste bright orange. The 5 cent stamp did not vary a great deal except in tone, though Le Timbre-Poste notes it as "black-gray" in July, 1877. The 6 cent was also fairly constant in its brown shade. The 10 cent appeared at first in what, for want of a better name, may be called a rose-lilac. The Stamp Collector's Magazine called it pale rose, and the American Journal, of Philately said it was a "peculiar pale rose" which was a new tint. The latter paper notes it again in a "bright carnation" in March, 1876, while Le Timbre-Poste in August of the same year chronicles it in "pale red instead of lilac."

We have been thus particular in listing the record of early shades because of the changes which come later.

In the January, 1888, issue of the Halifax Philatelist we find the following note under "Canada":—"The plate of the 2 c. stamp has been re-engraved. Color is now dark green". No details of such re-engraving were forthcoming, but in the June, 1888, number of the Philatelic Record is a paragraph which evidently refers to the same stamp:—"A correspondent has sent us a specimen of the 2 cents, green, which he calls a new die. We fail to see it; but what we do see is, that the stamp is printed from a lithographed transfer." This surprising statement seemed to excite no special comment save from the sagacious M. Moens, who remarks:[106] "Nous avons également reçu ce timbre qui parait lithographié, par suite d'usure de la planche, croyons-nous, car la feuille entière que nous avons annonce que l'impression a été faite,[Pg 128] comme antérieurement, par la British American Bank Note Co. de Montreal et Ottawa, qui ne s'occupe pas d'impression lithographique que nous sachions."

Without doubt M. Moens gave the correct explanation, for the imprint that he mentions will be recognized as the one to be found on the earliest plates of the small stamps, and 1888 was thirteen years at least after the second type of imprint with "Montreal" only had been introduced. Hence the stamp in question was probably a late print from a worn plate, which gave a rather flat and indistinct impression that might suggest lithography, though it is certain that Canada has never yet stooped to such a cheap means of postage stamp production. A similar case may be recalled with the ½ penny stamp of St. Helena which was issued in 1884, and which presented a like appearance.

Whether the above incident had anything to do with the change of the printing company from Montreal to Ottawa, which we have already noted in describing the imprints, we cannot say, but it is certain that it was the beginning of changes, in shade at least, which affected the whole series of stamps. We have the authority of the Postmaster General's Report for 1889 that the "removal of the British American Bank Note Co. from Montreal to Ottawa" had taken place—evidently early in 1888, as will be seen later—so that the use of an old worn-out plate might have been a case of temporary necessity. Further details are given by the Canadian correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era[107] as follows: "About six years ago the Government insisted on their contractors doing their printing at the Capital, and the British American Bank Note Co. erected a handsome establishment on Wellington Street, where all postage stamps have since been printed. It may be remembered that the Ottawa printings were signalized by distinct varieties in shade from the earlier Montreal issues, varieties that have never been sufficiently distinguished in the standard catalogues."

These changes in the stamp shades were soon noted. In March, 1888, the Philatelic Record described the 10 cent stamp as "now in carmine-red", while two months later it chronicled the 5 cent as changed "from bronze-green to greenish-grey." We have already noted the change in the 15 cent to a color approximating its original mauve, "only more of a bluish tinge," which the Halifax Philatelist recorded in July, 1888. The following October the same paper listed the 3 cent in a "bright carmine", and in July, 1889, an[Pg 129]nounced the 2 cent in "blue green". The 6 cent lagged behind the others and did not manifest itself until the American Journal of Philately announced it in October, 1890, in a "rich brown." Once again, Le Timbre-Poste for April, 1892, stated that the 5 cent had "since the 8th March, appeared in gray black". The 1 cent doubtless had its special hue of yellow along with the other changes, but it was not recorded, probably because not distinct enough from the usual run of variations in which it had been appearing.

That the above changes were hardly of a character to warrant dignifying them as a "new issue," which is frequently done, is shown by a moment's consideration. The ½ cent and 1 cent stamps showed no appreciable difference in coloring and therefore caused no comment. The 2 cent did not maintain its blue green shade unaltered, and the 3 cent soon reverted to its former brilliant red hue, as the Philatelic Journal of America for May, 1889, says that "the carmine color recently adopted has been dropped, and the stamps are printed in colors similar to the ones in use before the change was made." The 5, 6 and 10 cent stamps, however, made permanent changes, but only such as might readily be traceable to a new mixing of the inks in the case of the first two. The 10 cent can hardly be so easily disposed of, as lake and brown-red are of quite different composition from a rose-lilac. But there can have been no official intention of altering the shades or colors or more definite and permanent changes would certainly have been made throughout the set. It remains, therefore, to classify them simply as shade varieties of the original set.

Mr. King gives a list of eight varieties of paper[108] for the "small cents issues", but we have deemed it sufficient to note a thick and a thin white wove paper, and a closely ribbed paper. All values are reported as existing with the compound perforation (11½ × 12) spoken of under the 1868 issue. We also find all values occurring in an imperforate condition. The 3 cent was first noted in the Philatelic Record for December, 1882; the 15 cent we have already spoken of under the 1868 issue; and the 5, 6 and 10 cent at least, from the shades of the specimens we have seen, belong to the printings subsequent to the color modifications of 1888-90. Concerning these imperforates, we find in a paper on Canada, read before the Royal Philatelic Society by Mr. M. H. Horsley,[109] the following note:[Pg 130]—

Supplementing this Mr. Pack writes:[110]—

The above statements are correct, and we can vouch for them by documentary evidence. Not only were the various values of the series we are considering on sale in imperforate condition, but also the 8, 20 and 50 cent stamps which we are next to consider, and the shade of the 8 cent stamp shows it to have been among the earlier printings—probably in 1893. We are fortunate in being able to present illustrations of all these imperforates in blocks of four or more, which will be found on Plates IX, X and XII.

That these imperforates are perfectly good for postage and are recognized by the Canadian Post Office to this day, equally with their perforated prototypes, has been proved to our satisfaction because we have employed some on registered matter addressed to the United States. As this class of mail requires to be fully prepaid, any irregularity would at once be detected and the covers would tell the story. We illustrate a pair of the 2 cent imperforate on a registered cover mailed at Como, Quebec, on March 20, 1905. [Plate XIII, No. 129.]

As before, we find that a few stamps have been "split" and used for half their value, copies of the 2 cent and 6 cent having been cut vertically and doing unquestioned duty as 1 cent and 3 cent stamps respectively. As this practise is unauthorized they can be regarded mearly as freaks that have slipped through by carelessness—or favor.

Turning once more to the Postmaster General's Reports, we begin with that of the 30th June, 1875. This notes that:[Pg 131]—

The Act referred to was "An Act to amend and consolidate the Statute Law for the regulation of the Postal Service. [Assented to 8th April, 1875.]"[111] and was mainly a repetition of The Post Office Act, 1867,[112] with certain amendments incorporated. The principal changes which interest us are as follows:—

From the above quotations we see that the new Act made prepayment of letters by stamps obligatory, and imposed a fine of double the deficiency if insufficiently prepaid; that the unlimited weight of drop letters was restricted to ½ oz. per rate; that newspapers and periodicals were classed together and publishers given the low rate of 1 cent per pound; that the rate of 2 cents[Pg 133] on transient newspapers was reduced to ½ cent per ounce, and 1 cent up to four ounces; etc.

The Report of 1875 further informs us that the free delivery of letters by carrier had been commenced in the following cities on the dates given:—

The British American Bank Note Co. was paid for

The Report of 1876 contains no special items not already noted, but that of 1877 states that the letter rate of postage with Newfoundland had been reduced from 6 cents to 5 cents per ½ oz., and the same rate had been obtained with Germany from 1st April, 1877.

The Report of 1878 announces the admission of Canada into the Universal Postal Union from the 1st July, as we have already detailed.[113] The Report of 1879 says: "A reduction has been made, from the 1st September last, in the postage rate on closed parcels sent by post within the Dominion, from 12½ cents per 8 oz. of weight to 6 cents per 4 oz. Under this change small parcels not exceeding 4 ounces in weight are admitted to pass for 6 cents instead of 12½ cents as before." This sounded the death knell of the 12½ cent stamp, which dropped in the number issued to postmasters from 84,150 in 1879 to 13,400 in 1880 and 4950 in 1881. It was issued in decreasing numbers down to 1888, when it disappears from the accounts.

Nothing further of importance transpired until 1881, when a supple[Pg 134]mentary agreement touching certain points was signed with the United States Post Office Department:—

The Report of June 30, 1882 states that newspapers and periodicals published in Canada (under certain conditions as to form and manner of posting) are transmitted free by Post within the Dominion when posted from the office of publication to regular subscribers, from 1st June, 1882. This must have been due to a Department Order, as the Statutes of Canada reveal no such enactment at this time. The same Report announces the issue of reply post cards, but those will be dealt with later.[Pg 135]

Statistics make up most of the Reports until that of 1886, when an item of interest in connection with the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway is found: "The first through train left Montreal on Monday the 28th June, 1885, and arrived at Port Moody, the Pacific terminus of the road on the 4th July. Mails for British Columbia commenced to pass over the Canadian Pacific Railway by this first train." This marked the independence of Canada from the United States in the matter of transcontinental transportation of mails. The distance from Montreal to Port Moody is given as 2892 miles.

In connection with this event the following note may be of interest:[114]—

The Report of 1887 says that:—

The Report of 1888 announces the extension of free delivery by letter carriers to Victoria, B. C. Since the list of free delivery offices given on page 133, there are to be added as well:—

The Report of 1889 states that "the Post Office Act of 1889 increased the limit of weight of a single rate letter from ½ ounce to 1 ounce. The rate on drop letters at the same time was fixed at 2 cents per ounce." The[Pg 136] Act[115] referred to was an amendment to the Post Office Act, (assented to on the 2nd May, 1889), and the notice of the changes issued to the public was as follows:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, JOHN G. HAGGART.
OTTAWA, 8th MAY, 1889                              Postmaster General

The Act also made another change, not noted in the circular, by which section 24 of The Post Office Act, 1875, which provided a rate of 1 cent per 4 ounces on printed matter, seeds, etc., and samples of merchandise, was amended so as to limit the weight of printed matter to 2 ounces for the 1 cent rate.

The 1889 Report also chronicles the "removal of the British American Bank Note Co. from Montreal to Ottawa," a fact which we have already commented upon at length in its results upon the stamps issued after the transfer.[116]

[Pg 137]

In 1890 we find that "the complaints which were so prevalent some time since, of the want of adhesiveness in the postage stamps have almost entirely ceased. It is hoped, therefore, that the efforts of the manufacturer to remove the cause of complaint have been successful." And again in 1891: "Complaints of defective mucilage would be far less frequent if the public would kindly bear in mind that it is the envelope of a letter, or the cover of a packet, and not the postage stamp, which should be moistened when stamps are affixed in prepayment of postage. When a stamp is passed over the tongue the mucilage is frequently almost wholly removed." They should have had these instructions engraved on the margins of the plates, as did the British authorities with the old one penny black!

The Report for 1892 announces the preparation of letter cards, which will be treated of later, and also says: "Postage stamps of the value of 20 cents and 50 cents are about to be issued. These will be useful in prepayment of parcel post." And this brings us to our next chapter.

[Pg 138]

CHAPTER X

THE SUPPLEMENTARY VALUES OF 1893

Before proceeding with the subject matter of this chapter in detail, it may be well to reproduce here a synopsis of the Canadian Postal Rates and Regulations as set forth in the Dominion Philatelist in December, 1893, and taken from the then current Canada Postal Guide. This will give a comprehensive review of the results of the various Acts and Amendments and Department Orders that we have quoted—and of some of the last that we have been unable to obtain.

We see from the above postal packet rates where the use of a 20 cent stamp would be convenient, which accounts for the announcement of the new value in the Postmaster General's Report last quoted in the preceding chapter. The 50 cent stamp of course would serve a useful purpose in making up relatively large amounts of postage. The above rates also show that there was still use for the 15 cent stamp in payment of parcels to Newfoundland.[Pg 142]

We find notice of the issue of the new values in the Dominion Philatelist[117] as follows:—

The somewhat ambiguous description will be more readily understood by reference to the illustrations, numbers 33 and 35 on Plate II.

The stamps, as stated, are very evidently copied from the design of the dollar values of the Bill Stamps issued in 1868. The portrait of the Queen in her widow's weeds, in fact, is doubtless reproduced directly from the original die engraved twenty-five years previously. The stamps were of course line engraved on steel, and printed in the usual sheet arrangement of 100, ten rows of ten. The plates of course emanated from Ottawa, but bear a new imprint, similar to the second one used in Montreal. The colored strip is now 38 mm. long and 2½ mm. high with square ends, and bears the legend: "British American Bank Note Co. Ottawa." within a pearled border. It appears only twice, in the center of the top and of the bottom margins, and can be seen in illustrations Nos. 106 and 108 on Plate IX. The colors are not exactly as described in our quotation, the 20 cent being a vermilion or bright red, similar to the colors of the 3 cent, and the 50 cent a deep blue, but not indigo. According to the advices of the American Journal of Philately (VI: 102) the stamps were issued on the 17th February—five days earlier than the above quotation states.

Both values were printed on a medium white wove paper and perforated 12. Both were ordered to the number of half a million copies in 1893, and in 1895 25,000 more of the 20 cent and 30,000 more of the 50 cent were delivered, with a final 200 copies of each in 1896. These quantities were sufficient to last until the 20 cent was superseded by the newer type in 1901, and the 50 cent by the King's head stamp in 1908. Some 1500 of the 20 cent were returned for destruction and about 10,000 of the 50 cent![Pg 143]

Both these stamps are found imperforate and in this condition are to be classed in the same category as the imperforates of the "small cents issue," which we have already considered.[118] Illustrations of blocks of four of each will be found as numbers 106 and 108 on Plate IX. The 50 cent is in a peculiar black blue shade.

In the preceding chapter we quoted a circular from the Postmaster General which called attention to the changes made by The Post Office Act, 1889. A uniform registration fee of 5 cents was one of these, and to enable the 2 cent registration stamps to be used up permission was given to make up the difference by postage stamps when registering mail matter. Four years later it was decided to discontinue the use of the special stamp for the registration fee, and to permit its prepayment by ordinary postage stamps. As the combined letter and registration rate was eight cents, a stamp of this value for use on registered letters was deemed advisable. We read under "Canadian Notes" in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News for August 10, 1893:—

The new stamp reverted to the small size and general design of the "small cents issue", but with the important difference that the head was turned to the left instead of the right, as with all the others of that series. It was line engraved on steel, as usual, and the only entire sheet we have seen was of 200, in ten horizontal rows of twenty stamps, but without a sign of any marginal imprints. The perforation variety 11½ × 12 is reported as occurring in this value also, as well as the regular gauge 12. The color was at first a bluish gray, which soon darkened and ran through a series of shades as if in emulation of the old 6 pence stamp. Mr. Horsley states[119] that it appeared in slate-blue in October of 1893, and slate in 1895. Alfred Smith's Monthly Circular for December, 1895, records it in a "dark slate-black," and the Weekly Philatelic Era for November 30, 1895, says that "a peculiar feature in connec[Pg 144]tion with the new shade of the current eight cent Canada postage stamp is that upon being put in water and left there for a few minutes the paper becomes of a pinkish tint which after the stamp becomes dry still remains." This "new shade" was doubtless the dark slate color referred to, which must have been issued, therefore, in October or November of 1895. In December, 1897, the Monthly Journal notes it in a "deep purple", similar in shade to the 8 cent Jubilee stamp, and very likely printed from the same mixing of ink.

The stamp was printed upon a medium white wove paper, and is found in imperforate condition like the other values of the then current stamps, which we have already described.[120] The imperforates are in the early bluish gray color, so that it is fair to suppose they were from the first printings in 1893. A block of four is illustrated as number 110 on Plate X.

The first delivery of these stamps—and of course the first printing—was of 100,000, as recorded in the stamp accounts for 1893. As these accounts were made up to 30th June, and there is no record of any "issue to postmasters," the stamps were doubtless delivered just before the accounts were closed, so that opportunity had not been given to distribute the new value. For the next few fiscal years the amount received from the manufacturers averaged over a million and a half annually, so that by the time it was superseded it had been printed to the number of at least 7½ millions.

There is nothing of special importance concerning postage stamps in the Postmaster General's Reports from 1893 to 1897, but we glean an item of interest from Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News of December 3, 1896:—

[Pg 145]

CHAPTER XI

THE JUBILEE ISSUE OF 1897

The so-called "Diamond Jubilee" of the accession of Queen Victoria, who had then been on the throne of the United Kingdom for sixty years, occurred on the 20th June, 1897, and several of the British Colonies, as on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary, considered it fitting to celebrate the event with a commemorative issue of postage stamps. Probably no proprieties would be violated were it observed, sub rosa, that the pecuniary gains connected with such issues were probably more of a factor in determining their birth than the superabundance of jubilation over the auspicious occurrence. Such a suspicion is quite readily aroused when considering all the facts in connection with the special set of stamps that Canada felt it necessary to put forth at this time.

But the story runs a little farther back and hinges on other changes. What proved a prophetic utterance appeared under "Canadian Notes" in the Weekly Philatelic Era of August 1, 1896, as follows:—

Under the same "Notes" in the issue of the above paper for January 23, 1897, we find the result of the "pressure":—

[Pg 146]

Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News gives further details in a clipping from the Montreal Herald, dated "Ottawa, Jan. 11," [1897]:[121]—

The next step appears in the Weekly Philatelic Era of January 30, 1897, where we read under "Canadian Notes":—

A step further is recorded in the Era for March 27th, as follows:—

If only this original intention had been adhered to!

More precise information finally appeared in the Era for May 29th:—

The same paper credits the suggestion of the general idea of the Jubilee design to Mr. Pareira, an official of the Interior Department.

A few days later the matter of the proposed issue came up in Parliament, and the Postmaster General was interpellated in the House of Commons. His[Pg 148] reply was published in the Canadian Hansard, the official record, of 20th May, 1897, as follows:—

Total value of one stamp of each kind, $ 16.21½.

[Pg 149]

Promptly, "as advertised", the stamps were placed on sale throughout the Dominion on the morning of Saturday, the 19th of June. The natural result followed: an expectant populace, for various reasons but with one main object, literally besieged the post offices for the coveted treasures. The advance publication of the quantities of the various denominations to be issued gave speculators the hint as to the most desirable values to "corner", and as a result the ½ cent and 6 cent stamps were a special mark in all quarters. This action seems to have been more or less anticipated, for these values were doled out in very small quantities, if at all, in spite of the large orders that were everywhere given for them. This was doubtless largely due to the following circular, sent out with the initial supply of the stamps to all postmasters:[122]—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, June,1897.

E. P. Stanton, Superintendent.

THE POSTMASTER.

E. P. S.

[Pg 150]The conditions that developed when the stamps were actually issued seem to have surprised the Department, and caused additional measures to be taken for an equable distribution. We quote Mr. F. W. Wurtele:[123]—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, 26th June, 1897.

E. P. STANTON, Superintendent.

[Pg 151]

Not only were the sales of the ½ and 6 cent stamps thus restricted, but notices were posted in the offices that none of the ½c., 6c., 8c., $1.00, $2.00, $3.00, $4.00, or $5.00 stamps would be sold unless the whole set were taken. This proceeding naturally resulted in considerably more protest on the part of stamp collectors and the public (?). Rumor had it just after the issue was placed on sale that the 8 cent stamp had been withdrawn, which probably accounts for the "run" upon that value and its inclusion in the above restrictions. In fact a correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, writing from Winnipeg, Man., on 25th June, stated that "a sensation was caused amongst those interested by the government on Tuesday [22nd June] recalling, by wire, all the 8c. stamps of the new issue on hand at this office." This was later explained by a letter published in the Weekly Philatelic Era:[124]—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, 29th July, 1897.

I am, Sir,
Your obdt. servant,
E. P. STANTON,
Superintendent.

Under date of 31st July it was announced from Ottawa that "the demand for complete sets has been very large, about nine thousand sets having already been issued".[125] The "partial sets" referred to in the above letter were the next step in the unbending process, the decision to put them on sale having been reached on 31st July, and their issue to the public beginning on 4th August. Concerning this concession Mr. Donald A. King says:[126]—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, [August] 1897.

E. P. STANTON, Superintendent.
THE POSTMASTER.

For disingenuousness, for pathetic regard for the public and the postmaster, and yet withal a keen eye for the "interests" of the department, this circular is a model which should be preserved for posterity—and "businesslike" post office departments.

Mr. King continues:—

[Pg 153]

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA.
(Office of the Superintendent of the Postage Stamp Branch).
Ottawa,... 1897.

Such is the history of the Diamond Jubilee set of Canadian stamps. We make no comment on it—it seems as if none were necessary and that the presentation is amply sufficient for each to judge for himself concerning it. We will only add Major Evans sapient remark[127]: "All the trouble was the natural result of pretending to treat a commemorative and limited issue as if it had been an ordinary and permanent one. Ordinary common sense should have suggested the issue of large supplies of the lowest value, and a certain number of all values to every office."

To revert to the stamps themselves. We have already given a description of the design in one of our previous quotations, but it needs to be amended in one or two particulars. The portrait of Queen Victoria labelled "1837" on the stamp will be recognized as identical with that on the old 12 pence and later 7½ pence values. In fact Mr. Wurtele tells us[128] that a prominent Montreal collector, whose advice was asked when the issue was under consideration, gave the government a magnificent unused copy of the 7½d. green, to be used in engraving the picture. It does not, as stated, show Her Majesty on her coronation day, but is from the painting representing her on the occasion of the prorogation of Parliament, on 17th July, 1837, as already described.[129] The portrait labelled "1897" is from a full length painting executed by command in 1886 by Prof. Von Angelo of Vienna. It represents Her Majesty as she appeared on the assumption of the title "Empress of India", and the curious may find the entire figure copied on the 3 pence post card of Great[Pg 154] Britain issued in 1889, and also on the 1 penny card of 1892. This State portrait of the Queen is now in Buckingham Palace. The crown at the top center of the stamp is not the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain but the so-called Tudor Crown. The Imperial Crown is well illustrated on the 3 pence and 5 cent "beaver" stamps, and a comparison with the Jubilee issue will plainly show the difference in the "style" of these two crowns.

Our illustration (No. 34 on Plate II) shows a sample of the whole set, the only variation, outside of the color, being the denomination in the label at the bottom. This is in each case expressed in words. The stamps are beautifully engraved on steel as usual, and are printed on stout wove paper and perforated 12. The values from ½ cent through 5 cents were printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. Above the 5 cent, that is from 6 cents through 5 dollars, they were printed in sheets of 50, ten horizontal rows of five stamps each. The marginal inscriptions are very meagre, consisting merely of "OTTAWA—No—1" (or some other plate number) in hair-line Roman capitals 2½ mm. high, at the top of the sheet only. The inscription is 40 mm. long, being centered over stamps 5 and 6 of the top row in the sheets of 100, and over stamp number 3 in the sheets of 50. This is the first time that plate numbers appear on the sheets of Canadian postage stamps, and it is well to record them. Taking them serially we find the plates of the various values were made as follows:—

The colors, which will be found in the Reference List, are quite constant, as would be expected. The principal variation is only one of tone in a few values.[Pg 155]

A newspaper despatch from Ottawa tells us that "A return brought down to-day shows that the cost of printing the jubilee stamp was 20 cents per thousand."[130]

Considerable criticism was naturally aroused by the inclusion of the values from one to five dollars, and outside of the palpable attempt to "make capital" from stamp collectors and others, it was claimed that the four and five dollar values were useless, as the "highest amount that can possibly be required on a parcel sent by mail from Canada is $3.59 (including registration). This owing to limitations of weight, etc., and the highest amount that can be required on a letter is $1.65".[131] An "official" replied[132] that "very frequently parcels leave the Toronto Post Office with $15 and $20 postage on them, and in some cases the postage has reached the amount of $63. There is another way in which the $4 and $5 stamps may be used, viz.:—in second class rate books. Canada does not issue Newspaper or Periodical stamps so these two high values can be used in this way."

Someone wrote the Postmaster General, quoting the above letter and asking further particulars. The reply stated[133] that "the regulations do not fix any limit to the weight of letters.... According to the regulations of this Department 'Second Class Matter' comprises newspapers and periodicals addressed to regular subscribers, (including sample copies) and that, postage being payable upon such matter at a bulk rate of 1c. per lb., the stamps required for prepayment are not affixed to the packages, but are placed in small books and cancelled. The books for this purpose are supplied by the Department to all Post Offices where they are required." This was analogous to the practice in the United States, only regular postage stamps were employed instead of special newspaper and periodical stamps. As a matter of fact the high value Jubilee stamps, which later became a drug on the market, were largely used for this purpose. Mr. King confirms the fact of large postage payments:[134] "I have seen packages originating at and passing through the post office here [Halifax] that had from $12.00 to $15.00 postage on them ... and the case can be recalled of a letter on which $40 was prepaid."

The question of the unlimited validity of the Jubilee stamps for postage was also brought up, doubtless because of the temporary nature of their issue,[Pg 156] and a special circular was issued touching this point, of which the following is a copy:[135]—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA.
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH.
OTTAWA, 24th June, 1897.

I am Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
E. P. STANTON,
Superintendent.

A curious case of splits is recorded from the Sussex, N. B., News:[136]—

The 1 cent ordinary also did duty at some offices for like reasons, but the practice was not approved from headquarters, as postmasters were officially instructed in such cases to use whole 1 cent stamps and get a refund on the difference in value.

It may be recalled that one of our quotations stated that the first set of Jubilee stamps printed would be presented to the "Prince of York"—a slip for the "Duke of York," afterwards Prince of Wales, and now His Most[Pg 157] Gracious Majesty King George V. An account of this presentation set may not be without interest here:[137]—

It will be noted that the Superintendent's last circular concerning the exhaustion of the Jubilee stamps stated that the plates had been destroyed. An eye witness sent Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News (X: 166) an account of the process which is interesting enough to reproduce.

The Postmaster General's Report for the 30th June, 1897, reprints the extract from the Canadian Hansard of 20th May, which we have already given.[138] The stamp accounts show a few curious things. In the first place the announcement of the issue gave the quantity of 8 cent stamps as 200,000. The accounts for 1897 give the number received from the manufacturers as 240,000, and we find in the column headed "Returned by Postmasters as unfit for use," 40,000 copies, and in the column headed "Stamps destroyed as unfit for use", a like amount! When the Post Office Department estimates for the ensuing year were being discussed in Parliament in May, 1898, the following interpellation occurred and was replied to by the Postmaster General:[139]—

Well, perhaps the excess did not reach the public, but the stamp accounts exhibit a peculiar coincidence in connection therewith. The tables of receipt and issue of stamp supplies for 1897, as already stated, contain the memos of the return of 40,000 8 cent stamps, by postmasters, and their destruction. The[Pg 159] tables for 1898 contain two columns, one of stamps returned by postmasters, "unfit for use", and the other "fit for use". The former were supposed to be destroyed, the latter placed in stock again. Now note: the values from ½ cent to 50 cents inclusive, "fit for use", were returned in quantities varying from 200 to 250 copies, with two exceptions; the dollar values in quantities from 400 to 675. The two exceptions were the 6 cent at 1,148 copies, and the 8 cent at 42,300 copies!! This last figure looks so familiar that we cannot help wondering whether a second call had been sent out for the return of 40,000 more of the 8 cent, subsequent to the closing of the 1897 accounts, or if (which seems more probable) the first return had not been slipped into stock instead of being actually destroyed, and reappeared thus in the 1898 accounts! Quien sabe?

All the other values to and including the 2 dollars, were received in their proper amounts and were all issued to postmasters, the last record of the series from ½ cent to 1 dollar, inclusive, appearing in the 1900 Report. The figures for the dollar values prove rather interesting so we give them here:—

Comment:—The three highest dollar values were apparently never delivered to their full requisition—25,000 each. All but the 1 dollar were issued in goodly numbers in 1901,—four years after their first appearance! The 1 and 2 dollar stamps were both issued to an amount of about 2,000 more than were received from the manufacturers, but this excess is easily explained by the reissue of stamps returned by postmasters and placed again in stock.[Pg 160] The entire issue drops out of sight with the 1901 Report, but the 1905 Report suddenly presents the figures given for the three high values still on hand, and records 30 of the 5 dollar stamps turned in for destruction. Once more, in the 1909 Report, we find 1,783 of the 3 dollar, 1,954 of the 4 dollar and 1,151 of the 5 dollar stamps returned for destruction, so that allowing for the total number destroyed and the amount on hand (which may be) we have for the actual issue of the three high values, instead of 25,000 each, but 9,515 of the 3 dollar, 9,937 of the 4 dollar and 12,660 of the 5 dollar stamps.

[Pg 161]

CHAPTER XII

THE "MAPLE LEAF" ISSUE OF 1897

Rumors of a new issue, as we know, had been "in the air" ever since the change in the contractors for supplying stamps had been announced. Of course the Jubilee issue was a special affair, and for a time sidetracked other considerations. A new permanent series was not forgotten, however, and under "Ottawa Notes" in the Weekly Philatelic Era for October 9, 1897, we find the following advance information concerning it:—

[Pg 162]

A couple of weeks later a circular was sent to postmasters announcing the new stamps, etc., of which the following is a copy:[141]—

NEW ISSUE OF POSTAGE STAMPS, ETC.

R. M. COULTER,
Deputy Postmaster-General.
Post-Office Department, Canada.
Ottawa, 25th October, 1897.

These instructions were followed out, and the issue of the new series was thus stretched over a considerable length of time. The first to appear was the ½ cent, two weeks after the date of the above circular. The circumstances of its début are told under "Ottawa Notes" in the Weekly Philatelic Era:[142]—

The next value to appear was the 6 cent, which was announced in the Weekly Philatelic Era under date of 4th December, 1897 as having been put in circulation. Following closely upon this came the 1, 2, 5 and 8 cent stamps, and in January, 1898 the 3 and 10 cent.

The new stamps were very simple in design, the central oval containing a portrait of Queen Victoria copied from a photograph by W. & D. Downey of London, taken at the time of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. CANADA POSTAGE and the value in words only appear in Egyptian capitals on the oval frame to the portrait, and each spandrel is occupied by a maple leaf. Much criticism was engendered by the fact that the portrait was too large for its frame, making the design appear cramped and thus giving a disappointing effect to what otherwise might have proved a most neat and effective stamp. [Illustration No. 36 on Plate II].

The stamps were as usual line engraved on steel, and printed on the same stout white wove paper that was employed for the Jubilee issue, as well as on a thinner and more brittle quality. The 5 cent, for the first time in Canadian philatelic history, appeared on a colored paper, the stock having a decidedly bluish tint. The perforation was the regulation gauge 12. But one irregularity seems to be known, and that is the 5 cents imperforate, a block of four of which we are able to illustrate as No. 112 on Plate X.

The sheet arrangement was intended to be the usual block of 100 impressions, ten by ten, but the Ottawa correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era tells us that in the case of the ½ cent stamp the first plate was twice this size.

The imprint on the sheets was the same as that on the Jubilee sheets, OTTAWA—No—1, etc., but instead of numbering the plates all consecutively,[Pg 164] each denomination began its own series with "No 1." The imprint is placed in the top margin only, over the middle two stamps (5 and 6) of the top row. In the case of the 14 cent stamps each style of the first two plates was numbered "1". The plate of 200 impressions was arranged in ten horizontal rows of twenty stamps each, thus bringing the imprint over stamps 10 and 11 of the top row, and as it was between these that the large sheets were severed, the imprint was cut in two in the process. All the other values were made up in sheets of 100 only.

For the information of plate number collectors we give a list of such numbers as we have been able to ascertain.

The quantity of each value issued before they were replaced by the stamps with numerals is stated to have been as follows:[145]—

A similar variation is found in the dimensions of these stamps to that occurring in the 7½ d. and 10d. stamps and the issue of 1868, and has caused quite a little comment from those unfamiliar with this phenomenon. As much as ½ mm. in the vertical measurements can be found between many stamps. The cause is of course the uneven shrinking of the dampened paper when drying after being printed upon. This was fully discussed in an earlier chapter.[146] As the paper in the present instance is very similar in quality to[Pg 165] that used for printing the United States stamps, in which the same peculiarity occurs, we will quote Mr. Melville's comment on the subject:[147]—

The Postmaster General's Report for 1897 says:—

It is also noted that during 1896-7 electric cancelling ("mail marking") machines were introduced, six of which were rented and installed in the Montreal Post Office and one at Ottawa.

The reduction in the domestic letter rate from 3 cents to 2 cents per ounce is forecasted, as well as a proposed reduction from 5 cents to 2 cents per ½ ounce on letters between Great Britain and many of her colonial possessions. This will be more thoroughly discussed later.

Concerning the postal changes we have been considering the report says:—

The special delivery system was also introduced, and will be treated of later.

[Pg 167]

CHAPTER XIII

THE "NUMERALS" ISSUE, 1898-1902

Hardly had the "maple leaf" issue gotten generally into use before complaints began to be heard about the difficulty of distinguishing the different values. The Weekly Philatelic Era for June 4, 1898, quotes a plaint of this character as follows:—

But the Metropolitan Philatelist in its issue for April 2, 1898, had already given information of an impending change which in the main proved correct. It says:—

All of which transpired save the placing of the value on the "straight band". In the issue of the American Journal of Philately for June 1, 1898, a Canadian correspondent reported: "I saw yesterday the proof of the new Canadian stamps. The frame is slightly changed and the value in figures is at the bottom on each side of the stamp, in place of the maple leaves." No date is given, but it was doubtless early in May. Finally Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News reported the actual issue of the 1 cent and 3 cent stamps, stating that a Montreal correspondent had purchased them at the post office on June 21st, which was doubtless their approximate date of issue.

No further news of the numeral set is recorded until the issue of the[Pg 168] Weekly Philatelic Era for September 17th, wherein its Toronto correspondent says that "Last week the 2c. purple with numerals in lower corners made its debut, a few days later the ½c arrived similarly altered, followed closely by the 6c." This evidently puts the issue of these three values within the first ten days of September. The 8 cent was recorded in the same paper for October 15th, so that it must have been issued about the first of the month. The 10 cent did not make its appearance until November, being noticed under the "Toronto Letter" in the Weekly Philatelic Era for November 19th, so that again it was doubtless the early part of the month that saw its advent.

For six months nothing further was heard of new "numeral" stamps, when finally the 5 cent, which was the one value lacking to complete the set in its altered form, made its appearance on July 3, 1899, according to a correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News.[148]

The new type of stamp, as already stated, was merely an alteration of the preceding "maple leaf" design, due to two criticisms—that no numerals were shown, making it often difficult without a close look to tell the denomination, and bothersome to the large population of French origin who did not speak English; and that the portrait was too large for its oval frame, giving a somewhat cramped effect. In the new design, illustrated as number 40 on Plate II, the first objection was met by placing the proper numerals in small squares in the lower corners, which necessitated the removal of the maple leaves from the lower spandrels; and the second objection was met by enlarging the oval frame containing the portrait, thus giving a much better effect. To do this the oval was extended to the outside of the stamp, cutting the rectangular border lines instead of lying wholly within them, as in the design it superseded.

The stamps were of course line engraved on steel and printed in the usual sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. The imprint was the same as on the last issue, and the plates again began with No. 1 for each denomination. As far as we have been able to ascertain, the plate numbers are as follows:—

[Pg 169]

There were of course many more plates of the 1 cent stamp, at least, which remained in use for five years, and probably several more of the 2, 3, and 10 cent, but there seems to have been very little interest in Canada in keeping track of these.

But during the life of this series there were important changes taking place which were reflected in the stamp issues, and we must keep track of them.

In the first place, the Hon. William Mulock, the Canadian Postmaster-General, was a firm believer in and an active agitator for Imperial Penny Postage. At the Imperial Conference on Postal Rates in London, in July, 1898, the project was carried through, and a rate of one penny (2 cents) per half ounce established by certain colonies in connection with the Mother Country, to take effect on Christmas Day of 1898. Concerning this we shall have more to say in the next chapter; but meanwhile Canada's domestic rate stood at 3 cents per ounce or fraction, in spite of attempts to reduce it, particularly since the United States had lowered its internal rate in 1883. The anomaly would be presented under such conditions of a letter mailed from one town to another in Canada costing three cents, even if weighing a half ounce or less, while the same letter could cross to Great Britain and travel to Cape Colony, for instance, on payment of but two cents postage.

The agitation and the London conference evidently had their effect, for on the 13th June, 1898, a bill[149] in amendment of the Post Office Act was assented to in Parliament which substituted 2 cents for 3 cents as the domestic postage rate per ounce weight. It also provided that the new rate should not take effect until a date to be named by the Governor General. After the date for the inauguration of Imperial Penny Postage was fixed, the Governor General named New Year's day following as the date for the change in Canada's domestic rate. The following notice was published in the Canada Gazette:[150]—

Order in Council,

Post Office Department.

This of course had the immediate effect of vastly increasing the consumption of 2 cent stamps and also of rendering the 3 cent stamps practically useless. Another point would be that whereas the Postal Union requirements named red as the color for the stamp used for domestic postage, and the 3 cent had been in its proper hue, the stamp for the new internal rate was printed in purple and would therefore have to be changed. This change was not forced, however, the Post Office Department as usual preferring to use up the stock on hand of the current 2 cent stamp before issuing the new one. It took considerable time to do this, so that the 2 cent carmine did not make its appearance until the 20th August, according to a correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News.[151] It was of course the same stamp as before but printed in the color of the 3 cent value, and we have to record plate numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, though there were doubtless many more.

But the 3 cent stamp still remained on hand in large quantities, and in order to use them up more quickly and perhaps save confusion between them and the new 2 cent stamps, the Post Office Department decided upon surcharging the stock on hand down to 2 cents, thus making Canada's first offence in this line. The notice concerning this change and some others that were decided upon was as follows:—

Department Circular.
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
OTTAWA, 1st July, 1899.

R. M. COULTER,
Deputy Postmaster General.

[Pg 172]

As a matter of fact the 2 cent purple seems to have lasted about a week longer than was anticipated in the above circular, so that the surcharged 3 cent stamps were not issued until the 28th July.[152] A correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era, in its issue for 22nd July, said: "I learn that the 3c numeral and some 3c with the four maple leaves will be surcharged," which proved correct; those first issued on the date mentioned above were of the numeral type, while on the 8th August[153] the "maple leaf" 3 cent made its appearance with the same surcharge.

Illustrations of the two stamps will be found as numbers 41 and 42 on Plate II. It is stated that the surcharge was made up in its peculiar form so as to prevent counterfeiting by the use of ordinary type. At any rate the graded height of the numeral and letters, giving the concave effect to the top of the surcharge, shows it to have been specially prepared. There is some variation in the thickness of the surcharge, due perhaps to inking and to wearing of the plates. The overprinting was done in full sheets of one hundred from a special plate, in black ink, and should normally be horizontally across the bottom of the stamps. Poor registering of the sheets in printing caused the position to vary even up to about the middle of the stamp in some cases, and of course there had to be some inverted surcharges in both varieties. The number of these has not been published. Illustrations of the inverts will be found as numbers 44 and 45 on Plate II.

The quantity of 3 cent stamps surcharged was reported by the Ottawa correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era[154] as "variously stated to be 9,000,000 to 11,000,000," while Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal is more definite[155] in saying that "there are some 9,000,000 of 3c. stamps in stock, of which about 6,000,000 are of the four leaves type, and the rest have the numerals in the lower corners." Just where these figures were obtained does not appear, but the Postmaster General's report for 30th June, 1900, makes the following statement:—"Included in the stamp output of the year was $123,600 worth of 3 cent stamps, which constituted the unissued remnant of 3 cent stamps in the possession of the department; on the occasion of the reduction of the domestic letter rate of postage they were surcharged and issued as 2 cent stamps." The figures quoted account for only 4,120,000 of the 3[Pg 173] cent stamps, and this quantity is confirmed in the Report for 1901, which says:—"In 1899-1900 3 cent stamps to the number of 4,120,000 were included in the output solely with a view to surcharging them down to 2 cents and transference to that column." The two varieties, however, are not separated in the accounts, but inasmuch as the catalogue prices are now, after ten years, at the same figure for each, it is reasonable to suppose that one is as common as the other and that therefore they must have been issued in approximately equal amounts.

Plate numbers for the surcharges seem to be again recorded in only a half hearted way. But one reference has been found to those of the numeral type, plates 5 and 6[156], and none for the "maple leaf" type.

The reduction in the domestic rate of postage was also the cause of another provisional, but of quite a different character. Stanley Gibbons Monthly Journal for January 31, 1899, says:—

In the Journal for March 31, 1899, is further light:—

Again in the Journal for April 29, 1899, we find:—

Mr. Horsley reports having a copy on the original cover with the postmark of Port Hood dated 5 January, 1899, which is doubtless the "one day" that they were employed.

A Canada correspondent, writing in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News[157] concerning these "splits", says that "the Dominion Government has announced that they were not authorized and letters having them on for postage should have been charged double rate when delivered." They may be interesting as curiosities, but they are assuredly not worthy of any great attention from collectors. Illustrations of the "2" cent and a pair of the "1" cent will be found as Nos. 37 and 39 respectively on Plate II.

Nothing further in the line of novelties is to be reported until the 29th December, 1900, when a new 20 cent stamp suddenly made its appearance as a companion in design to the rest of the "numeral" series. The large 20 cent stamp of 1893 had finally been exhausted, and the new comer in its neat olive green was a welcome addition to the current set. It of course conformed to the others in engraving, sheet arrangement, etc., and had the plate number 1. An examination of the stamp accounts during its term of life make it appear probable that approximately 500,000 were issued.

Finally the long heralded 7 cent stamp, which was supposed to take the place of the 8 cent stamp after the reduction of domestic postage, made its appearance nearly four years late! It was announced in a despatch to the Toronto Mail and Empire as follows:—

[Pg 175]

The Postmaster General's Report for 1903, however, gives the issue of 7 cent stamps as occurring on the 23rd December, 1902. The stamp, as was the case with the 20 cent, conformed in all respects to the others of the numeral issue, but was printed in a hideous shade of olive yellow. There was but one plate number, No. 1. It seems probable that about one million copies constituted its total issue.

The above completes the issues of the numeral type stamps with the Queen's head. Glancing over the Reports of the Postmaster General, as usual, for the period during which they were in issue, we find the following items of interest.

In the Report for 30th June, 1899, the introduction of "Domestic Penny Postage" is thus recorded:—

On the 1st January, 1899, also, the provisions of the Act which reimposed postage payment on newspapers and periodicals went into effect. This was An Act further to amend the Post Office Act (assented to 13th June, 1898)[158] which we have already quoted as being the Act authorizing the reduction in the domestic postage rate to 2 cents per ounce. The third section of this Act repealed section 26 of the Post Office Act and substituted the following therefor:—

One other item, not strictly philatelic perhaps, but interesting to record here, is the announcement of the issue of postal notes, the system having been inaugurated throughout Canada on the 4th August, 1898. It was intended[Pg 177] mainly to obviate the need of remitting small sums by mail in postage stamps, with the consequent difficulty to the recipient of disposing of any quantity. The notes were for certain fixed values, odd amounts between values being made up by affixing postage stamps.

Their denominations and dates of issue are recorded as follows:—

In the Report for 1900 we find mention of the issue of stamp books.

The stamp accounts give the date of issue of the stamp books as 11th June, 1900. That they have proved popular is evidenced by the increase in the number issued to postmasters from some 320,000 in 1901 to about 1,400,000 in 1910.

The books are about two by three inches in size, with stiff cardboard covers which are bound together by red cloth. The coat-of-arms of Canada with the words CANADA POSTAGE beneath are engraved in red on the front cover, while inside are four pages of postal information and the two sheets of six stamps each—three horizontal pairs—backed by leaves of paraffined tissue paper.

Notice is also given of the discontinuance of two denominations of postage stamps, the old 15 cent of 1868 passing quietly away at the age of 31 years, 1 month and 1 day—or on the 2nd November, 1899, to be exact. The 6 cent stamp, for which there was but little call since the reduction of the letter postage to 2 cents, was discontinued on the 10th February, 1900.

From the Report of 1901 we learn that the last issue of the $1 Jubilee stamps took place on 27th June 1900, but nothing is said of dates for the[Pg 178] cents values, all of which appear for the last time in the "issued to postmasters" column in amounts of 700 or 800, and even 2000 in the case of the ½ cent.

The Report of 1902 notes the last issue of the 3 cent stamp in March, 1901, and of the 8 cent stamp, which had been of but little use since the reduction of postage, on the 16th December, 1901.

The Report of 1903 announces the issue of the new King Edward stamps, and of the prepayment of printed matter in cash, instead of by stamps, under the "permit" system. Both of these subjects will be considered in their proper chapters.

Though the Report for 1904 takes us into the period of the King Edward stamps, yet we find it noted therein that the last issue of 6 cent and 8 cent stamps (Queen's head) took place on the 4th September, 1902. Both these values had already been disposed of apparently, but it seems that 100,000 of the 6 cent and 125,000 of the 8 cent were "received from manufacturers" and "issued to postmasters", according to the stamp accounts of 1902-3, and rumor has it that some large concern ordered them for the mailing of catalogues. The date, 4th September, was probably that of delivery to the purchasers.

[Pg 179]

CHAPTER XIV

THE "CHRISTMAS" STAMP OF 1898

Ocean Penny Postage, which became the dream of Postal Reformers almost from the date of the adoption of the plan of Rowland Hill, is at length within measurable distance of becoming an accomplished fact. It is true that it is not yet to be the Universal Penny Postage, or even the Imperial Penny Postage so perseveringly advocated by Mr. Henniker-Heaton; but these will come in time, and an immense step in the desired direction has been taken by the adoption of the partial scheme, which is to come into force within a few months." So wrote Major Evans in July, 1898,[159] upon the conclusion of the Imperial Conference on Postal Rates which took place in London during that month.

Many of our readers may have seen the illustrated envelopes, in various designs, which were issued some fifty or sixty years ago in advocacy of an "Ocean Penny Postage." Great Britain, having committed herself to domestic penny postage in 1840, after the herculean labors of Sir Rowland Hill in that behalf, seems to have been looked to by succeeding postal reformers to furnish over-sea transportation along the same lines. Chief among these advocates was Elihu Burritt, the "learned blacksmith" of New Britain, Conn., who not only published documents on the subject but went to England and delivered addresses in support of the idea. Major Evans says:[160]—"What appears to have been the first pamphlet on 'Ocean Penny Postage', issued by Elihu Burritt, was probably published quite at the end of 1848, or early in 1849. It contains a poem dated Christmas, 1848, which may give us approximately the date of publication." This proves extremely interesting, inasmuch as Imperial Penny Postage was put into effect on Christmas, 1898, just a half century later to a day.

[Pg 180] But Burritt's proposal was not that which was accomplished so long afterward. In his own words:[161]—

Of course this does not reckon in what might be added for an inland rate at the "port beyond the sea", but the main point was the transportation on the ocean part of the journey at a uniform rate of one penny.

This was practically accomplished—and even bettered—by the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1875; for where Burritt wrote:[162]— "It would meet the terms of our proposition if every letter under half an ounce, from any town in Great Britain to any town in the Colonies, should pay three pence; one penny for the home inland rate, another penny for the ocean, and the third for the colonial inland rate, and vice versa" the Postal Union fixed a charge of but twopence halfpenny as the standard rate between all countries that subscribed to its provisions.

To quote further:[163]—

Nevertheless, Mr. Mulock had been interested not only in the scheme of Imperial Penny Postage but also in endeavoring to obtain a reduction of the Canadian domestic postage to the penny (2 cents) basis. The inland letter rate, it may be remembered, was made 3 cents per half ounce throughout the new Dominion on the 1st April, 1868. Not until the 2nd May, 1889, did legislative enactment raise the limit of weight to one ounce. Meanwhile the United States, on the 1st October, 1883, had lowered its inland rate, which also applied to letters for Canada, to 2 cents per ounce. Agitation for the same reduction had naturally taken place in Canada, but instead of this it was proposed late in 1897[164] to reduce the Postal Union rate of 5 cents per half ounce to the domestic rate of 3 cents per ounce on letters to Great Britain and the Colonies. An Order in Council was actually passed announcing a rate of 3 cents per half ounce to any place in the British Empire, to take effect on 1st January, 1898, but the Imperial authorities objected to it as exceeding Canada's powers as a member of the Postal Union, and it was necessarily abandoned.

Finally legislative enactment was passed on the 13th June, 1898, making[Pg 182] the long desired reduction in the domestic rate to 2 cents, but not to come into operation until the date named by the Governor-General[165]. Within a month, as we have already detailed, the Imperial Conference in London decided on a penny (2 cent) rate for the British Empire and in November it was decided to put this in operation on Christmas day of 1898. Thus the anomaly was created of a 2 cent rate from Canada to England or Africa, but a 3 cent rate from one town to another in Canada. This was remedied a week later, as we have seen, by the proclamation putting the domestic 2 cent rate into force from 1st January, 1899.

As a leader in the final adoption of Imperial Penny Postage, Canada could look with pride upon its accomplishment and may be pardoned for its mild celebration of the event in the guise of a single commemorative stamp. It was unnecessary, of course, and no other Colony attempted it, but Mr. Mulock recognized the opportunity and rose to the occasion. The following clipping from the Ottawa Evening Journal[166] gives some interesting details:—

A reproduction of this multum in parvo composition is shown as No. 38 on Plate II.

This remarkable stamp caused no end of criticism, at home and abroad, not only because of its novel and startling design, but also because of the bombastic legend which appeared upon it. The following clipping from the Chicago Tribune[167] explains the origin of the motto:—

In consequence of the peculiar legend, the stamp has been dubbed, not ineptly, the "has been" stamp.

We learn from a despatch to the Toronto Telegram that the printing of the stamp began on the 1st December:—

It was thus brought into the world under distinguished patronage—that of its official father and god-father, so to speak. Its baptism came on the 7th December, rather earlier than expected, but explained by the following newspaper clipping[169]:[Pg 184]

In the Weekly Philatelic Era, the Canadian correspondent discourses upon its advent as follows, under date of 7th December[170]:—

The above quotation settles the fact that the first color in which the "seas" were printed was lavender. There has been some discussion on this point. Again, a correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era wrote under date of "Dec. 20th" that "A government official of Canada states that the 2c Imperial postage stamp is to be changed in color from a lavender to a blue. One of your contemporaries states that the color is to be green[171]." Under date of "Ottawa, Dec. 29," another correspondent of the same paper writes[172]:—"The first issue of these geographical stamps, on the 7th instant, had the sea coloured a light lavender. About the 20th, I cannot fix the exact[Pg 185] day, a second supply had the sea coloured a light blue, as nearly as I can judge Prussian blue. And now I am told the third lot are to have the seas much darker in colour, but that is only a rumour." A clipping from the Winnipeg Free Press, however, states that "the second shipment, which arrived on Dec. 13th, were of an entirely different print, although the fact passed unnoticed for some days. The sea on these stamps—and on all the thousands received since—is printed in pale green!" The first shipment is noted as "lavender or pale blue" as usual. Evidently the change in color took place within the first week or ten days after printing began. A dark shade of green is apparently as common as the pale green, and a cancelled copy dated January 13, 1899, is noted in Ewen's Weekly Stamp News. Doubtless it was issued much earlier. The lavender shade seems to have been reverted to in the later issues of the stamp, for it is noted in chronicles as having been received from Canada in February and March, 1899, and the stamp was considered obsolete in April. We venture to think, however, that it was not a reversion to lavender in the printing of the stamp, but rather the remainder of the first printings—for it is well known that when bundles of stamp sheets are placed in stock some of the first packages received may remain at the bottom of the pile for years, while the later ones, placed on top, are used to fill orders.

The stamps were printed in the usual sheet arrangement of 100, ten rows of ten. The black portion was from line engraved plates, but the red and lavender (or green) portions were doubtless printed on the sheets by lithography previous to the impression of the main design of the stamp in black. There are four marginal imprints reading AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. OTTAWA in Roman capitals ½ mm. high, the inscription being about 29 mm. long, (see illustration number 113 on Plate X). They are placed above the third and eighth stamps of the top row and beneath the corresponding stamps of the bottom row. A plate number, in hair line figures about 4 mm. high, is placed over the division between the fifth and sixth stamps of the top row, and higher up than the imprints. Plates 1, 2, 3 and 5 are known, but we have been unable to find plate 4 recorded, though it would be presumed to exist. All four known plates come with the lavender sea, and probably all four were used with the light green and dark green seas, although we have only been able to find record of plate 1 with the former and plate 2 with the latter.[173]

[Pg 186] Mr. Ewen, in his exhaustive article on these stamps,[174] notes an apparent retouching of one of the plates. He says:—"Readers will have noted that the stamps are each surrounded by what appears to be a rope. On the sheet of plate 3 before us, the outer edge of this rope on the stamps at the end of each row (right hand side of each sheet) has worn away and has been replaced by a straight line engraved on the plate, except on stamp No. 80, which still shows the very defective nature of the rope." Much space is also given to a description of minor varieties in the red portions of the stamp—omission of islands, extra islands, peninsulas instead of islands, etc., etc. The chief variety, however, occurs in the two dots representing two islands in mid-Pacific: in the normal stamps these two lie one above and one below the "equator", if properly placed; in the variety, which is the sixth stamp in the fifth row (No. 46 in the sheet) both islands lie horizontally just below the equator.

A further variety is the stamp in imperforate condition, of which we are able to illustrate a block of four from the Worthington collection as number 113 on Plate X. This occurs with the bluish, the pale green and the deep green oceans.

It would be interesting to know the number of stamps printed in each of the distinct shades, but we do not know even the total issue of the map stamps. The only reference is in the London Philatelist,[175] where it is remarked that "we understand [it] has been issued to the number of sixteen millions." They were not separated in the stamp accounts, but were reckoned in with the ordinary 2 cent stamps, and the above figure may very likely be the correct one as the number must have been large. We find from a newspaper clipping that the cost of manufacture of these stamps was 45 cents per thousand.[176]

In closing this account of the Christmas stamp it may be interesting to record the story of the first letter sent from Canada at the new rate and bearing the commemorative stamp in prepayment. It is taken from a Toronto newspaper.

...
"Grand Secretary."

This is probably the first time in philatelic history that race-track timing has been employed on the passage of mail matter through the post!

[Pg 188]

CHAPTER XV

THE "KING'S HEAD" ISSUE OF 1903-1908

The death of the beloved Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901, portended momentous changes in the multitude of stamps bearing her effigy throughout the Empire. Canada of course was expected to make the proper substitution of the portrait of the new ruler, King Edward the Seventh, but as time went on seemed in no hurry to do so. In fact it was nearly two years and a half after the Queen's death before the King Edward stamps appeared, and in the meantime but little could be learned concerning Canada's intentions in the matter.

About the first of January, 1903, it was reported in the newspapers that Postmaster-General Mulock had announced "that designs had been submitted, and it has been decided to select one bearing an excellent likeness of His Majesty." In its issue for 18th April, 1903, the Metropolitan Philatelist again gave advance information concerning Canadian stamp matters in the following detailed account:—

[Pg 189]

The details given proved correct. The official announcement of the forthcoming issue was given in a circular to postmasters dated 10th June and signed by the Deputy Postmaster-General:[177]—

The new stamps were accordingly issued on "Dominion Day" (July 1st) of 1903. Their actual appearance brought forth the following interesting account of their preparation in the London Philatelist:[178]—

Although for a long time past we have been aware of the circumstances attending the preparation of the new postage stamps for Canada, and in a position to illustrate the approved design, we have refrained from publishing the facts in compliance with the desire of the authorities that no details should be made public until the stamps had been completed and were ready to be put into circulation.

We believe that the delay which has taken place in bringing out the new issue has been due to questions arising out of the existing contract under which the postage stamps of the Dominion are produced, and that even after the approval of the design and the receipt of the die some difficulties were experienced in connection with the preparation of the plates by the contractors.

These have happily been surmounted, and now that the issue is an accomplished fact it is with much gratification that we illustrate[Pg 190] the design of the new stamp, our illustration, prepared some time back, being taken from a proof from the steel die engraved by Messrs. Perkins, Bacon and Co., of London, and used in the manufacture of the plates of the several values issued by the Canadian postal authorities on the 1st. instant. By comparing our illustration with the stamp as issued it will be seen that the contractors or the postal authorities have made some alterations in the design, which, in our judgement, are by no means improvements. The leaves in the lower corners have been redrawn on a smaller scale, and hardly impinge upon the frame; their drawing is vastly inferior, and the graceful effect of the broken circle is lost. The numerals of value are in colour on a white ground, reversing the original design, the labels being larger and the figures taller and thinner; this also detracting materially from the charming homogeneity of the stamp as first proposed. The greatest alteration, and the worst, is the substitution of heavy diagonal lines for horizontal ones in the background. The latter were finely drawn and delicately shaded, leaving the King's Head in clear outline, and framed by the dark oval band containing the inscriptions. The background and frame no longer present this artistic effect, and the whole design materially suffers thereby.

The circumstances connected with the inception of the issue are as gratifying as they are novel, and will be hailed with acclamation by the Philatelists of the British Empire.

The Postmaster of Canada, Sir William Mulock, being one of the many distinguished visitors to this country during the Coronation festivities, took the opportunity afforded by his visit of approaching the Prince of Wales, and of meeting His Royal Highness's suggestions and advice in the preparation of a new die for the Canadian stamps. The Prince, with his characteristic energy and courtesy, cheerfully undertook the task, and it will be seen from our illustration with absolute and conspicuous success. H. R. H. wisely decided, in the first instance, that it is advisable to have some continuity of design in succeeding issues, and therefore adopted the frame and groundwork of the then current stamps as a basis. In selecting a portrait of His Majesty the Prince decided to rely upon a photograph giving a true likeness of the King as we know him, in lieu of an idealised representation by an artist. The photograph eventually chosen, with the full approval of His Majesty, was one taken shortly before the Coronation.

The likeness is undoubtedly what is termed a speaking one, and with the addition of the Coronation robes represents as faithful and as pleasing a picture of the King, at the time of his accession to the throne, as it is possible to find. The introduction of the Tudor crowns in the upper angles, which was another of the Prince's innovations, obviates the difficulty that has so often made "the head that wears a crown" lie "uneasy" on a postage stamp. These emblems of[Pg 191] sovereignty, taken in conjunction with the Canadian maple leaves in the lower angles, complete a design that for harmony, boldness, and simplicity has assuredly not been excelled by any hitherto issued stamps of the British Empire. It is palpable, on analyzing the stamp, (1) that the attractiveness of the design has in no way been allowed to militate against its utility, for its country of origin and denomination are clearly expressed; (2) that the boldness of the design has not been detracted from (as is so often the case) by superfluous ornamentation, and that the design has been artistically balanced by the introduction of the right-sized portrait and the proper treatment of light and shade.

We think it will be obvious, on comparing the illustration of the original design above with the issued stamps, that the modifications introduced into the lower corners by the American Bank Note Co. did not improve the appearance of the design. [Illustration No. 43 on Plate II.]

As stated in the Post Office circular, the colors followed those of the Queen's head stamps, except that the 7 cent value was given a darker shade, more of an olive than before and an improvement on its predecessor. The stamps were of course line engraved and printed in the usual sheet arrangement of ten rows of ten. The imprint was the same as on the Queen's head plates, being placed only over stamps 5 and 6 of the top row. The plate numbers began as before at No. 1 for each stamp, and up to the present writing, (Dec. 1910) there have been recorded the following:—

Over a year elapsed before any additions were made to the above set. Finally Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News[179] published in its chronicle the following note from a correspondent:—"On Tuesday, 27th September, [1904] the last sheets of the 20c numerals were issued to the distributing offices, and the first issue of the 20c King's Head was made on the same day." The stamp of course corresponds in all particulars with the others of the set and continues the fine olive green color of its predecessor. But one plate number, 1, has so far appeared. The amount delivered by the manufacturers since its appearance has averaged about 400,000 per year.

[Pg 192]The remaining value of the regular Canadian series, the 50 cent, because of its limited use and the stock of the 1893 issue still on hand, had escaped being included in either of the Queen's Head issues. But the old stock at last ran out in 1908 and on the 19th November, according to Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News,[180] this value appeared in the King's Head type, printed in a rich violet and making a very handsome addition to the series. It conforms in all respects to the other values, and bears the plate number 1. The supply of the stamp received up to 31st March, 1910, was 300,000 copies.

It may have been noticed, however, that no ½ cent stamp has appeared in the King's head design. Trouble over this value seems to have begun to brew with the Jubilee stamps. We have already detailed the story as far as that issue is concerned, and also the manner in which the ½ cent "maple leaf" was forced to appear before the authorities reckoned. Primarily intended for prepaying the rate on transient newspapers, this value was supposed to be employed only in that way, though its use had never been so restricted. Its yearly issue to postmasters had gradually increased from some 300,000 in 1869 to 900,000 in 1895. In 1898 the latter number had doubled, and by 1902 had only fallen to about 1,200,000. The trouble seemed to be partly due, at least, to the fact that stamp collectors were buying them up, and using them largely on their letter mail. This came to the attention of the Post Office Department, and resulted in the following Department Circular, published in the Montreal Star for the 6th December, 1902:[181]—

[Pg 193]This circular seems to have had the desired effect, at least in good measure, for the stamp accounts in the Reports for succeeding years showed an average issue to postmasters of approximately 400,000 ½ cent stamps, being a reduction of two-thirds. Finally, on the 19th May, 1909, an amendment[182] to the Post Office Act was passed which repealed the provision granting the ½ cent rate to newspapers and periodicals weighing less than one ounce, when posted singly. This placed them in the one cent per ounce class and sounded the death knell of the ½ cent stamp. The stamp accounts in the 1910 Report show 1,700 ½ cent stamps on hand April 1, 1909, and 600,000 more received from the manufacturers. These were all issued to postmasters and a foot-note finishes the story: "Discontinued June 10, 1909."

Just why the ½ cent stamp never was issued in the King's head type cannot be stated. All the other values then in use in Canada had made their appearance in this design, the 20 cent and 50 cent even having delayed their advent until the stock of previous types had been exhausted; but the ½ cent Queen's Head with numerals was regularly received from the printers and distributed to postmasters down to the middle of 1909, six years after the King's Heads first made their appearance. With the end of its usefulness at that time, of course, disappeared all hope of ever seeing it in the King's Head set.

In the issue for October 10, 1908, Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News published the following editorial:—

This announcement created some comment and was made the subject of enquiry of the Post Office Department at Ottawa. The officials repudiated the idea that any such irregularity could have happened, but finally took[Pg 194] steps to authenticate the report. In the issue of February 20, 1909, of the paper already quoted, is the full story of the "find", which has a peculiar interest, as will be seen later.

Mr. Severn subsequently submitted the stamps to the officials at Ottawa, who pronounced them "printer's waste" and stated that "they seemingly had been trampled upon and subjected to the usage that would be given such cast off material. Further, it was said that they had been blown or thrown out of a window, no doubt. It was suggested that the stamps be returned to Ottawa and that there were moral grounds for such a course on the part of the holders. The description of 'printer's waste' seems to be correct and the inference is that the stamps never had been gummed. They belong to that class of curiosities that appeals strongly to the specialist but which the ordinary collector regards as something apart from his collecting policy."[184]

[Pg 195]But now mark the result. The stamps very naturally did not go back to Ottawa, so Ottawa took pains to "get back" at the stamps! In the Weekly of May 22, 1909, a correspondent writes:—

The quotation from the Guide appeared in the supplement for April, 1909, and concluded with the sentence:—"Applications for the same should be made to the Postmaster at Ottawa."

It might be inferred, perhaps, from the announcement in the Guide, that the activities of the mailing machine companies had induced the Canadian Post Office Department to cater to their convenience, as had been done in the United States, by issuing sheets of stamps, only purchaseable as such, in imperforate form. But no! The Department gave itself away! Note the following points:—Mr. Severn sent the original imperforates to Ottawa for examination. They had the plate numbers 13 and 14 on them. They were returned with the intimation that "it would be safer not to dispose of the sheet in view of the circumstances under which it reached the public. It was suggested that Mr. Severn might be 'recouped' the amount that he paid for the stamps if he relinquished them."[185] Naturally the stamps did not again see Ottawa. Six months later the Department placed on sale the 2 cent stamp in imperforate sheets of 100, BUT—it was announced that they could only be procured from the Postmaster at Ottawa; that only the 2 cent would be available; that the Department intended to make a separate printing of the stamps; and when collectors obtained them they were found to be from the identical plates 13 and 14 of the "irregular" imperforates that Mr. Severn held, although the regular issues of 2 cent stamps at that time were being printed from plates numbered at least up to 62. We said "identical plates,"[Pg 196] but in view of the early plate numbers and the delay in issuing the imperforates, the suspicion is strong that new plates may have been made and given the old numbers.

As no other values have since been issued imperforate, and as no other plate numbers have appeared in the 2 cent imperforate except the original 13 and 14, there is but one explanation for this "special printing" on these early plates, and that is an attempt to checkmate the holder of the originals and "to destroy what may be called an accidental monopoly of a stamp, the issue of which was not intended previously." As a clincher we make one more quotation:—"Now that Mr. Lemieux, the finder of the imperforates, has received the Quarterly Supplement alluded to, containing the order creating the imperforates neatly blue-pencilled, it is assumed that the issue of the stamps in this form has been made with the idea of rendering the sheet that escaped the department of no value. Thus philately plainly has its influence in this new emission ... and an interesting variety has been added to the philatelic supply by reason of the refusal to return the sheet that accidentally escaped some years ago."

The Postmaster General's Reports for the several years of the King's Head issue (1903 to date) have but little of special interest. The Report of 30th June, 1903, says:—"Towards the end of the fiscal year a new series of postage stamps, bearing the portrait of His Majesty King Edward VII, and comprising five denominations was supplied to Post Masters so as to be on sale throughout the Dominion on the 1st July, 1903."

The Report of 1905 states that a Postal Convention between Canada and Mexico came into operation on 1st July, 1905 by which first, second and third class matter can be sent from either country to the other at the domestic rates of the country of origin.

The fiscal year was once more changed from the 1st July to the 1st April of each year, so that the Reports of the Postmaster General have been made up to the 31st March since 1907. The Report of 1908 states that "for some time past the provisions of the Postal Convention between Canada and the United States relative to the postage on newspapers and periodicals passing between the two countries were felt to be unsatisfactory, and an amendment was made to the Convention (taking effect on 8th May, 1907) by which the rate was fixed at 1 cent for each 4 ounces, calculated on the weight of each[Pg 197] package of newspapers or periodicals, and prepaid by means of postage stamps affixed. The amendment was subsequently modified: and copies of legitimate daily newspapers posted from the office of publication addressed to regular subscribers and newsdealers, can now be sent from Canada to the United States and from the United States to Canada at the rate of 1 cent per pound. Newspapers and periodicals published less frequently than daily are still subject to the rate of 1 cent per 4 ounces."

The issue of the "6c. International Reply Coupon" is recorded as having taken place on the 5th October, 1907. A supply of 500,000 was received from Berne, and of these 62,625 were distributed. The Report for 1909 gives but 2,475 issued from headquarters, and the 1910 Report 14,050.

The 1908 Report also notes the extension of free delivery of letters by carrier to the following places: in Ontario:—Peterboro, Guelph, Berlin, Stratford, Windsor, St. Catherines; in Quebec:—Sherbrooke, St. Hyacinthe, Trois Rivières; in Prince Edward Island:—Charlottetown; in Manitoba:—Brandon; in Alberta:—Calgary, Edmonton.

The Report for 1909 states that "a greatly desired reduction was made in August 1908, in the rate of postage on letters posted for local delivery in cities and other places having free letter carrier delivery service. The former rate was two cents per ounce; the present rate is one cent per ounce."

Further changes in newspaper regulations are noted as follows:—

The following places are given as having had the system of free delivery of letters by carrier extended to them: in Ontario:—Chatham, Fort[Pg 198] William, Port Arthur, Sarnia, St. Thomas; in New Brunswick:—Moncton; in Saskatchewan:—Regina; in British Columbia:—New Westminster.

The Report for 1910 contains nothing special. New Parcels Post regulations are noted with the United Kingdom, British West Indies, British Guiana and Mexico, by which the rate is made 12 cents per pound or fraction, with a limit of 11 pounds.

In closing the chapter on the King Edward stamps, doubtless ere long to be superseded by "King George" stamps, it may be well to record the following statistics in order to note the progress made in the Post Office Department for the period we have been considering.

A very important fact is also to be found on examining the financial reports of the Department—that from a deficit (as usual for many years) of $416,183.99 in 1901, and a wee surplus of $5,109.14 in 1902, there has grown to be a surplus of $743,210.25 in 1910. Evidently Canada's Post Office Department is at least run efficiently and economically!

[Pg 199]

CHAPTER XVI

THE "TERCENTENARY" ISSUE OF 1908

It may be remembered, perhaps, that in our introductory chapter we noted the fact that the first permanent settlement in Canada was made by Champlain at Quebec in 1608. As the year 1908 approached, the idea of celebrating in proper manner the three hundredth anniversary of this event was strongly agitated, particularly by the French population of the Province of Quebec. Plans were formed and materialized in the shape of fetes, historical pageants, etc., which took place at Quebec in July, 1908, and to be present at which the Prince and Princess of Wales made a special trip across the Atlantic in one of Britain's most powerful warships.

In view of former precedents it was to be expected that the Canadian Post Office Department would also celebrate in a fitting way, and although a new Postmaster General had taken the place of Sir William Mulock, he nevertheless arose to the occasion as the following newspaper despatch shows:—

No sooner was this fact made known than the Postmaster General was showered with suggestions of all kinds as to the designs of stamps appropriate to the occasion. But after the first announcement the Post Office Department was very reticent in regard to the matter, and letters of enquiry concerning the proposed issue were answered as evasively as possible.

At last the veil was lifted and the following despatch to the Toronto Globe[186] gave definite information concerning the proposed issue:—

Excellent reproductions of this attractive series will be found as Nos. 46-53 on Plate III.

The stamps were placed on sale at Ottawa on the 16th July. They are of the same shape as the Jubilee issue, though the dimensions are 1 mm. higher[Pg 201] and nearly 3 mm. longer. The designs are as already described, except that the legend "Partement pour l'ouest" does not have Champlain's name in it, and the dates 1608 and 1908 are placed in the upper corners. The colors do not wholly correspond with the regular set; the 1, 2 and 5 cent naturally conform, but the ½ cent is in a black-brown and the 7 cent in the fine olive green of the regular 20 cent. The 10 cent is also changed to a handsome violet, while the 15 cent is in orange and the 20 cent in a dark brown.

The stamps are beautifully engraved, as usual, and printed in sheets of 100, ten rows of ten. Above the 5th and 6th stamps of the top row is the regular marginal imprint: "OTTAWA—No.—" and the figure representing the plate number. A peculiar variety has been recorded, however, in the sheets of the 2 cent value, some of those with plate numbers 3 and 4 having the imprint inverted in the bottom margin of the sheet.[187] As it occurs both ways, the only explanation seems to be that the plates may have printed two panes, which were afterwards separated into post office sheets of 100 stamps each, and that by error, perhaps, the imprint was inverted on one of these panes.

The plate numbers of the several values are as follows:—

The stamps are on stout white wove paper and perforated 12.

It may not be out of place to further describe some of the designs of these stamps because of their historical interest. Of course the portraits of the British Royal Family are familiar, that of the Princess of Wales being the one used on the handsome 4 cent stamp of Newfoundland, and that of the Prince of Wales being from a photograph taken by W. and D. Downey of London, just before the Prince's journey to India in 1906. The portrait of Cartier will also be recognized as the one that appeared on the early 10d. stamp of the Province of Canada.

Concerning the picture on the 20 cent stamp, "Arrivée de Cartier, Québec 1535," we find some interesting details given by M. Th. Lemaire:[188]—

As with the Jubilee stamps, some special sets were made up for presentation purposes. The following press clipping gives the details:[189]—

Unlike the Jubilee issue, no advance information concerning quantities printed was given out. Many attempts were made to get this interesting detail, but without result. Even an interpellation of the Postmaster-General in the House of Commons was unproductive, as witness the following excerpt:[190]—

All of which was simply a parliamentary way of saying "mind your own business", as the full quota of stamps was doubtless printed and delivered at that time. At any rate, a Memorandum for the Postmaster, issued from headquarters under date of 12th September, 1908, states that "With the exception of the 10c, 15c and 20c stamps, all of the Tercentenary postage stamps are now exhausted." However, the question of the quantity issued was again brought up in the House of Commons, after some time, and the following two questions propounded by a member:[191][Pg 204]—

The Report of 1909, in referring to this issue, had the following remarks:—

The Report of 1910 notes that the last issue of the Tercentenary stamps was on Oct. 14, 1908,—apparently the 15 cent denomination. The whole issue was thus exhausted in three months' time.

[Pg 205]

CHAPTER XVII

THE REGISTRATION STAMPS

The first mention that we find concerning the registration system in Canada is in the Postmaster General's report for the year ending 31st March, 1856, in the following words:—"The number of letters passing through the Post under the Registration System commenced in May 1855, is very great, and is rapidly increasing." The number of letters is given in even figures as 350,000 during the first year. The Report states further:—"In October 1856, an agreement with the Post Office Department of the United States took effect for a system of Registration to be applied to letters passing between the two countries. Under this arrangement a person posting a letter on either side can, by the pre-payment of a fee of 3d. in addition to the ordinary postage, secure a continuous record of its transmission from the place of posting to the place of destination, where a receipt will be taken and preserved of the due delivery of the letter so registered." Further details are found in the postal section of the Canadian Directory for 1857-8, as follows:—

[Pg 206]

The next year's Report gives the number of registered letters posted annually as computed at 500,000. The Report of 30th September, 1858 also says: "About 500,000 letters were registered last year", and goes on to state:—"It is also considered that it would be an improvement on the system if the charge for registration were made pre-payable by a stamp, instead of by money as at present." From this it is evident that the postage stamps were not then used for indicating the payment of the registration fee. Just when they were permitted to be so employed does not appear, but it was doubtless within a comparatively short time thereafter, as we have seen a cover with stamp so used which was dated in 1862; in fact it seems probable that arrangements for using stamps to indicate the payment for registration may have accompanied the introduction of the decimal stamps in 1859.

Further remarks upon the registration system are found in the Report for 1860, as follows:—

From the above it is evident that the domestic rate of registration was 2 cents in 1860, the equivalent of the 1 penny rate already noted as being in force in 1857, and doubtless the original rate when the system was inaugurated in 1855—certainly a remarkably cheap fee for the service. Of course the rate for letters to the United States, which had been fixed at 3 pence in 1856, was held at the equivalent of 5 cents upon the change to decimal currency in 1859.

Nothing further of special interest is found until the Report of 1864, in which the following dissertation occurs:—

In the Report for 1865 it is stated that "there has been a reduction in the charge on Registered letters" between Canada and the United Kingdom, but we are left in the dark as to the amount of the reduction or the new rate, as far as the Report goes, but in a Post Office Directory for 1866 (dated October 1, 1865) we find the following table which gives us the information desired:—

The Post Office Act 1867 made the domestic registration of letters containing valuables compulsory, the Postmaster General being empowered to prescribe and enforce regulations "in respect to the registration by the officers of the Post Office of letters unquestionably containing money or other valuable enclosure when posted without registration by the senders of the same,[Pg 208] and to imposing a rate of two cents registration charge upon such letters."[192]

The Report for 1868, which was the first of the Dominion of Canada, gave the statistics of registered letters as 640,000 for Ontario and Quebec (the former Province of Canada), 24,700 for New Brunswick, and 40,000 for Nova Scotia, a total registered correspondence of 704,700. The next year's Report especially notes the increase in the use of the registration system, the total having advanced to 850,000 pieces, while the Report for 1870 records an even million.

Finally in the Report for 1872, we find the first hint of special stamps for registration purposes, as follows:—

We have here the reason for the extremely cheap domestic registry fee of 2 cents—a reason which might, possibly with profit, even, enter more deeply into the calculations and published rates of even larger countries than Canada.

The above recommendation did not bear immediate fruit, but after a delay of three years the suggested special stamps made their appearance on November 15, 1875. The Report of that year says of them:—

The special registration stamps are too well known to need any particular description, especially as they are excellently illustrated as Numbers 54, 55 and 56 on Plate III. Like the ordinary postage stamps, they are engraved on steel and were originally printed in sheets of 50, ten horizontal rows of five stamps each, which made a sheet of nearly the same size, only turned through an angle of 90°, as the ordinary sheet of 100 postage stamps. The imprint was the same as the second type employed for the "small" cents issue—"British American Bank Note Co. Montreal" in a pearled frame—and likewise appeared four times on the sheet, as already fully described in the chapter dealing with that issue.[193] The denomination of the stamp was also expressed as TWO CENTS, in the shaded Roman capitals which we found in the case of the postage stamps, over the first stamp in the top row of that value, but with the 5 cent the word FIVE alone appears. The 8 cent we have not seen. On the 2 cent there is also a large numeral 2, 7½ mm. high, over the last stamp in the top row (number 5) but the 5 cent has none.

The normal colors for the stamps were:—

• 2 cents, orange varying through orange red to vermilion.
• 5 cents, a slightly yellow green varying from pale to dark.
• 8 cents, both bright and dull blue.

The stamps were printed upon the same ordinary white wove paper as was used for the contemporary postage stamps. The variation from thin to thick quality is found in the case of the 2 cent and 5 cent stamps, but very little variation in the 8 cent stamp. This is explained by the fact that there were probably but two printings of the latter stamp, 100,000 having been delivered by the manufacturers according to the Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1875, and 25,000 more according to the next year's report.[Pg 210]

The stamps were normally perforated 12, but the 2 cents in orange and the 5 cents in dark green are both known in imperforate condition, the latter having been chronicled in the Halifax Philatelist for November, 1888. A vertical pair of the 5 cent is shown as illustration No. 115 on Plate X.

In the Report for 1877 we find the following:—"The Registration charge on registered letters between the United Kingdom and Canada has been reduced from 8 cents to 5 cents by the Post Offices of the United Kingdom." This naturally dealt a heavy blow at the use of the 8 cent stamp. The Stamp Journal for February, 1878, said:—"Mr. E. Burpee states that the 8 cent 'Registered' stamps have been called in, and that hereafter the fee to Great Britain and foreign countries will be the same as to the United States—5 cents." The next issue, however, corrected this:—"After January, 1878, the cost of registering letters to Great Britain has been fixed at 5 c, the same as to the United States.... To foreign countries the rate is as before, 8 cents, and therefore there is no suppression of the 8 cent registered stamps."

Nevertheless, the rate to foreign countries must have been reduced not long after, as the statistics for stamps issued to postmasters between the 1st July, 1878 and the 1st July, 1879 give but 25 of the 8 cent registered stamp, which must therefore have been sent out early in the fiscal year. The total issues to postmasters, according to the Reports, were as under:—

The number returned as "unfit for use" and presumably destroyed during the several years was 8,872. This gives a total issue of 89,700 for the 8 cent stamp, according to the Reports; but the Canadian correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News stated:[194]—"In 1878 a little over 75,000 of these [original 125,000] were destroyed by order of the Postmaster-General." This probably means that the stamps were called in after their usefulness ceased, and allowing for the amount destroyed during the period of issue gives us perhaps 40,000 as the number actually issued to the public from post offices.

[Pg 211] The 2 cent and 5 cent stamps remained in use, but when the general revision of rates took place in 1889 the domestic rate was raised to 5 cents, and the 2 cent stamp lost its usefulness, the 5 cent alone remaining. We have already reproduced the circular announcing these changes,[195] and will only repeat here the paragraph relating to the registration fee:—

This notice was dated 8th May, 1889, and the Report of 30th June following remarks further:—

The removal of the British American Bank Note Co. from Montreal to Ottawa, which we have already noted as resulting in some marked changes in the shades of the regular postage stamps,[196] was not without its effect upon the registration stamps. Apparently the same ink used for printing the ordinary 3 cent stamp was used for the 2 cent registration, for we find both stamps chronicled in the Halifax Philatelist for October, 1888, as having appeared in a "bright carmine." The usual catalog designation for this 2 cent registration stamp is "scarlet vermilion", but we think that "brick red" best describes the ordinary shade in which these Ottawa printings are found, though the Halifax Philatelist recorded a "dull rose" tint in March, 1889.

The 5 cent stamp was also noted in blue green in the November, 1889, issue of the Philatelic Record, a few months after the regular 2 cent postage stamp appeared in the same shade, again apparently showing the use of the same ink in printing both stamps.

During its regular currency the 2 cent stamp had risen from an issue to postmasters of 937,000 in 1876 to 2,800,000 in 1889, but the change in rates caused a drop to 600,000 in 1890, 14,850 in 1891, and 100 in 1892, while a straggling lot of 400 appeared in 1896.[Pg 212]

The 5 cent stamp was distributed to the amount of about 232,000 in 1876, but ran up gradually from 135,000 in the next year to half a million in 1889. The increase in rates jumped it to nearly three times this amount in 1890, and by 1893, when the regular 8 cent stamp was issued for combined postage and registration, the annual output of the 5 cent registration stamp was 2,260,000.

It may be remembered that after the removal of the engraving company from Montreal to Ottawa certain of the low value postage stamps appeared printed from plates of two hundred impressions instead of the ordinary one hundred. In like manner we find that new plates of double size were made for the 5 cent registration stamp also, these being in one hundred impressions, ten rows of ten, but without the "Ottawa" imprint which appeared on the enlarged plates of the regular postage stamps, according to the Dominion Philatelist, which noted the new sheet arrangement in October, 1892.

On the 1st August, 1893, the regular 8 cent stamp was issued to prepay the combined postage and registration fee, and the notice we have already quoted in that connection stated[197] that when the supply of the 5 cent registration stamp on hand was exhausted no more would be issued. The Report for 1894 states that 307,900 were issued to postmasters for the year ending 30th June, and as over two and a half millions had been issued in the previous twelve-month, the probability is that the supply was exhausted about the time of the appearance of the 8 cent postage stamp, and therefore the stock in the hands of postmasters must have been pretty well used up by 1894.

There is one point left in connection with the registration stamps that deserves mention, as it has so frequently been a bone of contention. The 2 cent stamp was formerly listed in brown, and quantities of printer's ink and valuable space have been wasted in discussing its merits. Mr. Donald A. King seems to have been the discoverer of the variety, according to the Halifax Philatelist,[198] where it was exploited in an article which is worth quoting here for its historical value.

Again we find some details given in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News[199] under "Canadian Notes" which evidently refer to another lot:—

In spite of this brave showing, however, it is practically certain that the stamps are not a misprint but color changelings caused by oxidation, or rather "sulphuretting" to be more exact, an effect peculiarly liable to take place with stamps printed in red or orange. The same thing is found to occur in other Canadian stamps, the 3 pence and 5 cent of the Beaver type, the first issues of Newfoundland and the 3 cent, 1851, of the United States, as well as some of the red and orange colored revenue stamps of the Civil War period. In fact the change is carried almost to a black, at times, but can be restored to the original color by the application of hydrogen peroxide.

[Pg 215]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE POSTAGE DUE STAMPS

Canada managed for years, like many other countries, to collect the postage due on insufficiently prepaid mail matter by merely marking the amount on the cover. The use of stamps as checks on those responsible for making the collections seems not to have been appreciated, or more probably was not deemed necessary. At last the advantages of such a system seem to have become manifest, and in the Postmaster General's Report for the 30th June, 1906, we find the following:—

The first issue of the stamps to postmasters was on the 1st June, 1906, but the system did not come into operation until a month later. The following is the official notice with the technical portions omitted:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA.

OTTAWA, 1st June, 1906.

The new stamps were of the same size as the regular postage stamps, but with the longer dimension horizontal. A large numeral in a central tablet flanked by an acanthus scroll at each side, CANADA above, CENTS below, and POSTAGE DUE in block letters along the bottom, all on an engine-turned groundwork, make a very neat and effective design for the purpose intended. [Illustrations Nos. 58, 59 and 60 on Plate III.] The engraving is of course in the usual steel plate process, and the sheets are of 100 stamps in ten rows of ten. The marginal imprint is at the center of the top of the sheet and is the same as for the later postage issues, "OTTAWA—No—1" or "2". So far there have appeared the following plate numbers:—

The numbers printed, according to the Reports, have been as follows:—

All three values were printed in the same shade of dark violet, but in 1909 the 5 cent was reported in a red violet.

[Pg 217]

CHAPTER XIX

THE SPECIAL DELIVERY STAMP

The Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1898, contained the following announcements:—

The following circular gives the details of the new system:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA.

Ottawa, 7th June, 1898.

Circular to Postmasters.

R. M. COULTER,
Deputy Postmaster General.

For a description of the stamp itself we cannot do better than quote the Montreal Witness:—

The stamp is illustrated as Number 57 on Plate III. It is line engraved and printed in sheets of 50, ten rows of five. The usual imprint, OTTAWA—No.—1, is found in the margin at the top of the sheet, over the third stamp. But one plate number has yet appeared. The color was at first a deep green which in 1908 took on a bluish cast. The paper used is the thick white wove ordinarily employed for the regular postage series, and the stamp has also appeared on the toned paper on which the 1 cent postage is known. The annual requisitions from the manufacturers have increased from 25,000 in 1898 to 112,500 in 1910.

To return to the Postmaster General's Reports. That of the 30th June, 1899, states:—"The 10 cent Special-Delivery stamp, to which reference was made in the last report, came into use at the beginning of the current fiscal year, simultaneously with the commencement of the Special-Delivery Service, and of this stamp 52,940 were issued to meet the demands, which would go[Pg 220] to show that the service is being availed of to a considerable extent throughout the country." The date of the first issue of the special delivery stamp to postmasters is given as the 28th June, 1898.

No further mention is made of the service until the Report dated 31st March, 1908, which says that the special delivery service had been extended to thirteen places where free carrier service had been installed,[200] and further that "the regulations respecting special delivery have been so modified that it is no longer necessary for a person despatching a letter, which he desires to have delivered immediately, to provide himself with the 'special delivery' stamp issued by the department. He may now place upon his letter ordinary postage stamps to the value of ten cents in addition to the stamps required for prepayment of postage and write across the corner of the envelope the words 'special delivery'. This will ensure the special delivery of the letter as provided for in the regulations."

The Report for 1909 states that the service has been extended to the eight places where free letter delivery by carrier had been installed during the year.[201]

[Pg 221]

CHAPTER XX

THE "OFFICIALLY SEALED" LABELS

Strictly speaking, the so-called "officially sealed stamps" are not stamps, as that term is technically employed in philately. To the uninitiated any design impressed upon a label, whether gummed and perforated or not, may be termed a stamp; but the ordinarily accepted use of the term has been restricted, at least in philatelic lore, to the label that represents a value, collected or chargeable, in the service in which it is employed. There may therefore be postal, telegraph or fiscal stamps, and because of the identity in use—to show that no fee is required,—we can stretch our definition to include franking labels, such as are often used officially. But the "officially sealed" label performs no such function, and is, as its name implies, simply a seal which fulfils that purpose alone and therefore does not properly belong in the company of postage stamps. Our only reason for touching upon these labels here is that they have been included in some of the catalogs for years and many collectors possess them; consequently it seems desirable to give their history along with that of their more worthy prototypes.

The label figured as Number 117 on Plate X, seems to have been first reported in Le Timbre-Poste for October, 1879, and its date of issue is usually given as that year. But little seems to have been known about it for some time, which perhaps was partly due to its scarcity and partly because it did not attract the notice that a regular postage stamp issue would have.

The London Society's book quoted a somewhat ambiguous explanation of the use to which the label was put, which had appeared in the Halifax Philatelist;[202] but it remained for Major Evans to clear up the matter in the columns of the Philatelic Record.[203] We cannot do better than quote this in full:—

The labels are of relatively large size, being 25½ by 38 mm. The design is mostly engine-turned work, with the words OFFICIALLY SEALED on a label across the center; above this appears, in a curve, POST OFFICE CANADA, and beneath likewise DEAD LETTER OFFICE. The label is a fine piece of line engraving, but we have been unable to ascertain the size of[Pg 223] the sheets in which it was printed. Doubtless the usual four marginal imprints were employed, being the "Montreal" type in pearled border.

It seems to be the general idea that the first printing of the labels, which were in a dark red-brown, was the only one, but no information is at hand concerning the quantity delivered. At any rate in the Canadian Notes in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News for November 30, 1892 we read that:—"From a reliable source it is learned that the old die of the Canada official seal stamp has been spoiled or rather destroyed for further use by the Bank Note Company, who have possession of it." We suggest that the words "spoiled" and "destroyed" have been transposed in the original, the meaning evidently being that the die had been defaced as of no further use.

The labels were normally perforated the usual 12, but the same journal for April 13, 1892 reports that a whole sheet had been seen in an imperforate condition.

Though various rumors that the use of these labels was to be discontinued are to be found in the late "90's" and early "00's", and though the defacing of the die would perhaps indicate such intention, yet a new issue in changed design made its appearance about 1905, which was of course engraved by the American Bank Note Co., who then held the contract for furnishing stamps. This handsome label, figured as Number 116 on Plate X, was adapted from the magnificent "Law Stamps" of the "series of 1897", which stand as some of the finest fiscal stamps ever issued. The central vignette, with its portrait of Queen Victoria at the time of the Diamond Jubilee, the word CANADA arched above, and the engine-turned border, are reproduced in their entirety from the fiscal stamp; DEAD LETTER OFFICE and more engine-turned work replace the LAW STAMP inscription of the prototype beneath the vignette, and OFFICIALLY SEALED is filled in in block letters of varying heights at the top.

The labels are of course line engraved and perforated 12, but the sheet arrangement or details of quantity printed cannot be given. They were issued at first on a pale blue paper, but subsequently, about 1907, appeared on plain white paper.

[Pg 224]

CHAPTER XXI

THE STAMPED ENVELOPES

In its issue for June, 1904, the London Philatelist[204] illustrated a cover, submitted by Mr. E. B. Greenshields of Montreal, which had the appearance of a provisional 3d. envelope. Concerning it Mr. Greenshields said:—"This letter was posted in New Carlisle, Gaspé, Lower Canada, on April 7th, 1851, and was stamped 'Three Pence' in two lines, inside a square, with a black border of neat design round the sides. Across this was written 'Letter R. W. Kelly Apl. 1851'. The letter was addressed to Toronto, C. W., and on the other side was stamped the date the letter was received, 'Apl. 16, 1851.'" The design was printed on the right upper corner of the envelope, "Three Pence" being in script type of a style then in vogue, and the border being a common type of loops. No stamp appeared on the cover nor the word PAID.

On enquiry of the Post Office Department at Ottawa the following reply was sent:—

Ottawa, 2nd. March, 1904.

William Smith, Secretary.

[Pg 225]

Inasmuch as the impression is type-set and printed, it was doubtless a scheme of the Postmaster to prepare the envelopes and save stamping them with the office seals afterwards, as would be necessary if no adhesive stamp were attached. The cover in question was evidently used for his own convenience, but its use as a stamped envelope would depend upon whether it was sold to the public for their convenience as a prepaid cover. Under such conditions it would assume a character akin to the Postmaster's Provisionals of the United States, but no such evidence has been forthcoming, nor are other copies known. It is an interesting cover, particularly because of the lack of the word PAID, which should have been stamped upon it as well as the indication of the amount, according to the rules in force before adhesive stamps were used to indicate prepayment in themselves; but it had no government sanction, and has not yet been shown to have even the rank of a "semi-official issue."

Although following closely upon the heels of the United States in issuing postage stamps, less than four years having intervened, Canada was not so eager to introduce the stamped envelope, for she waited over six years before following the example of her big neighbor. The first reference to the innovation is found in the Postmaster General's Report for 30th September, 1859 (although the Report is actually dated 20th February, 1860), and reads as follows:—

The precise date of issue does not seem to be on record, but the year 1860 is always given. From the stamp accounts, quoted below, we find the quantity issued for sale is qualified by the remark "during 8 months to Sept. 30", which would indicate that the envelopes were issued about the 1st February, 1860; and we have therefore assigned this date to them until a more authoritative one is produced.

The next reference to the envelopes, including the accounts, appears in the Report for the year ending 30th September, 1860, as follows:[Pg 226]—

STAMPED ENVELOPES.

The cost of manufacture of the stamped envelopes was included, as we have already seen,[205] in the payments made to the American Bank Note Co. for stamps, etc., in 1860, so that they were obtained from that firm. They were not manufactured by them, however, but by George F. Nesbitt & Co. of New York, who at that time held the contract for supplying the United States Government with stamped envelopes. The similarity of the stamped impression, both in size and general arrangement, to the United States envelope dies of 1860 will be noted, and the paper used for the envelopes will be found to be similar, even to the watermark, while the two "knives" used for cutting the envelope blanks will be found to agree with numbers 2 and 11 of the Tiffany, Bogert and Rechert catalog. It was evidently a case of the Bank Note Co. subletting the contract to Nesbitt, who was regularly in the business.

Nothing further appears in the Reports in regard to the stamped envelopes, except the tables of statistics, until the Report of 30th June, 1864, which says:—"In order to promote the use of the Stamped Envelopes a reduction in the price to the public was made from 1st October, 1864, from $5.50 per 100 for the five cent and $10.50 per 100 for the ten cent envelopes, to $5.30 and $10.30 per 100 respectively." But even this bait did not attract, for the next year's Report remarks:—"The recent reduction in the price of stamped envelopes has not led to any material increase in the demand." For two years longer the accounts are given, but with the first Report of the Dominion of Canada, for the year ending 30th June, 1868, they disappear, the envelopes evidently having been given up as a bad investment at the close of the accounts of the Province of Canada, when it was merged into the Dominion.

We have already quoted the figures for the first supplies received and the quantities first issued to postmasters. It may be well to give the entire record for its historical value:[Pg 227]—

[Pg 228]

These figures are the last that appear concerning the first issue of envelopes, the next Report, as already stated, having no mention of them at all. It was very probably because there were not enough to supply the added Provinces of the Dominion, in the case of the 5 cent envelopes, and principally because they did not seem to be popular enough to warrant continuing their use that the envelopes did not remain in issue under the Dominion Government.

An inspection of the above table shows that the 5 cent envelopes were apparently issued at an average rate of perhaps 15,000 a year, while 800 only of the 10 cent were ordinarily put forth. This might indicate a fair consumption of the lower value by the public, particularly as the total receipt from the manufacturers was 225,000 and but 46 remainders are given at the close of the account. But it must be remembered that the table gives the quantities "issued to postmasters" and not the sales to the public by the postmasters. We know the public did not take particularly to the use of the envelopes, so that there were doubtless large quantities of them in postmaster's hands when their sale was discontinued. These would naturally be returned to the Department and destroyed, which would of course materially reduce the quantity issued as taken from the tables. Unfortunately these latter figures have not been obtainable; but it is certain from the rarity of used copies that nothing like 224,954 of the 5 cent and 44,276 of the 10 cent envelopes could have been sold to the public. We are able to illustrate an entire used copy of each value as Numbers 130 and 131 on Plate XIV.

As already stated, the envelope stamps were very similar in size and style to the United States envelope dies of 1860. The inscription CANADA POSTAGE is in the frame above the head and the value below, reversing the United States arrangement, and there are no stars separating the legends. The embossed head of Queen Victoria was evidently copied from the profile used on the 1 cent stamp of 1859. The 5 cent stamp is printed in vermilion and the 10 cent in dark brown. There was but one size of envelope, 5½ × 3¼ inches (140 × 83 mm.), and but one quality of paper for the first order—a white laid paper with a slightly yellowish tone, watermarked with the letters Ca over POD (Canada Post Office Department) which appears about twice in each envelope. The paper was cut so that the laid lines run diagonally, and the knife used was that numbered 2 in the Tiffany, Bogert and Re[Pg 229]chert catalog of United States envelopes, with rounded flap and yellowish gum, extending nearly the length of the flap.

In the table given it will be noticed that 25,000 more 5 cent envelopes were received from the manufacturers in 1865. These latter were on a white paper of similar quality with a slightly bluish tone, and a slightly different knife had been used in cutting the blanks, which corresponds to that numbered 11 in the catalog quoted. The difference consists mainly in a more pointed flap than the first knife.

The London Philatelist for December, 1896, contained the following startling announcement under the head of CANADA:[206]—

Nothing further has apparently been learned about it since, but in the face of the above statements and opinions it seems necessary to record it.

Both values were reprinted[207] by the Nesbitt Company in 1868 on pieces of white wove paper and also vertically laid buff paper, the 5 cent copying the color of the original, but the 10 cent being in a dark red brown instead of black brown. They were also printed in the same colors on entire envelopes of white and buff laid paper with the POD over US watermark of the regular United States stationery. These were a size smaller than the regular Canadian envelopes, being 137×77 mm. A further variety is noted in the Catalogue for Advanced Collectors,[208] as follows:—"There is also a second type of the 5c to be found on the same papers as above reprints which was probably struck off in the same year. The stamp is a trifle larger and the head smaller than on the accepted die; this is probably a die prepared by Nesbitt but refused by the Canadian Government."

[Pg 230] The Dominion Government, which discarded the Provincial stamped envelopes from the beginning, did not essay anything in that line for nearly ten years. Finally the following notice was sent out:—

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA

Ottawa, 6th October, 1877.

STAMPED ENVELOPES.

L. S. HUNTINGTON,
Postmaster General.
[Pg 231]

Curiously enough no mention is made in the Postmaster General's Report of either the issue of the stamped envelopes or their reception by the public, such as was the case with their predecessors in 1860. We find from the stamp accounts, however, that the first supplies received from the manufactures were 554,250 of the 1 cent; 1,257,000 of the 3 cent size 1; and 564,250 of the 3 cent size 2. Further supplies of the 1 cent were not needed until two years later, of the 3 cent size 1 until three years later, and of the 3 cent size 2 until four years later, so it is evident that no great popular demand sprang up for them.

The 1 cent envelope, which was intended for the local or "drop letter" rate, was issued in numbers averaging about 150,000 a year up to 1889, when the Post Office Act of that year, which increased the limit of weight of the single rate letter from ½ to 1 ounce and fixed the drop letter rate at 2 cents per ounce for cities having a free delivery service,[209] caused a falling off in the issue to 62,000 in the 1890 Report, and this gradually diminished to about 25,000 per annum in the Report for 1897, when the stamp under discussion was superseded by a new design.

The 3 cent envelopes, being the regular letter rate, had a larger use; nevertheless the issue of the No. 1 size fell gradually from some 250,000 in 1879 to about 50,000 in 1897. The No. 2 size proved more popular, though the demand was somewhat erratic. The issue went from 78,000 in 1879 to 116,000 in 1884; then averaged about 85,000 for three years; next averaged about 120,000 for four years; and finally returned to the 85,000 mark for the next six years, when a new issue took its place.

The design of these envelope stamps is in all respects similar to the early type, but they are about half again as large. The embossed head of[Pg 232] the Queen is copied from the profile on the "large" cent stamps of 1868 and is tilted forward rather awkwardly in the frame. The 3 cent is printed in bright red varying to rose, but the 1 cent instead of following the yellow color of the adhesive is printed in blue, which varies from quite pale to very dark. The envelopes were manufactured by the British American Bank Note Co. from white laid unwatermarked paper, and have a pointed flap with gum extending nearly the whole length. The smaller sized envelope was also issued with the flap rounded into a tongue, but the larger sized envelope is not known in this form. These "tongued flap" envelopes were apparently an early variety, as the Philatelic Monthly records the 3 cent in its issue for April, 1878. The 1 cent, however, does not seem to have been noted until the June, 1884 issue of Le Timbre-Poste.

The earlier printings of the envelopes were upon a laid paper that had the "cross vergures", or single laid lines that regularly cross the general run, at a spacing of 18 mm. from each other. About 1888 another paper came into use which had these "cross vergures" spaced 24 mm. apart, and in some cases 27 mm. The two papers can be told at a glance as they varied in tone, the latter variety having a slight cream tint and the former being a pure white. These two varieties are of course more noticeable in the entire envelope than in cut squares, and have been listed as "rosy white" and "bluish white" papers, but we feel unable to distinguish them thus as the terms seem wholly inapplicable.

The 1 cent envelope was chronicled in ultramarine in April, 1897, of course on the small sized envelope and the cream toned laid paper.[210]

In May, 1896, the Philatelic Record stated[211] that "Our publishers have the envelope of the 3 cents red value with stamp roughly lithographed instead of being embossed. Mr. J. B. Lewis, of Ottawa, says only 110 were printed." This was a somewhat startling statement, and Major Evans thus comments on it:[212]—

The lithographing of a comparatively few envelopes by a country like Canada appears somewhat incredulous on the face of it, and even more so does the "loss" or "misplacing" of the embossing die; the true explanation of the occurrence is doubtless found in the use of a much worn die, or more likely a defective "counter-die" or "bed-plate" which backs the paper.

In the issue for January 1895, the American Journal of Philately had this statement:—"Mr. G. A. Lowe informs us that the 3c envelope exists on wove paper and was issued in 1891, probably in error." Referring to this, the Monthly Journal for May 1895, states:—

Again in the August 1895 issue, the last quoted paper says:—

[Pg 234]

The references to Mr. King in 1895 seem to show that he discovered the envelopes at about that time, so if the first statement about their appearing in 1891 is correct there must have been two lots issued at two different periods. That they were errors seems to admit of no doubt, as the usual paper for these envelopes was of the laid variety. They were only found in the large size envelope, known officially as No. 2.

In the issue for September 1899, the American Journal of Philately noted two unusual varieties:—

The size of the envelopes is given as 265×113 mm., and both the 1 cent and 3 cent stamps were impressed upon them. No further information seems to have been obtained concerning these curiosities, which must have been issued previous to the termination of the contract with the British American Bank Note Co. in 1897.

Although the rate on "drop letters" at free delivery offices was fixed at 2 cents per ounce by the Post Office Act of 1889, in place of the previous 1 cent per half ounce, it did not occur that a 2 cent envelope might be desirable until about five years later. In the Postmaster General's Report of 30th June, 1894, we read:—"It is proposed to issue for use for drop letters, that is for letters passing within the limits of a free delivery in cities, a 2 cent envelope which will no doubt be found a convenience to the public."

In the next year's Report we find:—"The 2 cent envelopes, used mainly for drop letters, that is, for letters passing within the limits of a free delivery in cities, and referred to in the report for last year, have been issued during the year. Judging from the demand made for these envelopes already, they are likely to prove a convenience to the public."

The new denomination was issued on the 14th June, 1895,[213] on the larger sized envelope, the paper being the cream toned laid. It is a rather[Pg 235] bizarre production, being circular in form with a medallion of the Queen's head in the center, and a beaver perched outside the design at the top, while the sides are broken by maple leaves. The inscriptions are in colored letters, and the numeral of value appears for the only time on a Canadian envelope stamp. In spite of the "demand" for these envelopes, a total supply of 94,970 received from the manufacturers was found sufficient to last until the new type was issued from the Government Printing Bureau in 1899, after the contract with the British American Bank Note Co. had expired.

The Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1898, says:—

The stamped envelopes referred to at the beginning of the above quotation were the 3 cent envelopes, the first value to appear in a new design, and the price, as stated, was reduced from the former rate of $3.30 per hundred to $3.20 per hundred. But this apparently applied only to the new style, for the old style envelopes returned to the department as "unfit for use" in 1898, 1899 and 1900 were credited at the old rates, while the new style envelopes in the same condition were credited at the new rates in these same years. The Report for 1899 states that the old style envelopes in their two sizes were discontinued on 31st March, 1898.

The new stamp, while perhaps not as bizarre as the 2 cent of 1895, was yet a conspicuously ugly production by reason of the profile portrait of Queen Victoria that was employed. The die was engraved by Messrs. De La Rue[Pg 236] & Co., of London, and outside of the embossed head is a very neat design of engine turned work, with POSTAGE in small white letters above the inner oval and THREE CENTS beneath. The word CANADA was added, apparently as an afterthought, in colored letters outside the design at the top of the stamp, where it breaks the colored line surrounding the oval! The impression is in a bright red on a white wove paper of a slightly cream tone, and the flap is rounded, with gum extending its full length. The return request referred to in the Report is printed in black in the upper left hand corner and reads:—

It seems that the American Bank Note Co., upon taking the contract for supplying the Canadian stamps in 1897, asked to be excused from printing the stamped envelopes as well, because such a small number were used. This work was therefore given to the Government Printing Bureau at Ottawa,[214] which accounts for the dies having been furnished by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. The stamp accounts give the number of 3 cent envelopes furnished in the new type as 110,000 in 1898 and 70,000 in 1899, a total of 180,000; but the reduction of the domestic letter rate from 3 cents to 2 cents on the 1st January, 1899, made the 3 cent envelope useless, and large quantities were surcharged with the new rate, so that it is impossible to tell what proportion of the amount given is now represented by each variety. If catalog pricing is any criterion, the unsurcharged issue of the envelope should be perhaps 80,000.

The Report for 1899 states:—

The Report does not give the date of issue of the 3 cent stamped envelope, but it was chronicled in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News for May 5, 1898, and[Pg 237] therefore was probably issued sometime in April. The date of discontinuance is given, however, as December, 1898, so that it had a life, unsurcharged, of only about nine months.