Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 30

Postmasters are requested to exchange, as above mentioned, all unused 3c. letter-cards, 3c. stamped envelopes and 3c. stamps which may be offered them to be exchanged for other postage stamps of an equal value.

Postmasters, who as a result of such exchange, may find the 3c.

stamps, etc., unsaleable, are at liberty, in the case of an _Accounting Post Office_, to send them direct to the Department for credit; and in the case of a _Non-Accounting Post Office_, to send them to the City Post Office from which it obtains its supplies, asking in lieu of those returned other stamps to an equal value.

It is especially requested that, in the case of stamps sent direct to the Department, under this authority, that is to say, _by Accounting Post Offices_,--Postmasters will be so good as to carry out the following instructions:--

(1) Each transmission should be registered, and accompanied with a brief memorandum, plainly stamped with the date stamp of the Post Office, and indicating the number and value of the 3c. stamps, etc., claimed to be enclosed. If other stamps are required to replace those returned, a separate requisition therefor (not enclosed in the package) should be sent direct to the Department in the usual way.

(2) Single stamps, and stamps that are not in complete sheets, should be pasted on alternate pages of separate sheets of paper, with _not more than one hundred stamps on each page_. Any stamps that have stuck together whilst in the possession of the Postmaster, must be taken apart (which can easily be done by immersing them for a few minutes in water) and then pasted on sheets of paper as above directed.

Postmasters of _Non-Accounting_ Offices are particularly asked to bear in mind that any 3c. letter-cards, 3c. stamped envelopes or 3c.

postage stamps which conformably to this instruction, they may receive from the public in exchange for other stamps and find unsaleable, _must be returned, as above directed, to the City Post Offices from which they respectively obtain their supplies_, and not to the Department.

_As only the unused remnant of 3c. stamps now in the Department will be surcharged_, Postmasters must not send in, with a view to their surcharge, any 3c. stamps in their possession nor accept 3c. stamps from the public for that purpose.

Postmasters must distinctly understand that the exchange of stamps herein permitted applies _only_ to the 3c. letter-card, the 3c.

stamped envelope and 3c postage stamp.

R. M. COULTER, _Deputy Postmaster General_.

As a matter of fact the 2 cent purple seems to have lasted about a week longer than was antic.i.p.ated 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.

[152] =Monthly Journal=, X: 35.

[153] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, XIII: 308.

Ill.u.s.trations 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. Ill.u.s.trations of the inverts will be found as numbers 44 and 45 on Plate II.

The quant.i.ty 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 const.i.tuted 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 cent stamps, and this quant.i.ty 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.

[154] =Weekly Philatelic Era=, XIII: 393.

[155] =Monthly Journal=, X: 35.

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.

[156] =Weekly Philatelic Era=, XIII: 400, 403.

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 some offices 1c. and 2c. stamps ran short, and their places were supplied by one-third and two-thirds portions of 3c. stamps divided vertically. In some places, our correspondent says, these divided stamps were employed without further alteration, but in others we regret to hear that they were surcharged with a figure "2", in _purple_, upon the figure "3" of the larger portion, or the word "one" in _green_, upon the smaller part; or, to further complicate matters, when thirds of two adjoining stamps were used for 2c. each part was impressed with a figure "2". Our informant's letter is franked in part by 2/3 of a 3c. stamp surcharged "2" so we fear that this horrible tale is founded on fact.

In the _Journal_ for March 31, 1899, is further light:--

The surcharged fractions appear to have been used only at the office at Port Hood, N. S., where the Postmaster apparently did not consider it safe to use divided stamps without some distinguis.h.i.+ng mark. We have seen other copies since, and find that a figure "1"

was struck upon the smaller portion; not the word "one" as previously stated.

Again in the _Journal_ for April 29, 1899, we find:--

In reference to the cut and surcharged 3c. stamps, a correspondent sends us the following extract from a letter from the postmaster of Port Hood:--

"When the change in Canadian postage was made--of which we got notice by wire--I had only very few two cent stamps in stock, so that before I got my supply from Ottawa I ran completely out of them, and, to keep my account straight, I was compelled to cut threes. This was for one day only, and not over 300 stamps were cut.

I would say about 200 '2' and 100 '1' were used. Those stamps I put on letters for delivery within the county as much as possible. About 100 '2' and probably nearly as many '1' were marked with the figures 3 and 1 as you describe, and were placed on letters for delivery in towns throughout the Dominion. Those were the only provisional stamps used by this office."

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 a.s.suredly not worthy of any great attention from collectors. Ill.u.s.trations of the "2" cent and a pair of the "1" cent will be found as Nos. 37 and 39 respectively on Plate II.

[157] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, XIII: 187.

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:--

Ottawa, Dec. 18th, [1902].--The Post Office Department announces that on the 24th instant it will be in a position to supply a seven-cent postage stamp to accounting post offices throughout Canada. This stamp, which is of a yellow color, will be especially convenient for postage and registration fee on single rate letters, while it may also be used for other postage purposes to the extent of its face value. Non-accounting offices can obtain their supply through the city post offices. This new stamp will bear the Queen's head, the department not having yet decided on the design for the King's head issue.

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 const.i.tuted 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, the letter rate within Canada was reduced from 3 to 2 cents per ounce. This change has been accompanied by such a marked and continuous increase in the number of domestic letters being transmitted through the mails, as to warrant the conclusion that the loss of revenue consequent on such reduction will soon be overcome.

As a result of the reduction in the Domestic Letter rate of postage, the issue of the 3c. letter card, 3c. stamped envelope and 3c.

postage stamp has been discontinued, unused quant.i.ties of these, however, continuing available for postage purposes or exchangeable at any post office for their equivalent in postage stamps of other denominations.

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_ (a.s.sented 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 subst.i.tuted the following therefor:--

=26.= On and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine, newspapers and periodicals, printed and published in Canada, mailed by the publisher in the post office at the place where they are published and addressed to regular subscribers or newsdealers in Canada, resident elsewhere than in the place of publication, shall be transmitted by mail to their respective addresses as follows:--

If they are required to be transmitted by mail a distance within twenty miles from the place of publication or within a circular area of a diameter not exceeding forty miles, and if their publication is of no greater frequency than once a week, they shall be so transmitted free of postage within one or other of such areas to be selected by the publisher in accordance with regulations in that behalf to be established by the Postmaster General; if they are required to be transmitted a greater distance, or if their publication is of greater frequency than once a week, then in either of such cases postage thereon shall be paid on and after the said first day of January, and until and inclusive of the thirtieth day of June next following, at the rate of one-quarter of one cent, and thereafter at the rate of one-half of one cent, for each pound weight or any fraction of a pound weight, which shall be prepaid by postage stamps or otherwise, as the Postmaster General from time to time directs; provided that--

(_a_) such newspaper or periodical is known and recognized as a newspaper or periodical in the generally received sense of the word, and consists wholly or in great part of political or other news or of articles relative thereto or to other current topics, and is published regularly at intervals of not more than one month;

(_b_) the full t.i.tle, place and date of publication, and the distinguis.h.i.+ng number of the issue are printed at the top of the first page, and every subsequent page, and also on any paper, print, lithograph or engraving purporting to be a supplement to it and sent with it;