Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 36

There is a red stamp of the value of two cents for prepayment of the registration charges on letters within the Dominion.

There is a green stamp of five cents value for registered letters addressed to the United States.

There is a blue stamp of eight cents value for registered letters addressed to the United Kingdom.

These stamps are to apply exclusively to the registration charges, and the postage rates on registered letters are to be prepaid by the ordinary postage stamps.

It is believed that the use of these distinctive stamps for the registration charges, will tend to give registered letters additional security against the risk which is sometimes felt of the registration escaping observation, when such letters are dealt with hurriedly or handled at night, whilst pa.s.sing through the post.

The special registration stamps are too well known to need any particular description, especially as they are excellently ill.u.s.trated 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, 7-1/2 mm. high, over the last stamp in the top row (number 5) but the 5 cent has none.

[193] See page 125.

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.

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 ill.u.s.tration 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:--

1876 71,950 1877 17,200 1878 9,400 1879 25 ------ Total 98,575

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.

[194] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, II: 45:2.

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:--

The fee for the registration of a letter or other article of mail matter will be five cents upon all cla.s.ses of correspondence pa.s.sing within the Dominion. For the present, and until further instructed, the registration fee may be prepaid by using the _2 cent Registration stamps and postage stamps to make up the amount_.

[195] See page 136.

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

The charge for the registration of a letter, parcel, book or other articles of mail matter was also made uniform, and fixed at 5 cents for all cla.s.ses of matter. The frequent delay consequent upon the prepayment of a wrong registration fee will no longer take place.

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.

[196] See page 128.

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.

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.

[197] See page 143.

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 quant.i.ties of printer's ink and valuable s.p.a.ce 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.

[198] =Halifax Philatelist=, II: 8.

THE CANADIAN ERROR.

The Canada 2c. brown registration is at this time mentioned frequently in the _Figaro_ and several other philatelic publications. As there seems to be considerable doubt as to the origin, and as I was in the main instrumental in introducing them to the philatelic public, I have decided to give the information I possess on this subject to them.

About the beginning of January, 1887, I was shown a registered letter received from Miscou Light House Post Office in New Brunswick. It had a BROWN 2c. registration stamp on it--a clear unmistakable dark brown. I immediately wrote the postmaster there for information relative to them. He answered and said that he had 23 on hand. That he had originally received 50 from the P. O. Dept.

at Ottawa, and that they were BROWN when he received them. This he stated positively. I then sent to him for them, but before my letter reached him he had used two of them so that I received only 21.

Those stamps I showed to several philatelists, and could not get two to agree as to their origin. Some said the change in color was due to the gum, others to chemical changes, others again said it was due to the atmosphere from the salt water. Very few would allow a misprint. In the meantime Mr. F. C. Kaye also came across another registered letter with brown registration stamp. This time it was from the P. O. of New Ross in Lunenberg Co., N. S. From this office about 50 were obtained. The postmaster at this office was also positive as to having received them from the Dept. at Ottawa in brown. The same objections were raised to those as to the others, as to whether they were a genuine misprint or not. In this case the atmosphere of salt water was not the cause as New Ross is in the interior. If the gum was the cause of their changing color, it is peculiar that we do not get more of them. Changes by chemical means were also tried. The only thing which would turn the red of the genuine color to brown, was sulphuric acid mixed with water, and this did not give a good clear color, having a somewhat greyish shade in it. Those experiments have, in my opinion, confirmed their genuineness. And now as if to make a.s.surances in regard to their genuineness more sure, we find a third post office with them. This was Beauly, in Antigonish Co., N. S. There were, however, only 6 received from there, the postmaster had the same story as the others, he had received them from the Dept. at Ottawa in a brown color.

The Department at Ottawa was written to in regard to them, but as was to be expected, knew nothing of them whatsoever. No doubt if they had been seen they would not have been allowed to be issued to the public.

Again we find some details given in _Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News_[199]

under "Canadian Notes" which evidently refer to another lot:--

In this color the stamps were first issued in 1885, and were distributed to a number of small towns in Ontario. Some months later the attention of the Postmaster at Toronto was called to this stamp, and as he had received no official notification of an emission in this color, he caused inquiry to be made as to the authenticity of these stamps. A number of offices that had them on hand were communicated with, and all the answers were positive in the statement that the color of the stamps when received had been a decided brown, and had not undergone the slightest change by the action of either time or chemicals. A number of these letters are in the hands of a collector here, and are proof positive that this stamp was issued in a brown color.

[199] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, VI: 96.

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.

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:--

A system of accounting for short paid postage collected by Postmasters, by means of special stamps known as "Postage Due"

stamps, has been adopted by the Department. These stamps are to be affixed to short paid mail matter and cancelled by Postmasters when such matter is delivered to the addressee, and are not to be used for any other purpose. They cannot be used for the payment of ordinary postage, nor are they to be sold to the public.