Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 11

Transient and re-mailed Papers and Periodicals will pa.s.s by Post if pre-paid by Postage stamp--one halfpenny on each Newspaper, and on each Periodical, one halfpenny, if not exceeding 3 oz., in weight, and 2d. if over 3 oz.

Postage Stamps of the value of one halfpenny each will be sold to the public at all the princ.i.p.al Post Offices (including all Money Order Offices), with a discount of 5 per cent upon purchases of not less than twenty stamps, and will be available in prepayment of Newspapers and Periodicals, and of Drop and Town Letters.

R. SPENCE, _Postmaster-General_.

[55] See pages 60-61.

[56] =Canada Stamp Sheet=, IV: 184.

The London Society's work gives the date of issue of the 1/2d. 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 ill.u.s.tration, 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 1/2d. 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 October, 1858 and 30th June, 1859, when they were superseded, 850,100 more arrived, making a total stock of 3,450,620.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 1/2d. 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.

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

Two _soi-disant_ provisionals have been chronicled; viz., the Halfpenny surcharged in black--one with an Arabic numeral "1," and the other with "8d. STG." The Society can furnish no information concerning these two stamps; but supposing the surcharges to be genuine, they are probably only notifications of insufficient postage applied after the letters were posted.

[57] =The Stamps, etc., of the North American Colonies of Great Britain=, page 14.

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

Un de nos correspondants nous annonce qu'il possede un timbre rose 1/2 penny, surcharge de la marque: 8 _d. stg._ Cette emission, provisoire sans doute, doit etre le resultat de la penurie momentanee de timbres 10 pence, dans un ou plusieurs bureaux secondaires.[58]

[58] =Le Timbre-Poste=, VII: 82.

And in the next issue of the paper:--

On nous a montre le 1/2 p. rose, non dentele, surcharge en noir, du chiffre 1, de 20 mm. environ et place dans le sens horizontal. C'est probablement encore un timbre emis provisoirement, pour une raison qui nous echappe, le 1 penny n'ayant jamais existe. Quant au timbre dont nous avons parle le mois dernier, le chiffre 8 et la lettre S ont pour dimension 16 mm.[59]

[59] =ibid.= VII: 94.

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 1/2d. each, but in that year were granted free transmission. Concerning the new regulations it continues:--

In pursuance of the Act of 1857, limiting free transmission to such as are posted directly from the office of publication, a halfpenny rate, pre-payable by postage stamps, has been taken since 1st.

August, 1857 on all transient newspapers--that is, papers posted by individuals other than the Publishers.

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:--

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Co., Supply of letter and newspaper stamps 99.6.6

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:--

Rawdon, Wright & Co., supply of letter and newspaper stamps $238.69

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 a.s.sumed control and the use of stamps was introduced, is to be noted:--

Number of Miles of Gross Letters Newspapers Year P. Offices P. Routes Postage Annually Annually

1828 101 2,368 15,000 340,000 400,000 1838 380 5,486 35,000 1,000,000 1,250,000 1848 539 6,985 65,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 1858 1,566 13,600 151,000 9,800,000 13,500,000

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.

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:--

Moreover, the Department has been led, by the increasing use of Postage Stamps, to take measures for obtaining the Canadian Postage Stamps on sheets perforated in the dividing lines, in the manner adopted in England, to facilitate the separation of a single stamp from the others on a sheet when required for use.

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 7-1/2 and 10 pence stamps omitted? Again, had such been the case, it is pa.s.sing strange that the 1/2 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:--

"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 pa.s.sed by.

[60] A Catalogue for Collectors, page 33.

[61] Metropolitan Philatelist, I: 226.

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 ill.u.s.trate 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]--

[62] ibid. I: 275.

We have lately seen a pair of 3d. perf. 14, upon the original cover, but which, unfortunately, presents a most indistinct dating stamp, and, although endorsed by the recipient with date of writing, May 30, date of receipt and date of reply, all three year dates are so indistinctly written that one is unable to tell whether it is 1857 or 1859, although we think the former was the date. Should this be the case it would seem as though the perf. 14 and another curious perforation just discovered ... were experimental, or provisional, pending the receipt from the makers of those perf. 12. Most of the few stamps perf. 14 which we have seen, appear cut on one or more sides with the shears, as though the users were not familiar with the advantages of perforation as a means of separating the stamps, and adhering in a measure to the old methods. This is one of the reasons which lead us to believe that these stamps, perf. 14, were issued before those perf. 12, because the latter are almost invariably separated by tearing apart as is proper.... The writer has in his collection seven copies of the 3d. perf. 14, and of these four specimens show double perforation on one or more sides. It is a rare occurrence when a double perforation is found upon any of the stamps so treated by the American Bank Note Co. or their predecessors, and when we find four out of seven specimens in that condition, we are justified in stating that these stamps, gauging 14, were never perforated by the makers.

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