Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 20

3 cents, 19-1/2 24-1/2 mm.

20 24 mm.

5 cents, 19 24-1/2 mm.

6 cents, 20 24-1/2 mm.

20-1/2 24 mm.

12-1/2 cents, 19-1/2 24-1/2 mm.

20 24 mm.

15 cents, 19-3/4 24-1/2 mm.

20 24 mm.

It is also stated that these stamps exist perforated 11-1/2 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 11-1/2 gauge used for the vertical perforations, and we should expect to find some stamps at least perforated 12 11-1/2, if not 11-1/2 all around.

Such do not seem to have been reported and we have no further information concerning the variety mentioned.

[101] =Monthly Journal=, IX: 125.

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 ill.u.s.trate 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 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 ill.u.s.tration of this cover will be found as No. 98 on Plate VIII.

Concerning the quant.i.ties 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 1/2, 3, 6 and 15 cent stamps, which were new values, the quant.i.ties given in the Report for 1868 can be used, but with the 1, 2 and 12-1/2 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 quant.i.ty 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.

[102] See page 88.

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

RECEIVED FROM MANUFACTURERS.

1/2c. 1c. 2c. 3c.

30th June, 1868 1,500,000 2,000,000(?) 2,000,000(?) 6,000,000 " " 1869 ... 9,250,000 4,000,000 12,000,000 " " 1870 ... 2,300,000 1,300,000 11,300,000 " " 1871 ... ... 1,800,000 ...

" " 1872 500,000 ... 3,200,000 ...

" " 1873-82 4,756,700 ... ... ...

" " 1876-96 ... ... ... ...

--------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Totals 6,756,700 13,550,000 12,300,000 29,300,000

6c. 12-1/2c. 15c.

30th June, 1868 2,000,000 500,000(?) 212,500 " " 1869 2,000,000 1,000,000 600,000 " " 1870 2,230,000 300,000 ...

" " 1871 3,070,000 734,000 ...

" " 1872 2,325,000 ... ...

" " 1873-82 ... ... ...

" " 1876-96 ... ... 1,765,400 ---------- --------- --------- Totals 11,625,000 2,534,000 2,577,900

The above table shows that the first deliveries of the 1/2 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 1/2 cent in 1882. The figures for that year doubtless included a large quant.i.ty of this latter stamp, so we can safely approximate the quant.i.ty of the 1/2 cent of 1868 issued as 6-1/2 millions. The large 1 cent stamp was superseded about March 1870, so the above figures may very likely be reduced by say two millions in 1870, leaving 11-1/2 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 12-1/2 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 2-1/2 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 quant.i.ties, 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 12-1/2 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 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:--

The Post Office Laws and Regulations of the several Provinces of the Dominion, in force at the date of the Union, remained in operation under the authority of the Union Act until superseded by the statute known as "_The Post Office Act 1867_", pa.s.sed in the first session of the Dominion Parliament, for the regulation of the Postal Service, and which general Act took effect from the 1st. April, 1868.

By this Act a uniform system of Post Office organization was provided for, the ordinary rate of domestic letter postage was reduced from five cents to three cents per half ounce, and the charge on letters sent to and received from the United States was at the same time lowered from ten to six cents per half ounce weight (the latter being the combination of the three cent letter rates of both Countries), and lastly, low rates of postage charge were established for the conveyance of newspapers, periodicals, printed papers, parcels and other miscellaneous matter by Post.

In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the additional newspaper postage collected under the new Statute, applying equal charges on newspaper matter throughout the Dominion, approximately balanced the loss in the reduction of the letter rates, in fact the collections in Nova Scotia in the first fiscal year after the change in the postage rates, shew a marked improvement on the revenue of the previous year, and there has been a material increase in the number of letters pa.s.sing by Post in the Maritime Provinces, as well as in Ontario and Quebec.

Postage stamps of denominations corresponding to the reduced rates of postage authorized by the Post Office Act of 1867, were prepared by the British American Bank Note Co. at Ottawa, and distributed by the Department throughout the Dominion for use on the 1st. April.

1868, from which date the new rates of postage came into operation.

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

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:--

_Miles of_ _Letters_ _Revenue_ _Post Route_ _Annually_ (_fiscal year_) Ontario & Quebec 18,716 14,750,000 $906,663.04 New Brunswick 3,379 1,350,000 53,827.80 Nova Scotia 5,579 2,000,000 64,219.77 ------ ---------- ------------ Totals 27,674 18,100,000 1,024,710.61

The total correspondence pa.s.sing 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 12-1/2 to 6 cents per 1/2 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 rates of postage have been made uniform in both newly confederated Provinces with those prevailing in the older sections, as well in respect to correspondence pa.s.sing between British Columbia and Manitoba, and the rest of the Dominion, as in regard to the transmissions within each of the said Provinces.

Arrangements have been made with the Post Office of the United States, under which mails to and from British Columbia pa.s.s in closed bags (through the United States mails) between Windsor (Ontario) and Victoria (British Columbia), via San Francisco, for the conveyance of which through the United States, a transit rate is paid by the Dominion to the United States Post Office, as in the case of similar closed mails pa.s.sing to and from Manitoba.

The report for 30th June 1872 states that:--

Arrangements between Canada and Newfoundland came into effect from 1st. November, 1872, establis.h.i.+ng a uniform prepaid rate of 6 cents per 1/2 ounce on letters pa.s.sing between any Post Office in the Dominion and any Post Office in Newfoundland, instead of 12-1/2 cents as before, and providing that Newspapers, Books, printed matter and post cards shall be prepaid at ordinary Canadian rates and vice versa.

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.