Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 39

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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, 5-1/2 3-1/4 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 Rechert 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]--

Mr. L. Gibb, of Montreal, kindly submitted to his fellow members of the London Philatelic Society, at a recent meeting, a curious variety among the stamps of the Colony he resides in. The specimen in question was the 10 c. envelope of 1860 impressed in vermilion, instead of its normal colour--brown, and being presumably printed in error in the color of the 5c. The stamp was unfortunately cut round, but was on the diagonally laid paper usual to the Issue, duly postmarked, and, in the opinion of the members present, had every appearance of authenticity, although surprise was expressed that so marked a variety should never have been noted before.

[206] =London Philatelist=, V: 345.

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 13777 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."

[207] =American Journal of Philately=, 2nd Series, III: 165.

[208] =Ibid.=

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.

1. Letter envelopes bearing an impressed postage stamp of one cent, and three cents respectively, are ready for issue to Postmasters and through their agency to Stamp Vendors for sale to the public.

2. These envelopes when issued to Postmasters will be charged to them, and will have to be accounted for by them at the following rates:

One cent envelopes, $1.30 Three cent do No. 1 size, 3.30 do do No. 2 size, 3.35

3. The three-cent envelopes are of two sizes, No. 2 being larger than No. 1 and Postmasters, when asking at any time for a supply, will be careful to state how many of each size they want.

4. Postmasters and Stamp Vendors will be required to sell these envelopes at the above rates per hundred to the public, and when a request is made for a single envelope, or for any number less than a hundred, the charge for the same must be made by the Postmaster or Stamp Vendor, as near the exact proportionate value, as compared with the above rates per hundred, as the fraction will permit without loss to the Postmaster or Stamp Vendor, thus ten of the three-cent envelopes, No. 1 size, should be sold for thirty-three cents, five for seventeen cents, and two for seven cents.

5. When used these envelopes will represent the pre-payment of postage to the amount of the stamp impressed thereon, and when used for letters weighing more than 1/2 an oz., or on which the pre-payment is required of more than is represented by the impressed stamp, the difference may be affixed by ordinary postage stamps.

6. The impressed stamp must be carefully cancelled by Postmasters when the envelopes are posted.

7. An impressed stamp cut from an envelope cannot be used for pre-payment of postage in any shape, and when detached from the envelope on which it was impressed, it loses all value as a postage stamp.

8. In the accounts rendered by Postmasters, the amounts of stamped envelopes received from the Department and sold to the public or to Vendors, are to be added to the postage stamp items.

L. S. HUNTINGTON, _Postmaster General._ */

/# _Memo._--Stamped Envelopes are to be sold to the public at the following prices by Postmasters and Stamp Vendors:-- #/

Per Hundred. Per Ten. For Single Envelopes.

1 Cent Envelopes $1.30 13 cents 2 cents, or 3 cents for 2 3 do do No. 1 size $3.30 33 cents 4 cents, or 7 cents for 2 do do No. 2 size $3.35 34 cents 4 cents, or 7 cents for 2

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 1/2 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.

[209] See page 136.

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 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_.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

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 s.p.a.cing of 18 mm. from each other. About 1888 another paper came into use which had these "cross vergures" s.p.a.ced 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]

[210] =Monthly Journal=, VII: 175.

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]--

There have been reports of late, in various quarters, of a certain number of the 3c. envelopes, of the current type, having had the stamp impressed upon them by lithography instead of in the usual manner.

The story goes that the embossing die was lost, or mislaid, that a small supply of envelopes was wanted immediately by a business firm, and that a few hundreds were lithographed to fill this demand. The whole story sounds somewhat doubtful, to any one who knows how stamped envelopes are produced, but until quite recently we had not seen a specimen of the supposed lithographed envelopes, and therefore would not express any opinion upon them. A copy has lately been sent to our publishers, and we find it to be practically identical, as far as _almost_ entire absence of embossing is concerned, with some specimens which we obtained in Canada a few years ago; the embossing, in the copy shown us, is not absolutely invisible, there being slight traces of it about the head, and especially the chignon; and if any envelopes have been lithographed, which we greatly doubt, this is not one of them.

[211] =Philatelic Record=, XVIII: 135.

[212] =Monthly Journal=, VI: 188.

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:--

Mr. King tells us that he found some packets of this variety in the Post-office at Halifax, and that he thinks that they may be a new edition, on a better paper than the last. He is not certain yet about this, as the great majority of the stock consisted of the _laid_ paper envelopes, and therefore the use of the wove may have been unintentional or temporary.

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

In further reference to the 3c envelopes on _wove_ paper, Mr. King sends us replies which he received from the P. O. Department to his enquiries on the subject. The replies are vague, if not evasive, but show plainly that no intentional change was made in the paper used; they seemed to indicate, however, that the contractors are not restricted to a particular nature of paper, so long as the envelopes supplied are of sufficiently good quality.