Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery Part 40

The references to Mr. King in 1895 seem to show that he discovered the envelopes at about that time, so if the first statement about their appearing in 1891 is correct there must have been two lots issued at two different periods. That they were errors seems to admit of no doubt, as the usual paper for these envelopes was of the laid variety. They were only found in the large size envelope, known officially as No. 2.

In the issue for September 1899, the _American Journal of Philately_ noted two unusual varieties:--

Mr. Charles A. Benedict of Brantford has sent us samples of two envelopes with stamp of the 1877 type, which have not as yet been chronicled and which should probably be cla.s.sed as printed-to-order envelopes. They are said to be used by a certain firm in Brantford for circulars and letters, and are printed on large manila amber envelopes.

The size of the envelopes is given as 265113 mm., and both the 1 cent and 3 cent stamps were impressed upon them. No further information seems to have been obtained concerning these curiosities, which must have been issued previous to the termination of the contract with the British American Bank Note Co. in 1897.

Although the rate on "drop letters" at free delivery offices was fixed at 2 cents per ounce by the Post Office Act of 1889, in place of the previous 1 cent per half ounce, it did not occur that a 2 cent envelope might be desirable until about five years later. In the Postmaster General's Report of 30th June, 1894, we read:--"It is proposed to issue for use for drop letters, that is for letters pa.s.sing within the limits of a free delivery in cities, a 2 cent envelope which will no doubt be found a convenience to the public."

In the next year's Report we find:--"The 2 cent envelopes, used mainly for drop letters, that is, for letters pa.s.sing within the limits of a free delivery in cities, and referred to in the report for last year, have been issued during the year. Judging from the demand made for these envelopes already, they are likely to prove a convenience to the public."

The new denomination was issued on the 14th June, 1895,[213] on the larger sized envelope, the paper being the cream toned laid. It is a rather bizarre production, being circular in form with a medallion of the Queen's head in the center, and a beaver perched outside the design at the top, while the sides are broken by maple leaves. The inscriptions are in colored letters, and the numeral of value appears for the only time on a Canadian envelope stamp. In spite of the "demand" for these envelopes, a total supply of 94,970 received from the manufacturers was found sufficient to last until the new type was issued from the Government Printing Bureau in 1899, after the contract with the British American Bank Note Co. had expired.

[213] =American Journal of Philately=, 2nd Series, VIII: 365.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The Postmaster General's Report for 30th June, 1898, says:--

New stamped envelopes also came into use, and the price thereof _above the face value_ as compared with the old envelopes of the same size, was reduced by 10 cents per 100, a reduction of 33-1/3 %.

A further concession given the public was that a blank form of request (to return letter if not delivered within the specified time) is printed without extra charge on the envelope, so that at the option of the purchaser stamped envelopes with or without this form of request may be obtained. Whilst the three denominations of stamped envelopes (1 cent, 2 cents and 3 cents) are retained, it was deemed advisable to have only one size instead of two as was the case with the old envelopes,--the small size of the latter (known as No. 1) being discontinued because of the tendency on the part of the mercantile community to use envelopes of the larger size (known officially as No. 2) or what in the commercial world is cla.s.sed as No. 7. The latter is now the uniform size of the new stamped envelopes.

The stamped envelopes referred to at the beginning of the above quotation were the 3 cent envelopes, the first value to appear in a new design, and the price, as stated, was reduced from the former rate of $3.30 per hundred to $3.20 per hundred. But this apparently applied only to the new style, for the old style envelopes returned to the department as "unfit for use" in 1898, 1899 and 1900 were credited at the old rates, while the new style envelopes in the same condition were credited at the new rates in these same years. The Report for 1899 states that the old style envelopes in their two sizes were discontinued on 31st March, 1898.

The new stamp, while perhaps not as bizarre as the 2 cent of 1895, was yet a conspicuously ugly production by reason of the profile portrait of Queen Victoria that was employed. The die was engraved by Messrs. De La Rue & Co., of London, and outside of the embossed head is a very neat design of engine turned work, with POSTAGE in small white letters above the inner oval and THREE CENTS beneath. The word CANADA was added, apparently as an afterthought, in colored letters _outside_ the design at the top of the stamp, where it breaks the colored line surrounding the oval! The impression is in a bright red on a white wove paper of a slightly cream tone, and the flap is rounded, with gum extending its full length. The return request referred to in the Report is printed in black in the upper left hand corner and reads:--

[Ill.u.s.tration]

If not called for in ten days return to....

It seems that the American Bank Note Co., upon taking the contract for supplying the Canadian stamps in 1897, asked to be excused from printing the stamped envelopes as well, because such a small number were used.

This work was therefore given to the Government Printing Bureau at Ottawa,[214] which accounts for the dies having been furnished by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. The stamp accounts give the number of 3 cent envelopes furnished in the new type as 110,000 in 1898 and 70,000 in 1899, a total of 180,000; but the reduction of the domestic letter rate from 3 cents to 2 cents on the 1st January, 1899, made the 3 cent envelope useless, and large quant.i.ties were surcharged with the new rate, so that it is impossible to tell what proportion of the amount given is now represented by each variety. If catalog pricing is any criterion, the unsurcharged issue of the envelope should be perhaps 80,000.

[214] =Weekly Philatelic Era=, XI: 308.

The Report for 1899 states:--

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.

The Report does not give the date of issue of the 3 cent stamped envelope, but it was chronicled in _Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News_ for May 5, 1898, and therefore was probably issued sometime in April. The date of discontinuance is given, however, as December, 1898, so that it had a life, unsurcharged, of only about nine months.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

But meanwhile the 1 cent envelope was being prepared, and evidently because of the dissatisfaction expressed over the embossed head of the Queen on the 3 cent value, the new envelope appeared with the familiar youthful profile similar to that used on the British envelope dies for so many years. This improved the appearance of the stamp, which otherwise corresponded in design with the 3 cent and was likewise engraved by Messrs. De La Rue & Co. It was printed in a dark green on paper like that of the 3 cent value, and in the same size and cut of envelope. The new type was issued on July 22, 1898, according to the 1899 Report, and was sold at $1.20 per hundred. The distribution of the old style 1 cent envelopes was discontinued in the same month, according to the stamp accounts.

Following the 1 cent envelope came the 2 cent, being identical in every respect save the expressed value and color, and emanating from the same source as its two predecessors. The Report of 1899 gives the date of issue of this envelope as the 2nd January, 1899, and, as the corresponding value in the adhesive set was a deep violet, we should expect the envelope stamp to follow suit. This it did, but was almost immediately followed by an issue in bright red, because of the reduction of the domestic letter rate from 3 cents to 2 cents. It will be remembered that when Imperial Penny Postage was inaugurated on December 25, 1898, it was almost immediately announced that the internal postage in Canada would be reduced to the 2 cent rate on and from the 1st January, 1899. As the Postal Union requirements called for carmine as the color of the stamp for the domestic letter rate, the change from violet was necessary in the Canadian 2 cent stamp, but owing to the large stock of the violet stamps on hand and the surcharging of the 3 cent stamps down to 2 cent value, the change in color from violet to carmine did not take place in the adhesives for some eight months. Not so with the envelopes; the new 2 cent ones were about to be issued and had been printed to the amount of 10,000 in dark violet. But with the change in rates and therefore in color requirements, orders were given to print further supplies of the 2 cent envelope in red, and the latter color therefore appeared about a week after the violet stamp.

We have gone thus into detail in the matter in order to make it evident why the violet stamp was so short lived, and why the change was made.

This seems necessary because such a furor was created at the time, when it became known that the issue of violet envelopes was small, and speculation ran high; the Government was accused of speculating in them and of putting them in the hands of favored ones, and finally, as in the case of the alleged speculation in the Jubilee stamps, the matter came up in Parliament. The following is an extract from the official report of the debates in the House of Commons at Ottawa:[215]--

ISSUE OF STAMPED ENVELOPES.

Mr. Hughes asked: 1. When will the present 2 cent purple stamped envelope cease to be issued, and the red issued in its place? 2. How many 2 cent purple envelopes were issued, and how many distributed?

At what offices were they distributed, how many at each office? Are there any more to be distributed, and if so, where will they be distributed? 3. Is it the intention of the Government to issue an entire new set of stamped envelopes to replace those at present in use? If so, when? * * *

The Postmaster-General (Mr. Mulock): The issue of 2 cent purple-stamp envelopes ceased when the supply thereof in the department became exhausted, the last issue having been made on the 7th January, 1899. The subsequent issue of 2-cent stamped envelopes was in red, in accordance with the recommendation of the Postal Convention. *

* * The schedule hereto annexed shows the names of the post offices supplied with such purple-stamp envelopes and the respective quant.i.ties so supplied them.

List of Post Offices to which 2c. purple envelopes were issued, and the quant.i.ty in each case.

Post Office. Quant.i.ty.

Belleville, Ont. 500 St. Catherine's, Ont. 500 Toronto, Ont. 2000 Corinth, Ont. 100 Haliburton, Ont. 100 Mount Albert, Ont. 100 Tamworth, Ont. 500 Hagersville, Ont. 100 Hamilton, Ont. 500 Loring, Ont. 100 Newton, Ont. 100 Ottawa, Ont. 700 St. Casimir, Que. 100 Sherbrooke, Que. 500 Montreal, Que. 1000 Rigaud, Que. 100 Maitland, N. S. 100 Truro, N. S. 100 Yarmouth, N. S. 100 Andover, N. B. 200 Centreville, N. B. 100 Shoal Lake, Man. 100 Winnipeg, Man. 2000 New Westminster, B. C. 100 Greenwood, B. C. 200

[215] =Weekly Philatelic Era=, XIII: 285.

Further questioning by the same gentleman, in an effort to show that "inside" information had been given concerning the remainder of the 2 cent green envelopes at Toronto and the limited issue of the so-called "purple" ones, in order that favored parties might "corner" them, resulted in nothing definite except that in replying to the question "Was the issue of the 2c. purple stamped envelopes done by mistake?" the Postmaster-General said: "There was no mistake whatever made in the issue of said envelopes, but, on the contrary, the issue took place in the ordinary course of business, and was made on requisitions in the usual way, coming from postmasters." Considering the date of their issue, the cause of the change in color and the above reply of the Postmaster-General, in connection with an examination of the table of distribution of the 2c. violet envelopes, we must say that it seems clear that the whole business, as far as the Department was concerned, was legitimate and straightforward, and the aspersions cast upon the issue of this envelope were only animated by a spirit of jealousy or revenge on the part of those who unfortunately did not happen to get any, whether "tipped off" by friends in or out of the post-office, or not.

The 2 cent envelope in red may have been issued on the 8th January, 1899, or within a day or two of that date, and corresponds of course with the one in violet and the 1 cent envelope in all respects. It was sold at $2.20 per hundred.

We have already spoken of the 3 cent envelope, issued in April, 1898, as having been surcharged. This was due, of course, to the same reduction in the domestic rate of postage that operated to change the 2 cent envelope from violet to red, and which also rendered the 3 cent envelope practically useless. In order to utilize the stock of the latter envelopes, therefore, the Department decided on surcharging them down to a 2 cent value. This was done sometime during the week of 6-11 February, 1899, and we can do no better than quote the letter of a Canadian correspondent in the _Weekly Philatelic Era_[216] for details concerning it.

[216] =Weekly Philatelic Era=, XIII: 204.

OTTAWA, 17th Feb'y, 1899.

Our weekly sensation was duly on tap last week, in the shape of surcharges, Canada's first offence, but an aggravated case. The Post Office Department announced that any holders of 3c. envelopes or letter cards might send them in to the postage stamp branch, and have them surcharged, and re-issued as 2c. emissions, the difference in value being made good by an additional supply of surcharged stationery or in some other equivalent stamps.

It was not antic.i.p.ated that a very large supply of 3c. stationery was on hand, and consequently the arrangements for surcharging are of the most primitive description. Stamps of soft rubber bearing the figures 2c. are provided, and the surcharge is put on by hand, the stamps being inked on black pads. The consequence is that the work is ill done, and we have as many varieties of surcharge as there are impressions, with quant.i.ties[217] of ink varying from a black blue to a light grey. I have seen one envelope with the surcharge on sidewise reading from bottom to top.

Independently of the variations in printing, there are two types of surcharge. In the first, which I shall christen the "capital surcharge", the figure 2 is 10-1/2 mm. high by 8 wide, the heavy parts of the figure being 2 mm. thick, the thin parts 3/4 mm. The C is a capital letter 4-1/2 3-1/2 mm. There was only one stamp of this type, and when it had been in use for two or three days the difference in type was noticed and the stamp was destroyed. Any stationery surcharged with it will be exceedingly rare.

The other type, which I suggest should be called the "lower case surcharge", has a similar figure 2 but the C is a heavy face lower case letter 4 3-1/2 mm. It is possible that there may be varieties of this type, as there are several stamps in use, but the printing is so badly done, and the stamps so subject to distortion by pressure, that one cannot depend on either inspection or measurement, a change in pressure in printing altering the appearance of the surcharge very materially.

[217] Query: "qualities"?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In the same issue of the _Era_ appeared further notes from another correspondent. In regard to the then current 3 cent envelopes (the so-called "Bureau print") he says:--"The P. O. Department has surcharged the stock on hand, a few thousand. * * * Some of the old British American Bank Note 3c envelopes were also surcharged, but it is understood that there were very few of them on hand,--less than a thousand."

The opportunity given the public, however, to have 3 cent envelopes in their possession surcharged, as well as the stock held by postmasters, which was returned to a considerable extent (15,848 of the 3c. 1898 returned 1899-1901; 6,788 of the 3c. No. 1, 1877, returned 1899-1900; and 3,081 of the 3c. No. 2, 1877, returned 1899) and doubtless reissued in surcharged condition, has made these provisional envelopes fairly common. No details of the numbers so treated are available, but if the catalogue value is any criterion the 3 cent of 1898 surcharged is half again as common as the unsurcharged variety, or, as before remarked, the numbers issued may be divided up roughly as perhaps 100,000 of the former to 80,000 of the latter. Of the old envelopes of 1877, both sizes of which are found surcharged, it is impossible to hazard any guesses, save that a considerable number--several thousands of each size at least--must have been operated upon to render them as reasonable in catalogue price as we find them.

The surcharge in its first type, as described in the quotation given, with the capital C, has only been found on the 3 cent envelope of 1898, which was the one in the reserve stock of the Department when the reduction in postage took effect; but the second type, with the "lower case" C is found not only on this envelope but also on both sizes of the old "Burland & Co." envelopes of the 1877 issue.

It will be remembered that it took considerably more than two years after the death of Queen Victoria before the change to King's head adhesives was made in Canada. It took even longer for the change in the envelope dies, as the first one to appear, the 2 cent, was not issued until the beginning of 1905. It was thus described in _Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News_:[218]--

Mr. Wm. P. Anderson writes that the 2c Canada envelope, Queen's Head, is now obsolete, and that a new issue bearing the King's Head was first sent out Jan. 12. It is very similar to the existing type--same colour, shape and size and same description of paper and size of envelope. The bust of the King, a profile to the left, is larger, filling more of the central oval than did that of the young Queen. It is a very beautifully cut piece of embossing, the work of Wyon, the celebrated London die sinker. The engine turned border is not, Mr. Anderson thinks, so neat as that on the old stamp, from which it differs in detail. The word Canada has been removed from outside the frame to the upper label, which now reads Canada Postage. This and the value, two cents, on a label below the bust, are in white letters on a ground of solid colour. The lettering is very thin, which is the only blemish in a very neat and effective design.