The Stamps of Canada

by Bertram W. H. Poole

These registration stamps were not only of distinctive design but also of distinctive shape so that they were readily recognised from ordinary postage stamps. They are long, narrow labels and the design is the same for each. On an engine-turned background the word “REGISTERED” in large uncolored Roman capitals is curved prominently across the centre. Below is “LETTER STAMP”, also curved but in smaller letters, while above is “CANADA” on a straight label in still smaller lettering. At each end are tables containing the value in words reading up at the left and down at the right, and in the upper corners are large uncolored numerals plainly denoting the value. Like all other Canadian stamps they were printed from line-engraved plates on unwatermarked paper. They were at first printed in sheets of fifty in ten horizontal rows of five stamps each. Mr. Howes describes the marginal details as follows:—

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. 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, 7½ mm. high, over the last stamp in the top row (number 5) but the 5 cent has none.

The stamps were ordinarily perforated 12, like the then current postage stamps, but the 2c in orange and the 5c in dark green are both known entirely imperforate.

The Postmaster-General's Report for 1877 stated that “the registration charge on registered letters between the United Kingdom and Canada has been reduced from 8 cents to 5 cents”. This, naturally, largely reduced the demand for the 8 cents stamp though it is probable that the 8c rate still applied to foreign countries. Shortly afterwards (the exact date has not been traced) the registration fee on letters to all foreign countries was reduced to 5 cents so that the use of the 8c denomination was entirely abolished. The stamps in the hands of postmasters were called in and destroyed and by examining the official figures relating to the numbers originally issued and those destroyed Mr. Howes estimates that about 40,000 of these 8c registration stamps were used.

In 1889 a general revision of postal rates took place, as already explained in [Chapter X], and one of these changes affected the registration fee. The domestic fee was raised from 2c to 5c so that the registration charge was uniform and was 5c on letters sent anywhere. This, of course, did away with the usefulness of the 2c registration stamps but, as indicated in the official circular, “for the present, and until further instructed, the registration fee maybe prepaid by using the 2 cent Registration stamps and postage stamps to make up the amount.”

The Postmaster-General's Report for 1889, in referring to the advance in the registration charge, says:—

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 classes of matter. The frequent delay consequent upon the prepayment of a wrong registration fee will no longer take place.

The removal of the printing establishment of the British American Bank Note Company from Montreal to Ottawa resulted in some marked changes in the shades of the then current postage stamps as we have already shown in a previous chapter. The registration stamps were also affected in some degree the 2 cents value, in particular, appearing in a number of new and brighter tints. The 5c appeared in blue-green—a distinct contrast from the green and yellow-green shades previously current.

In 1892 some of the postage stamps, it will be remembered, appeared in sheets of 200 instead of 100 as formerly. About the same period new plates were made for the 5c registration stamp, these containing one hundred impressions in ten rows of ten, instead of fifty as before.