The 12d value, as every collector knows, is a very rare stamp. Even had the full supply of 51,000 stamps, received in the first and only consignment from the manufacturers on May 4th, 1851, been issued, it would have been a rare variety, but as a matter of fact, the greater portion of the consignment was destroyed and only 1510 were actually issued. An interesting article published in the Metropolitan Philatelist in 1902 shows that this denomination was first issued on June 14th, 1851, and supplies were made to various post offices as follows:—
| No. Stamps | ||
| June 14th, 1851, | Hamilton, | 300 |
| Oct. 17th, 1851, | Chippewa, | 100 |
| Nov. 13th, 1851, | Thorold, | 20 |
| Nov. 25th, 1851, | Toronto, | 200 |
| Mar. 8th, 1852, | Montreal, | 200 |
| Sept. 14th, 1852, | Ingersoll, | 100 |
| Apr. 5th, 1853, | Ottawa (then known as Bytown), | 100 |
| Oct. 20th, 1853, | Sherbrooke, | 15 |
| Jan. 13th, 1854, | Smith's Falls, | 50 |
| Jan. 20th, 1854, | Ottawa, | 100 |
| Feb. 8th, 1854, | L'Islet, | 15 |
| Feb. 27th, 1854, | Ingersoll, | 20 |
| Mar. 22nd, 1854, | Sault S. Marie, | 25 |
| May 15th, 1854, | Port. du Fort, | 15 |
| Oct. 21st, 1854, | Rowan Mills, | 50 |
| Oct. 26th, 1854, | Melbourne, | 50 |
| Oct. 27th, 1854, | Montreal, | 100 |
| Dec. 4th, 1854, | Smith's Falls, | 50 |
| Total stamps, | 1,510 |
The consignment sent to Smith's Falls on December 4th, 1854, was the last distributed. While we can trace no official notice referring to the discontinuance of this denomination, or the actual date at which it ceased to be used, the writer of the article referred to above says that the balance of 49,490 stamps were destroyed on May 1st, 1857, “in accordance with the practice of the Department in cases of the discontinuance of stamps” though as this was the first Canadian stamp to be discontinued, a precedent could hardly have been established.
The following interesting excerpt from the Stamp Collectors' Magazine for April, 1870, states that the 12d value was discontinued in 1855 and it also lays considerable stress on the scarcity of used specimens of this stamp, viz:—
One of our readers observing from a reply we made to a correspondent in the last October number, that we were in doubt as to whether the 12d was ever actually used, has been good enough to write the Deputy Postmaster-General on the subject and has obtained from him the following reply:—
“Ottawa, 28th October, 1869.
Dear Sir:—In reply to your note of the 26th inst., let me say that the twelve penny postage stamps were issued to the public in 1851, but did not find favor, and so few were sold—only a few hundred altogether in three or four years—that they ceased to be issued in 1855.
I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,
W. A. Smyth.”
This is satisfactorily conclusive as to the emission of the stamp in question; but if even only a few hundreds were used, we are surprised that no used copies turn up. Were they used otherwise than for postage? Mr. Philbrick informs us that no unused copy of the stamp was ever seen by him, nor does he know of its existence. Plenty of proofs on India paper, etc., exist, but the paper of the stamp was laid and thin, of a hard texture.