Postage Stamps.
22.—To enable the Public to prepay conveniently by Postage Stamps the foregoing rates, the following denominations of Postage Stamps for use throughout the Dominion, have been prepared, and will be supplied to Postmasters for sale:—
| Half cent | Stamps | } | |
| One cent | do. | } | |
| Two cent | do. | } | All bearing, as a |
| Three cent | do. | } | device, the effigy |
| Six cent | do. | } | of Her Majesty. |
| Twelve and a half cent | do. | } | |
| Fifteen cent | do. | } |
23.—The Postage Stamps now in use in the several Provinces may be accepted, as at present, in prepayment of letters, etc., for a reasonable time after the 1st. of April; but from and after that date all issues and sales to the public will be of the new denomination.
The section regarding “Franking and Free Matter” provides that only letters sent to or by the Governor-General, the Speaker or Chief Clerk of the Senate or of the House of Commons, Parliamentary papers, and legislative documents, such as petitions, addresses, and votes, shall be carried free of postage.
The most important change effected by the above quoted regulations was the reduction of domestic postage from five cents to three cents. It will be noted there are now no prepaid 5c or 17c rates and but one at 10c (on letters sent to British Columbia and Vancouver Island) consequently these denominations were dropped from the new series. On the other hand the ½c rate on transient newspapers, which had to be prepaid, the regular 3c letter rate, the 6c rate to the United States, and 15c for the new British Packet rate made necessary the issue of these four values in addition to the 1c, 2c, and 12½c denominations, which were retained. All these stamps were printed by the line-engraved process, as in the case of the earlier issues, the sheets consisting of one hundred specimens arranged in ten horizontal rows of ten each. A new firm—the British American Bank Note Company, of Montreal and Ottawa—were entrusted with the manufacture of these stamps and, like their predecessors, they applied their imprint to the plates, so that it is shown four times on the margins of the sheets of the printed stamps. Mr. Howes describes the imprint as follows:—
The imprint appears in colorless capitals on a narrow strip of color with bossed ends, and reads BRITISH AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO., MONTREAL & OTTAWA. This strip is framed by a very thin parallel line, its entire width being but one millimeter, while its length is about 51 mm. It occurs but once on a side, being placed against the middle two stamps (numbers 5 and 6) of each row at a distance of about 3 mm. The inscription reads up on the left and down on the right, as before, but the bottom one is now upright, instead of being reversed.
In the case of the half cent stamp at least, we find an additional marginal imprint over the second and third stamps of the top row. This consists of the words HALF CENT, in shaded Roman capitals 4 mm. high, the whole being about 40 mm. long. Presumably the same thing, varied for each denomination, occurs on other values of the series, as we find it does on the succeeding issue; but a strip from the top of a sheet of the 15 cent stamps proves that it was lacking on that value at least.
The new stamps came into use on April 1st, 1868, and are all much alike in design. All values show a profile portrait of Queen Victoria, with head to right, on a background of horizontal lines within a circle, but the ornamentation and disposition of the inscriptions and numerals of value in the surrounding frame is different on each. The Stamp Collector's Magazine for May, 1868, in announcing the issue, gives a good description which we cannot forbear quoting, viz:—
We are now in possession of, as we presume, the entire series of stamps for the Dominion of Canada, consisting of seven values—½ cent, 1, 2, 3, 6, 12½, and 15 cents. It would be indeed odious to compare them with the issues for another confederation lately formed. They are the work of a newly-formed colonial company, and are worthy to take rank beside any which have been manufactured by the rival companies of New York. The design, as we stated last month in noticing the 15c—the first of the set to appear—bears a resemblance to that of the lower values of Nova Scotia, but shows the Queen's head turned to the right. The new “British American Bank Note Company, of Montreal and Ottawa”, has done well to copy so good a device, and certainly has not spoilt it, as the English engravers did in the four penny South Australian. Moreover, whilst retaining the central figure, by enclosing it in a differently-patterned frame for each value, they have given greater variety to the series. In all, care has been taken to make the numerals distinct; and it is as well that this has been done, as two of the values assimilate considerably in shade. The half cent is distinguished from the rest by its smallness—it is quite one-third less in size, but the device is the same. The stamps are all printed on substantial paper, are perforated, and of the following colors: