The Stamps of Canada

by Bertram W. H. Poole

Evidently there were large stocks on hand of some of the values of the 1868 issue for two years elapsed before any more of the small stamps appeared. Then in the Stamp Collector's Magazine for February, 1872, we read:—“We have received by the last mail specimens of a new 6 cents brown of the small size. It is printed of a warm tint, and is as effective as its congeners.” The design follows that of the 3c very closely with, of course, the numerals “6” instead of “3” in the lower angles.

In the following month the 2c was chronicled, its color being given as “a delicate chrome-green.” The design differs from the 3c and 6c chiefly in the direction of the curve of the word CENTS, which is reversed, as compared with those denominations, and much less pronounced.

The 10c was the next value to appear and it was not on sale until quite late in 1874, probably about November 1st. The design follows the general effect of the 2c but at the same time illustrates a new departure, inasmuch as the numerals of value are repeated in the upper corners in a smaller form. For what particular purpose this value was intended is not clear for there was, apparently, no regular rate at that time which required such a denomination.

The next value placed on sale was the 5c, which was issued in February, 1876, and superseded the large 5c design after it had been in use for only about four months. Though the portrait is the same as that on the other values the frame is of a distinctly different style and CENTS is in much larger letters than before, showing that the previous values, following as they do a general pattern, were engraved much about the same time though many years elapsed before all were actually in use.

Finally in July, 1882, the ½c value appeared and was recorded in the Philatelic Record for July of that year in the following words:—

That “history repeats itself” is a proverb that is curiously illustrated by the latest issue of this colony. We all remember that in 1868 a ½c stamp of smaller size than the other values of the series was emitted. A few years later, some say for economical reasons, the other values were reduced to the smaller size. Recently it seems to have struck the Canadian authorities that their idea of fourteen years ago was a happy one, and the ½c has been proportionately cut down. The general arrangements of the design remain the same, but the ornamentation is simpler. The head and circle containing it are miniatures of the former, and the result is what the ladies would call “a dear little stamp,” about the size of our lately defunct “Halfpenny,” but an upright instead of an oblong rectangle. We trust the price of paper will not again cause a general reduction; for if the Canadian stamps go on growing “small by degrees, and beautifully less,” they will in time become too microscopic to be collectible.

After the issue of the ½c value the only denominations of the 1868 series not provided with successors in the issue under notice were the 12½c and 15c. Regarding the former value the Stamp Collector's Magazine for May, 1872, says, on the authority of a Canadian journal:—“It is unlikely that the 12½c small size will be issued, as the large ones are very little used, and can now be bought at the post-office for 12 cents.” But some three years later the American Journal of Philately asserted that “Canada will shortly issue the 12½c and 15c values of postals in small size, to correspond with the others of the series.” These stamps, however, never materialised though that dies and plates were made and stamps printed from them is evident from the existence of perforated essays of these two values. The portrait is exactly like that of the other denominations, and the borders are, on general lines, so like the 1c, 2c, 3c, 6c and 10c as to give considerable support to the belief that these unissued varieties were prepared for use at quite an early date.

The stamps of this series were all produced by the line-engraved process and all values, with the exception of the ½c, were at first printed in sheets of 100, arranged in ten horizontal rows of ten. The ½c was printed in sheets of 200, arranged in two panes of 100 each, placed side by side. A space of about 11 mm. separated the two panels and these large sheets were cut into halves before leaving the printing establishment, thus making “post-office” sheets of 100 stamps. In the later months of 1892 or early in 1893 the 1c, 2c and 3c values—the ones in most general demand—were printed in large sheets of 200 arranged in ten horizontal rows of twenty stamps each.