P. S.—Under no circumstances will there be any issue of Jubilee stamps, beyond the limits mentioned in the accompanying extract from Hansard, containing the Postmaster-General's statement on the subject.
At the same time instructions were issued to postmasters that they were not to sell the ½c, 6c, 8c and dollar denominations except in the complete sets of sixteen values.
Later this ruling was modified and sets to 50c and $1 inclusive were allowed to be sold resulting in the issue of another circular to postmasters worded as follows:—
Post Office Department, Canada,
Postage Stamp Branch,
Ottawa, August, 1897.
Sir,—I am directed to transmit to you the accompanying partial sets of Jubilee stamps. These sets consist of two kinds: one from a ½c to $1 (value $2.20½), the other from ½c to 50c (value $1.20½). You are instructed to sell these stamps as sets, and as sets only, representations having been made to the department that in various parts of the Dominion there is a desire to obtain such sets for souvenir purposes. You must not, under any circumstances, break a set; for, besides the disappointment that such a course would cause, you would render yourself liable to loss, the department having decided not to allow credit for any broken sets returned to it by a postmaster who, notwithstanding the instructions herein given, sells any denominations of the stamps making up a set apart from the rest.
I am also to ask you to use your best judgment in the sale of these sets, checking, as far as possible, any attempt on the part of speculators to monopolise them, and thus securing as general distribution of such sets in your vicinity as the circumstances may permit. To enable you to make change in connection with the sale of the enclosed sets I include a sufficient quantity of ordinary ½c postage stamps.
I may add that the accompanying supply has been based strictly upon the annual revenue of your office, and, having regard to the total number of sets available and the extent of their distribution, represents that proportion to which you are entitled.
I am, Sir, Your Obedient Servant
E. P. Stanton, Superintendent.