The contract for the Government engraving, for which tenders were called two months ago, has been awarded to the American Bank Note Company, of New York, for a period of five and a quarter years. The contract is worth $600,000, and may be renewed for a similar period. The work consists of engraving the Dominion bank notes, revenue and postage stamps, postal cards, etc. At present the British American Bank Note Company, better known as Burland and Company, formerly of Montreal, have the contract. They tendered this time, but the New York company was the lowest. The New York company is one of the largest and best known in the world. The firm engraves notes for some of the banks in Canada, including the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Under the terms of the new contract, the Company will require to establish a place in Ottawa to do the work, where the Government can have supervision of it. As compared with the prices paid under the Burland contract, the Government will effect a saving of $120,000 by the new contract.

The stamps were, like all Canadian stamps, produced by the line-engraved process, the values from ½c to 5c inclusive being printed in sheets of 100 in ten horizontal rows of ten, and the other denominations in sheets of 50 in ten horizontal rows of five stamps each. The only marginal inscription consists of the name OTTAWA followed by the number of the plate. This inscription appears at the top of the sheets only—above the centre of the fifth and sixth stamps in the case of the ½, 1, 2, 3 and 5c values and above the third stamp on the values from 6c to $5. The name is in thin Roman capitals, 2½ mm. high, the total length of the inscriptions being about 40 mm. The following are the numbers of the plates used:—

½ cent,plate 9.
1 cent,plates 5, 6, 15, 16.
2 cents,plate 7, 8.
3 cents,plates 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 28, 29, 30, 31.
5 cents,plate 10.
6 cents,plate 17.
8 cents,plate 20.
10 cents,plate 19.
15 cents,plate 18.
20 cents,plate 21.
50 cents,plate 23.
$1,plate 27.
$2,plate 26.
$3,plate 24.
$4,plate 22.
$5,plate 25.

The paper was the usual wove variety and the perforation gauged 12—the production of single-line or guillotine machines. Even in the case of values of which large quantities were printed, like the 3c, variations in shade are remarkably slight. The 1c is known split diagonally and the halves used as ½c and while this practice was disproved of by the Post Office Department the half stamps undoubtedly filled a local need as shown by an extract from a Canadian newspaper printed in the Weekly Philatelic Era, viz.:—

The Railway News last week on account of not receiving permission from the Post-Master General to allow papers to go through the mails free, was compelled to pay postage. No half cent stamps being available, the post office department allowed one cent stamps to be cut in halves for postage. This is the first time on record we believe where such was allowed and the stamps have been eagerly sought after, one dollar being paid for a single stamp with the post office stamp on it. The News will pay twenty-five cents each for the one cent Jubilee stamps cut in halves bearing the post-office stamp of November 5th, 6th, or 8th, which was allowed to pass through the mails on that date owing to there being no regular half cent stamps available.

One set of Jubilee stamps—said to be the first one printed, though of course this statement cannot be taken literally as meaning the stamps were printed one at a time:—was mounted in a specially designed portfolio and presented to the Duke of York, now His Most Gracious Majesty King George V. An account of this presentation set, taken from an old issue of the Weekly, is worthy of reproduction:

A very unique and handsome piece of work is the postal portfolio which is to be presented to His Royal Highness, the Duke of York, by the Dominion Government, and which is on exhibition in the window of Kyrie Brothers, Jewelers, Toronto. The portfolio is in the form of an album, the cover of which is of royal blue morocco leather, handsomely decorated in gold. In the centre of the front cover is a raised shield in white on which are the words in gold letters, “Dominion of Canada, Diamond Jubilee Postage Stamps, 22nd June, 1897.” The corners of the portfolio are decorated with guards of Canadian gold made from British Columbia and Raney district ore. The right hand upper corner decoration is a design of maple leaves, and the lower corner of English oak leaves and acorns. The portfolio is fastened with a clasp of Canadian gold in the form of oak leaves, while the bracket on the front holding the clasps in position, is entwined with maple leaves with the monogram of H. R. H. the Duke of York—G. F. E. A.—George Frederick Ernest Albert. On the third page is the inscription, “This collection of postage stamps issued at Ottawa by the Dominion of Canada in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria is presented to H. R. H. the Duke of York, K. G., by the Government of Canada, 1897.” The last page of this unique stamp album will contain the certificate of the destruction of the dies and plates in the presence of Hon. Wm. Mulock, postmaster-general of Canada.... This is probably the dearest stamp album in the world, and contains only a single specimen of each denomination of the Jubilee issue.

And now we conclude our history of this Jubilee issue by another extract from the Weekly giving an account of the destruction of the dies and plates from which the stamps were made:—

On Friday afternoon, September 10th, I presented myself at the Post-Office Department and joined a party who were just leaving the building to go over to the American Bank Note Co.'s building, a couple of blocks away. Arriving, we were conducted to the top floor by the manager. The plates, dies, etc., were brought out by those in charge, and the seventeen original dies after inspection by those present were placed one by one under a press and an obliterating roller passed over them several times; proofs were then pulled which faintly showed the outlines of the ovals, etc., but the words showing the values could not even be made out. Next, the rolls for transferring the impression from the dies to the plates came in for their share of attention. There were nineteen of them, and a few burns from an emery wheel quickly put each one “out of sight.” The plates, 31 in number, were subjected to the same treatment as the dies, and the total time occupied in the destruction of the various parts occupied almost two hours.