Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery

by Clifton A. Howes

The paper used for this issue is responsible for variations in the size of the stamps similar in character and origin to those we have already thoroughly discussed in connection with the 7½ and 10 pence stamps of 1855-7. The design of the series is not calculated to render these variations so apparent as in the former case, but the extreme variations we have found have been carefully noted and are presented in the following list. It will be seen that the variation is confined to a half millimeter in each dimension.

½	cent,	16¾	× 21½	mm.
		17	× 21	mm.
1	cent,	19½	× 24½	mm.
		20	× 24	mm.
2	cents,	19½	× 24½	mm.
		20	× 24	mm.
3	cents,	19½	× 24½	mm.
		20	× 24	mm.
5	cents,	19	× 24½	mm.
		?	?
6	cents,	20	× 24½	mm.
		20½	× 24	mm.
12½	cents,	19½	× 24½	mm.
		20	× 24	mm.
15	cents,	19¾	× 24½	mm.
		20	× 24	mm.

It is also stated that these stamps exist perforated 11½ × 12,[101] as well as the usual 12 all around. As the perforation was done by guillotine machines, this would apparently indicate a machine of 11½ gauge used for the vertical perforations, and we should expect to find some stamps at least perforated 12 × 11½, if not 11½ all around. Such do not seem to have been reported and we have no further information concerning the variety mentioned.

For imperforate stamps in this series we find the 1 cent, yellow, and the 15 cents in a peculiar shade of brown violet. The former is known only in cancelled condition, we believe, but we are able to illustrate an unused block of four of the latter as No. 107 on [Plate IX].

The only case of the use of a split stamp in this issue that we have to record is of the 6 cent, cut diagonally and used for the ordinary 3 cent rate on a letter posted at "Annapolis, N. S. JY 2,1869." While having no more authorization than any other of the occasional Canadian "splits," yet this

cover is particularly interesting because of its hailing from Nova Scotia, where split stamps had been used and recognized for their fractional values when the local issue was employed. An illustration of this cover will be found as No. 98 on [Plate VIII].

Concerning the quantities issued of the various denominations in this series we cannot be quite as exact as in some of the previous cases. No distinction was made between the various issues in the tables of amounts received from the manufacturers, provided the denomination was the same. In the case of the ½, 3, 6 and 15 cent stamps, which were new values, the quantities given in the Report for 1868 can be used, but with the 1, 2 and 12½ cent stamps the last deliveries of the 1859 series and the first of the 1868 series are lumped together. We have already made a tentative division of the receipts for these latter values,[102] however, which we think is safe enough to use for our purposes. It must be recognized that we are approaching conditions in the business of the Post Office where the quantity of stamps used, particularly if they be of low value and are in service for a number of years, mounts to such an enormous total that the actual figures representing the numbers issued have practically no philatelic value. While interesting, therefore, the totals shown below may be "out" by several per cent without appreciably altering their usefulness—or lack of it.

With these considerations as a basis, we can lay out the series up to certain limits as follows:—

Received From Manufacturers.

		½c.	1c.	2c.	3c.	6c.	12½c.	15c.
30th June,	1868	1,500,000	2,000,000(?)	2,000,000(?)	6,000,000	2,000,000	500,000(?)	212,500
"   "	1869	...	9,250,000	4,000,000	12,000,000	2,000,000	1,000,000	600,000
"   "	1870	...	2,300,000	1,300,000	11,300,000	2,230,000	300,000	...
"   "	1871	...	...	1,800,000	...	3,070,000	734,000	...
"   "	1872	500,000	...	3,200,000	...	2,325,000	...	...
"   "	1873-82	4,756,700	...	...	...	...	...	...
"   "	1876-96	...	...	...	...	...	...	1,765,400
Totals		6,756,700	13,550,000	12,300,000	29,300,000	11,625,000	2,534,000	2,577,900