When Postmasters obtain such sets to fill orders actual or prospective at their respective offices, they must not, in any case, break the sets.
I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
E. P. STANTON, Superintendent.
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.
It was necessary to print 3,000 copies of the foregoing circular in order to reply to all the demands on the department at Ottawa for ½ c. and 6 c.
Not only were the sales of the ½ and 6 cent stamps thus restricted, but notices were posted in the offices that none of the ½c., 6c., 8c., $1.00, $2.00, $3.00, $4.00, or $5.00 stamps would be sold unless the whole set were taken. This proceeding naturally resulted in considerably more protest on the part of stamp collectors and the public (?). Rumor had it just after the issue was placed on sale that the 8 cent stamp had been withdrawn, which probably accounts for the "run" upon that value and its inclusion in the above restrictions. In fact a correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, writing from Winnipeg, Man., on 25th June, stated that "a sensation was caused amongst those interested by the government on Tuesday [22nd June] recalling, by wire, all the 8c. stamps of the new issue on hand at this office." This was later explained by a letter published in the Weekly Philatelic Era:[124]—
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, 29th July, 1897.
SIR,—In reply to your letter of the 26th inst., I am directed to say that the question of issuing partial sets of Jubilee stamps is now under the consideration of the Department. In respect to the recall of the 8 c. Jubilee stamps, I may say that it was but a partial one, and intended to render possible a re-distribution of that stamp on a basis more in accordance with the actual demand therefor.