* * * * *
I am, Sir,
Your obdt. servant,
E. P. STANTON,
Superintendent.
Under date of 31st July it was announced from Ottawa that "the demand for complete sets has been very large, about nine thousand sets having already been issued".[125] The "partial sets" referred to in the above letter were the next step in the unbending process, the decision to put them on sale having been reached on 31st July, and their issue to the public beginning on 4th August. Concerning this concession Mr. Donald A. King says:[126]—
So soon as the demand for these [complete] sets was, to some extent satisfied, the department yielding to another class of enquiries and requests for sets up to and including the 50 cents and $1.00 respectively, made a distribution of such sets, the numbers being appor
tioned upon a basis of the revenue of each money order office throughout the Dominion. Between 30,000 and 40,000 sets were thus distributed, and rapidly sold, as a very large number of requests for further supplies came in from the different offices. The following is the circular sent to postmasters regulating the sale of these partial sets:
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 $1.00 (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 monopolize them, and thus securing as general a 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 ½ c. 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,