R. M. COULTER,
Deputy Postmaster-General.
Post-Office Department, Canada.
Ottawa, 25th October, 1897.
These instructions were followed out, and the issue of the new series was thus stretched over a considerable length of time. The first to appear was the ½ cent, two weeks after the date of the above circular. The circumstances of its début are told under "Ottawa Notes" in the Weekly Philatelic Era:[142]—
The half cent stamp of the new issue was placed on sale today [9th November, 1897], its appearance having been precipitated by events over which the postal authorities had no control.... The philatelists, anticipating an early exhaustion of the old half cent stamp, helped the thing along by quietly but assiduously buying in every copy in sight. As a consequence the stock ran down much faster than that of other values, and a few weeks ago orders were issued that no more were to be sold to the public, but that publishers entitled to the half cent rate should take their papers to the post-offices and there have the stamps affixed by the staff. Even that did not save the distance [sic]. I hear that in Montreal it was found necessary to use cent stamps to prepay the half cent rate.[143] Fortunately for the reputation of Canadian stamps, these stamps were not over-printed with new value, and we have been spared a surcharge. However, the postal authorities hurried
forward the printing and circulation of the new issue, in that value at least, and it is an accomplished fact.
The next value to appear was the 6 cent, which was announced in the Weekly Philatelic Era under date of 4th December, 1897 as having been put in circulation. Following closely upon this came the 1, 2, 5 and 8 cent stamps, and in January, 1898 the 3 and 10 cent.
The new stamps were very simple in design, the central oval containing a portrait of Queen Victoria copied from a photograph by W. & D. Downey of London, taken at the time of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. CANADA POSTAGE and the value in words only appear in Egyptian capitals on the oval frame to the portrait, and each spandrel is occupied by a maple leaf. Much criticism was engendered by the fact that the portrait was too large for its frame, making the design appear cramped and thus giving a disappointing effect to what otherwise might have proved a most neat and effective stamp. [Illustration No. 36 on [Plate II]].
The stamps were as usual line engraved on steel, and printed on the same stout white wove paper that was employed for the Jubilee issue, as well as on a thinner and more brittle quality. The 5 cent, for the first time in Canadian philatelic history, appeared on a colored paper, the stock having a decidedly bluish tint. The perforation was the regulation gauge 12. But one irregularity seems to be known, and that is the 5 cents imperforate, a block of four of which we are able to illustrate as No. 112 on [Plate X].
The sheet arrangement was intended to be the usual block of 100 impressions, ten by ten, but the Ottawa correspondent of the Weekly Philatelic Era tells us that in the case of the ½ cent stamp the first plate was twice this size.
By some misunderstanding the contractors, the American Bank Note Co., set the sheet up with 200 stamps, and the first five hundred sheets were so printed. The sheets were afterwards cut in two through the imprint, and we have these half sheets with a close imperforated margin on either the left or right edge. Afterwards sheets of 100 stamps were issued, all the stamps perforated on all four sides. Plate number collectors will find the earliest sheets difficult to obtain. Both sheets bear the plate number 1.[144]
The imprint on the sheets was the same as that on the Jubilee sheets, OTTAWA—No—1, etc., but instead of numbering the plates all consecutively,