The stamps were normally perforated 12, but the 2 cents in orange and the 5 cents in dark green are both known in imperforate condition, the latter having been chronicled in the Halifax Philatelist for November, 1888. A vertical pair of the 5 cent is shown as illustration No. 115 on [Plate X].
In the Report for 1877 we find the following:—"The Registration charge on registered letters between the United Kingdom and Canada has been reduced from 8 cents to 5 cents by the Post Offices of the United Kingdom." This naturally dealt a heavy blow at the use of the 8 cent stamp. The Stamp Journal for February, 1878, said:—"Mr. E. Burpee states that the 8 cent 'Registered' stamps have been called in, and that hereafter the fee to Great Britain and foreign countries will be the same as to the United States—5 cents." The next issue, however, corrected this:—"After January, 1878, the cost of registering letters to Great Britain has been fixed at 5 c, the same as to the United States.... To foreign countries the rate is as before, 8 cents, and therefore there is no suppression of the 8 cent registered stamps."
Nevertheless, the rate to foreign countries must have been reduced not long after, as the statistics for stamps issued to postmasters between the 1st July, 1878 and the 1st July, 1879 give but 25 of the 8 cent registered stamp, which must therefore have been sent out early in the fiscal year. The total issues to postmasters, according to the Reports, were as under:—
| 1876 | 71,950 |
| 1877 | 17,200 |
| 1878 | 9,400 |
| 1879 | 25 |
| Total | 98,575 |
The number returned as "unfit for use" and presumably destroyed during the several years was 8,872. This gives a total issue of 89,700 for the 8 cent stamp, according to the Reports; but the Canadian correspondent of Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News stated:[194]—"In 1878 a little over 75,000 of these [original 125,000] were destroyed by order of the Postmaster-General." This probably means that the stamps were called in after their usefulness ceased, and allowing for the amount destroyed during the period of issue gives us perhaps 40,000 as the number actually issued to the public from post offices.
The 2 cent and 5 cent stamps remained in use, but when the general revision of rates took place in 1889 the domestic rate was raised to 5 cents, and the 2 cent stamp lost its usefulness, the 5 cent alone remaining. We have already reproduced the circular announcing these changes,[195] and will only repeat here the paragraph relating to the registration fee:—
The fee for the registration of a letter or other article of mail matter will be five cents upon all classes of correspondence passing within the Dominion. For the present, and until further instructed, the registration fee may be prepaid by using the 2 cent Registration stamps and postage stamps to make up the amount.
This notice was dated 8th May, 1889, and the Report of 30th June following remarks further:—
The charge for the registration of a letter, parcel, book or other articles of mail matter was also made uniform, and fixed at 5 cents for all classes of matter. The frequent delay consequent upon the prepayment of a wrong registration fee will no longer take place.
The removal of the British American Bank Note Co. from Montreal to Ottawa, which we have already noted as resulting in some marked changes in the shades of the regular postage stamps,[196] was not without its effect upon the registration stamps. Apparently the same ink used for printing the ordinary 3 cent stamp was used for the 2 cent registration, for we find both stamps chronicled in the Halifax Philatelist for October, 1888, as having appeared in a "bright carmine." The usual catalog designation for this 2 cent registration stamp is "scarlet vermilion", but we think that "brick red" best describes the ordinary shade in which these Ottawa printings are found, though the Halifax Philatelist recorded a "dull rose" tint in March, 1889.