The 5 cent stamp was also noted in blue green in the November, 1889, issue of the Philatelic Record, a few months after the regular 2 cent postage stamp appeared in the same shade, again apparently showing the use of the same ink in printing both stamps.
During its regular currency the 2 cent stamp had risen from an issue to postmasters of 937,000 in 1876 to 2,800,000 in 1889, but the change in rates caused a drop to 600,000 in 1890, 14,850 in 1891, and 100 in 1892, while a straggling lot of 400 appeared in 1896.
The 5 cent stamp was distributed to the amount of about 232,000 in 1876, but ran up gradually from 135,000 in the next year to half a million in 1889. The increase in rates jumped it to nearly three times this amount in 1890, and by 1893, when the regular 8 cent stamp was issued for combined postage and registration, the annual output of the 5 cent registration stamp was 2,260,000.
It may be remembered that after the removal of the engraving company from Montreal to Ottawa certain of the low value postage stamps appeared printed from plates of two hundred impressions instead of the ordinary one hundred. In like manner we find that new plates of double size were made for the 5 cent registration stamp also, these being in one hundred impressions, ten rows of ten, but without the "Ottawa" imprint which appeared on the enlarged plates of the regular postage stamps, according to the Dominion Philatelist, which noted the new sheet arrangement in October, 1892.
On the 1st August, 1893, the regular 8 cent stamp was issued to prepay the combined postage and registration fee, and the notice we have already quoted in that connection stated[197] that when the supply of the 5 cent registration stamp on hand was exhausted no more would be issued. The Report for 1894 states that 307,900 were issued to postmasters for the year ending 30th June, and as over two and a half millions had been issued in the previous twelve-month, the probability is that the supply was exhausted about the time of the appearance of the 8 cent postage stamp, and therefore the stock in the hands of postmasters must have been pretty well used up by 1894.
There is one point left in connection with the registration stamps that deserves mention, as it has so frequently been a bone of contention. The 2 cent stamp was formerly listed in brown, and quantities of printer's ink and valuable space have been wasted in discussing its merits. Mr. Donald A. King seems to have been the discoverer of the variety, according to the Halifax Philatelist,[198] where it was exploited in an article which is worth quoting here for its historical value.
THE CANADIAN ERROR.
The Canada 2c. brown registration is at this time mentioned frequently in the Figaro and several other philatelic publications. As there seems to be considerable doubt as to the origin, and as I was in the main instrumental in introducing them to the philatelic public, I
have decided to give the information I possess on this subject to them.