About the beginning of January, 1887, I was shown a registered letter received from Miscou Light House Post Office in New Brunswick. It had a BROWN 2c. registration stamp on it—a clear unmistakable dark brown. I immediately wrote the postmaster there for information relative to them. He answered and said that he had 23 on hand. That he had originally received 50 from the P. O. Dept. at Ottawa, and that they were BROWN when he received them. This he stated positively. I then sent to him for them, but before my letter reached him he had used two of them so that I received only 21.
Those stamps I showed to several philatelists, and could not get two to agree as to their origin. Some said the change in color was due to the gum, others to chemical changes, others again said it was due to the atmosphere from the salt water. Very few would allow a misprint. In the meantime Mr. F. C. Kaye also came across another registered letter with brown registration stamp. This time it was from the P. O. of New Ross in Lunenberg Co., N. S. From this office about 50 were obtained. The postmaster at this office was also positive as to having received them from the Dept. at Ottawa in brown. The same objections were raised to those as to the others, as to whether they were a genuine misprint or not. In this case the atmosphere of salt water was not the cause as New Ross is in the interior. If the gum was the cause of their changing color, it is peculiar that we do not get more of them. Changes by chemical means were also tried. The only thing which would turn the red of the genuine color to brown, was sulphuric acid mixed with water, and this did not give a good clear color, having a somewhat greyish shade in it. Those experiments have, in my opinion, confirmed their genuineness. And now as if to make assurances in regard to their genuineness more sure, we find a third post office with them. This was Beauly, in Antigonish Co., N. S. There were, however, only 6 received from there, the postmaster had the same story as the others, he had received them from the Dept. at Ottawa in a brown color.
The Department at Ottawa was written to in regard to them, but as was to be expected, knew nothing of them whatsoever. No doubt if they had been seen they would not have been allowed to be issued to the public.
Again we find some details given in Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News[199] under "Canadian Notes" which evidently refer to another lot:—
In this color the stamps were first issued in 1885, and were distributed to a number of small towns in Ontario. Some months later the attention of the Postmaster at Toronto was called to this stamp, and as he had received no official notification of an emission in this
color, he caused inquiry to be made as to the authenticity of these stamps. A number of offices that had them on hand were communicated with, and all the answers were positive in the statement that the color of the stamps when received had been a decided brown, and had not undergone the slightest change by the action of either time or chemicals. A number of these letters are in the hands of a collector here, and are proof positive that this stamp was issued in a brown color.
In spite of this brave showing, however, it is practically certain that the stamps are not a misprint but color changelings caused by oxidation, or rather "sulphuretting" to be more exact, an effect peculiarly liable to take place with stamps printed in red or orange. The same thing is found to occur in other Canadian stamps, the 3 pence and 5 cent of the Beaver type, the first issues of Newfoundland and the 3 cent, 1851, of the United States, as well as some of the red and orange colored revenue stamps of the Civil War period. In fact the change is carried almost to a black, at times, but can be restored to the original color by the application of hydrogen peroxide.
[192] 31o Vict. Cap. X. Sec. 10, par. 11. See [page 96].
[193] See [page 125].
[194] Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News, II: 45:2.