it by a specimen, but the accuracy of M. Moens' observations is seldom to be questioned. The London Society's work states that this wrapper is unknown to the members of the Society, but a cancelled copy, used by a business firm, is recorded in the Monthly Journal in 1892.[220] Evidently this variety was an error in the cutting of the sheet.
In the Philatelic Record for December, 1881,[221] a change is noted in the wrapper itself, the paper being described as white instead of buff; but in Moens' catalogue it is listed as "very pale buff" and in fact is what we might call "cream toned", being more correctly described later in the Philatelic Record as "almost white".[222] The wrapper was also cut to a new size, 11 × 5 inches or 280 × 127 mm. It is very probable that this wrapper comes from the lot of 197,000 received according to the stamp accounts for 1880—the first since 1876, barring the small lot in 1879.[223]
Again, in its issue for June 1, 1882, the Philatelic Monthly illustrates a new variety in the stamp for the wrapper, stating that the color is light blue. The distinguishing features of the new die are the removal of the wavy line from the inner border of the oval, the removal of the foliations from around the circles enclosing the numerals, and the replacing of the little quatrefoil ornament beneath these circles by an inverted triangular ornament. This wrapper was presumably of the usual light buff tint as no mention is made of its color; but in the issue of the same paper for October 1, 1882, it is recorded that "We have received specimens of the newspaper wrapper, stamp of latest type, on yellow-buff paper." The same wrapper is chronicled in the Philatelic Record which was issued the latter part of September as upon "straw-colored wove paper," so it had doubtless appeared as early as August, 1882. The size was the same as the last wrapper, 11 × 5 inches.
From 1882 on the wrappers have been issued in numbers approaching half a million per year, and as no note is made in the stamp accounts even of changes in design, it is of course impossible to estimate the quantities printed or issued of any one variety.
In an article in the Dominion Philatelist upon the postal stationery of Canada,[224] the "yellow paper" wrapper is given as the first issued, in 1882,
and the date 1883 is given the ordinary "pale buff" paper. The chronicles we have quoted, however, show that both were doubtless issued in 1882 and that the straw colored paper was not the first. The wrapper also appears on a cream paper, and the year of issue in the article quoted is given as 1885, but we have been unable to find any contemporary chronicle to confirm this.
Once again, in 1887, we find a change in the impressed stamp. This time the first design is reverted to, but with slight modifications which readily distinguished the new type; these are the absence of the wavy line running around the border of the inner oval, and the coarser shading on the face and neck—dotted in the first type and composed of lines in this third type. The new variety seems to have been chronicled first in the Philatelic Monthly for June 1, 1887, but nothing is said about the color of the wrapper. The article in the Dominion Philatelist, however, gives it as thin white paper with a variety in "very thin tough white paper, fine quality." The same article under date of 1888 gives this wrapper in cream toned paper of both thick and thin quality, and in manila paper. The size of all these wrappers was the usual one of 11 × 5 inches.
