“NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.
“A SUPPLY of POSTAGE STAMPS has been received from England, and will be on sale at this office on and after Friday next, the 6th September. They are of the respective colours and values as under; viz.:
| Scarlet | Three Pence. |
| Yellow | Six Pence. |
| Pink | One Shilling. |
“Supplies will be immediately forwarded to all Postmasters throughout the Province, and through them to the Way Office Keepers, from whom the Public will be able to obtain them at cost prices in any quantities they may require.
“N.B.—The postage stamps should be affixed to the face, or direction side of the Letter, at the right hand upper corner.
“(Signed) J. Howe, Postmaster-General.
“General Post Office, St. John, 1st September, 1851.”
Besides giving us the exact day the stamps came into use, the above notice is interesting as proving which shade of the One Shilling was first issued. One would hardly call any of the stamps of this value pink, as officially designated, but the majority of them are a pinkish-mauve; and these were undoubtedly the stamps referred to in the notice, while the darker shades of mauve, or dull violet, are those of later printings.
The Report of the Postmaster-General of Great Britain for 1857 furnishes us with a list of the Postal rates of the Colony in force at the time of the introduction of postage stamps. It says: