“‘To enable me to carry out that part of the Act, passed during the last session, in reference to the Post-office reducing the postage to two cents on a letter posted in a county for delivery within the said county, it was necessary to procure for the public convenience a stamp for the prepayment of this particular class of letters. Application was accordingly made to the New York American Bank Note Co. for a supply, and 5000 sheets were procured at a cost to the Department, including die, of 226 dollars.
“‘The reduced rate came into operation on the 11th May last, and has yielded for the first five months, ended 30th September last (as far as I have been enabled to glean from the returns in my possession) a revenue of 450 dollars, a less amount, in my opinion, than would have been realized under the higher rate for the same period.’
“The following list will give us the precise date of all except the One Penny. Of it I can do no more than give the year, and about the probable time, judging from the Postmaster-General’s Report. The list is as follows:
| 3 | pence | } | Issued | 1st September, 1851. |
| 6 | ” | } | ||
| 1 | shilling | } | ||
| 1 | penny | ” | about 3rd quarter, 1853. | |
| 1 | cent | } | Issued | 1st October, 1860. |
| 5 | ” | } | ||
| 8½ | ” | } | ||
| 10 | ” | } | ||
| 12½ | ” | } | ||
| 2 | ” | ” | 11th May, 1863. |
“Those extracts will, I think, finally settle the date of the stamps of Nova Scotia.
“Donald A. King.”
“THE SURCHARGED AND PROVISIONAL STAMPS OF NOVA SCOTIA.
“The title of this is no doubt startling, but it is true nevertheless. It is a well-known fact in Philately that nearly every country has some stamps, provisional or error, that are not found in catalogues, but which are nevertheless known to exist, as the St. Pierre Miquelon P.D., the Bremen Marken error, and so in Nova Scotia we have the so-called surcharges. In February of this year I received a parcel of old Nova Scotia stamps from a friend in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, and among them I found three Three Penny stamps, with 5 c. in an oval printed on them. They had all been cut out of the envelopes, having a part of the paper as a margin, and as I had in writing for them specified the dates between which the Pence issues would be found, all the stamps had the respective dates of the letters pencilled on the backs of them. Immediately taking the three surcharged stamps I returned them, and asked if the envelopes from which they were cut could be sent me, and I was lucky enough to get them. I then thought I had a bonanza, a regular surcharged stamp of Nova Scotia, overlooking the fact that there were no other cancellation marks on them. The three letters had all been mailed from the same office, Baddeck, within a month—January 13th, 20th, the third the day of the month does not show, 1860—and all addressed to the same person. To make me more sure of the fact of their being really a surcharge, I saw in No. 304 of Le Timbre Poste an illustration of one which was in the collection of M. de Ferrari, and which was precisely the same as the three I had. Being informed that the postmaster who is now at Baddeck, was the same as was there in 1860, I decided to write him for information on the subject, and find out how those stamps came to be surcharged. Imagine my disappointment when I received the following answer:
“‘Baddeck, Nova Scotia, April 24th, 1888.
“‘Dear Sir,—Twenty-eight years ago I made my own stamps out of wood, and had the 5 c. one that appears on envelopes enclosed. Without any order I used the latter in manner thereon as I do now in a hurry with ink or date stamp. Enclosed paper shows stamps then in use, but I cannot find the 5 c. one. I could tell you how the wind blew and the temperature forty years ago, but I had a job to find the old stamps.