Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal StationeryHowes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
History
Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery
Howes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
Postage stamps -- Canada; Postal stationery -- Canada
The surcharged fractions appear to have been used only at the office
at Port Hood, N. S., where the Postmaster apparently did not
consider it safe to use divided stamps without some distinguishing
mark. We have seen other copies since, and find that a figure "1"
was struck upon the smaller portion; not the word "one" as
previously stated.
Again in the _Journal_ for April 29, 1899, we find:--
In reference to the cut and surcharged 3c. stamps, a correspondent
sends us the following extract from a letter from the postmaster of
Port Hood:--
"When the change in Canadian postage was made--of which we got
notice by wire--I had only very few two cent stamps in stock, so
that before I got my supply from Ottawa I ran completely out of
them, and, to keep my account straight, I was compelled to cut
threes. This was for one day only, and not over 300 stamps were cut.
I would say about 200 '2' and 100 '1' were used. Those stamps I put
on letters for delivery within the county as much as possible. About
100 '2' and probably nearly as many '1' were marked with the figures
3 and 1 as you describe, and were placed on letters for delivery in
towns throughout the Dominion. Those were the only provisional
stamps used by this office."
Mr. Horsley reports having a copy on the original cover with the
postmark of Port Hood dated 5 January, 1899, which is doubtless the "one
day" that they were employed.
A Canada correspondent, writing in _Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News_[157]
concerning these "splits", says that "the Dominion Government has
announced that they were not authorized and letters having them on for
postage should have been charged double rate when delivered." They may
be interesting as curiosities, but they are assuredly not worthy of any
great attention from collectors. Illustrations of the "2" cent and a
pair of the "1" cent will be found as Nos. 37 and 39 respectively on
Plate II.
[157] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, XIII: 187.
Nothing further in the line of novelties is to be reported until the
29th December, 1900, when a new 20 cent stamp suddenly made its
appearance as a companion in design to the rest of the "numeral" series.
The large 20 cent stamp of 1893 had finally been exhausted, and the new
comer in its neat olive green was a welcome addition to the current set.
It of course conformed to the others in engraving, sheet arrangement,
etc., and had the plate number 1. An examination of the stamp accounts
during its term of life make it appear probable that approximately
500,000 were issued.
Finally the long heralded 7 cent stamp, which was supposed to take the
place of the 8 cent stamp after the reduction of domestic postage, made
its appearance nearly four years late! It was announced in a despatch to
the _Toronto Mail and Empire_ as follows:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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