The other type, which I suggest should be called the "lower case surcharge", has a similar figure 2 but the C is a heavy face lower case letter 4 × 3-1/2 mm. It is possible that there may be varieties of this type, as there are several stamps in use, but the printing is so badly done, and the stamps so subject to distortion by pressure, that one cannot depend on either inspection or measurement, a change in pressure in printing altering the appearance of the surcharge very materially. [217] Query: "qualities"? [Illustration] In the same issue of the _Era_ appeared further notes from another correspondent. In regard to the then current 3 cent envelopes (the so-called "Bureau print") he says:--"The P. O. Department has surcharged the stock on hand, a few thousand. * * * Some of the old British American Bank Note 3c envelopes were also surcharged, but it is understood that there were very few of them on hand,--less than a thousand." The opportunity given the public, however, to have 3 cent envelopes in their possession surcharged, as well as the stock held by postmasters, which was returned to a considerable extent (15,848 of the 3c. 1898 returned 1899-1901; 6,788 of the 3c. No. 1, 1877, returned 1899-1900; and 3,081 of the 3c. No. 2, 1877, returned 1899) and doubtless reissued in surcharged condition, has made these provisional envelopes fairly common. No details of the numbers so treated are available, but if the catalogue value is any criterion the 3 cent of 1898 surcharged is half again as common as the unsurcharged variety, or, as before remarked, the numbers issued may be divided up roughly as perhaps 100,000 of the former to 80,000 of the latter. Of the old envelopes of 1877, both sizes of which are found surcharged, it is impossible to hazard any guesses, save that a considerable number--several thousands of each size at least--must have been operated upon to render them as reasonable in catalogue price as we find them. The surcharge in its first type, as described in the quotation given, with the capital C, has only been found on the 3 cent envelope of 1898, which was the one in the reserve stock of the Department when the reduction in postage took effect; but the second type, with the "lower case" C is found not only on this envelope but also on both sizes of the old "Burland & Co." envelopes of the 1877 issue. It will be remembered that it took considerably more than two years after the death of Queen Victoria before the change to King's head adhesives was made in Canada. It took even longer for the change in the envelope dies, as the first one to appear, the 2 cent, was not issued until the beginning of 1905. It was thus described in _Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News_:[218]--