The 12d value, as every collector knows, is a very rare stamp. Even had the full supply of 51,000 stamps, received in the first and only consignment from the manufacturers on May 4th, 1851, been issued, it would have been a rare variety, but as a matter of fact, the greater portion of the consignment was destroyed and only 1510 were actually issued. An interesting article published in the _Metropolitan Philatelist_ in 1902 shows that this denomination was first issued on June 14th, 1851, and supplies were made to various post offices as follows:-- No. Stamps June 14th, 1851, Hamilton, 300 Oct. 17th, 1851, Chippewa, 100 Nov. 13th, 1851, Thorold, 20 Nov. 25th, 1851, Toronto, 200 Mar. 8th, 1852, Montreal, 200 Sept. 14th, 1852, Ingersoll, 100 Apr. 5th, 1853, Ottawa (then known as Bytown), 100 Oct. 20th, 1853, Sherbrooke, 15 Jan. 13th, 1854, Smith's Falls, 50 Jan. 20th, 1854, Ottawa, 100 Feb. 8th, 1854, L'Islet, 15 Feb. 27th, 1854, Ingersoll, 20 Mar. 22nd, 1854, Sault S. Marie, 25 May 15th, 1854, Port. du Fort, 15 Oct. 21st, 1854, Rowan Mills, 50 Oct. 26th, 1854, Melbourne, 50 Oct. 27th, 1854, Montreal, 100 Dec. 4th, 1854, Smith's Falls, 50 Total stamps, 1,510 The consignment sent to Smith's Falls on December 4th, 1854, was the last distributed. While we can trace no official notice referring to the discontinuance of this denomination, or the actual date at which it ceased to be used, the writer of the article referred to above says that the balance of 49,490 stamps were destroyed on May 1st, 1857, "in accordance with the practice of the Department in cases of the discontinuance of stamps" though as this was the first Canadian stamp to be discontinued, a precedent could hardly have been established. The following interesting excerpt from the _Stamp Collectors' Magazine_ for April, 1870, states that the 12d value was discontinued in 1855 and it also lays considerable stress on the scarcity of used specimens of this stamp, viz:-- One of our readers observing from a reply we made to a correspondent in the last October number, that we were in doubt as to whether the 12d was ever actually used, has been good enough to write the Deputy Postmaster-General on the subject and has obtained from him the following reply:-- "OTTAWA, 28th October, 1869.