Postal stamp

“ It seems expedient to adopt some distinctive postage stamp to be used only in prepayment of the Registration charge, both to make it clear that this charge has been duly paid and accounted for in every case, and to diminish the risk which is occasionally felt at points of distribution of omitting to carry on the Registration in cases where the ordinary Registration postmark is not as distinct and calculated to arrest attention as it should be. ”

“ Another attempt is to be made to give us decent postage stamps. We suppose it will fail, as so many have hitherto. Our postal authorities try too much. If they will only take the Italian or French stamp, and put Washington's head in place of Victor Emanuel's, or Napoleon's, they cannot fail; but they will try some improvements and spoil all. ”

“ Transient and re-mailed Papers and Periodicals will pass by Post if pre-paid by Postage stamp—one halfpenny on each Newspaper, and on each Periodical, one halfpenny, if not exceeding 3 oz., in weight, and 2d. if over 3 oz.
Postage Stamps of the value of one halfpenny each will be sold to the public at all the principal Post Offices (including all Money Order Offices) , with a discount of 5 per cent upon purchases of not less than twenty stamps, and will be available in prepayment of Newspapers and Periodicals, and of Drop and Town Letters. ”

“ The proceeds of the impressed stamp on newspapers is an item regarding which the claim of the Post Office to include it in the receipts is sufficiently established by reference to the fact that, though this part of the revenue is collected by another department, the sole purpose for which the stamp is now resorted to is to obtain for the newspaper the advantage of postal transmission. ”

“ Had it been possible under the old postal system to prepay letter-postage as well as newspaper-postage, what more likely than that a man so far-seeing as was Mr Knight would also have suggested the application of his stamp to all mail matter? Letter postage stamps and prepayment had, of necessity, to await the advent of 1840 and uniformity of rate. [154]
(4) “Finally, and in its results most important of all, the adhesive stamp was made experimentally by Mr James Chalmers in his printing office at Dundee, in 1834.” ”

“ I advise collectors to leave all the above out of their collections. Any money spent for them is simply thrown away.
The new 3, 5, 30, and 50 cent postage-due stamps have been reported as issued; but no copies have yet reached the New York post-office.
It is rumored in stamp circles that the U. S. government is going to use paper water-marked with an eagle for use in printing stamps. I hope the postal authorities will see that the water-mark will be made sufficiently clear to be seen distinctly on every stamp. The present system is simply laughable. ”

“ Good paper is used; size of pages 81⁄2 by 11 inches; a neat border surrounds each page and an ornamental band at top for the reception of the name of the country. Neatly printed names are provided on adhesive paper.
Guards or stubs are bound between the pages, so that when filled it will not bulge, it is equally well adapted for postal cards, stamps or envelopes.
One thousand lithographed stamp mounts are furnished with each album. The stamp mounts are on a new plan, a neat black border surrounds the stamp, and the mounts are provided in different sizes for the various stamps. ”

“ There is very material economy of labor to the Department in dealing with letters pre-paid by stamp as compared with letters on which the postage is collected in money, as well as a manifest gain to the public, in the increased facilities which pre-payment by stamp enables the Post Office to afford for posting and delivering letters so pre-paid. ”

“ There is one point left in connection with the registration stamps that deserves mention, as it has so frequently been a bone of contention. The 2 cent stamp was formerly listed in brown, and quantities of printer's ink and valuable space have been wasted in discussing its merits. Mr. Donald A. King seems to have been the discoverer of the variety, according to the Halifax Philatelist, [198] where it was exploited in an article which is worth quoting here for its historical value. ”

“ The color of the Domestic-rate postage stamp, as prescribed by the Universal Postal Union, is red, and it is intended to discontinue the issue of the ordinary two cents purple colored stamps as soon as the present supply on hand is exhausted. ”

“ As a matter of record and without any attempt at lists of varieties, which would prove futile, we deem it interesting and important to give such information as is at hand concerning the precancellation of stamps for use on large quantities of identical mail matter, and of the more recent substitute for the precancelled stamp which is known as the "permit". ”

“ The current stamps of the United States are watermarked with the letters "U. S. P. S.", United States Postal Service. This is so set up that the letters read in sequence from any point and in any direction. At one time several of the British colonies in Australia employed paper watermarked with a figure or word of the value of the stamp intended to be printed on it. It can readily be understood that these would sometimes get mixed and result in more of those oddities in which philatelists delight. ”

“ The usual imprint, OTTAWA—No.—1, is found in the margin at the top of the sheet, over the third stamp. But one plate number has yet appeared. The color was at first a deep green which in 1908 took on a bluish cast. The paper used is the thick white wove ordinarily employed for the regular postage series, and the stamp has also appeared on the toned paper on which the 1 cent postage is known. The annual requisitions from the manufacturers have increased from 25,000 in 1898 to 112,500 in 1910. ”

“ Up to this day, after over forty years of public service, and notwithstanding the improvements in the production of impressed and embossed stamps, the adhesive stamp remains indispensable to our postal, inland revenue, telegraphic, and parcel-post systems—"Eighteen hundred millions are issued yearly from the office of the Controller of stamps. These range in value from a halfpenny to twenty pounds, covering postage and inland revenue from a halfpenny to two shillings and sixpence; postage proper from five shillings to five pounds ”

“ POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. CANADA,
POSTAGE STAMP BRANCH,
OTTAWA, [August] 1897.
SIR.—I am directed to transmit to you the accompanying partial sets of Jubilee stamps. These sets consist of two kinds: one from a 1⁄2c. to $1.00 (value $2.201⁄2) , the other from 1⁄2c. to 50c. (value $1.201⁄2) . You are instructed to sell these stamps as sets, and as sets only, representations having been made to the department that in various parts of the Dominion there is a desire to obtain such sets for souvenir purposes. You must not, under any circumstances, break a set ”

“ We find in that for 31st March, 1856, a note to the effect that the postage on letters to France had been once more reduced, this time to 10d. currency per 1⁄4 oz., which gave further employment to the new 10d. stamp. There is also some information concerning the registry system, but this will be treated later under that head. One item is found in the accounts to interest us:—
Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, for printing 300,000 postage stamps for Post Office Department £15.2.3. ”

“ Sometimes the shading is hardly apparent, as in our illustration, but it can be detected. Beginning over stamp 4, extending over stamps 5 and 6, and ending over stamp 7, is the inscription we found on the series of 1868 (see illustration 107 on Plate IX) , "BRITISH AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. MONTREAL & OTTAWA" [Pg 125] in colorless Roman capitals in the little strip of color 1 mm. wide and 51 mm. long. This imprint is also beneath the bottom row of stamps and at each side, reading up at the left and down at the right [Illustration No. 111 on Plate X] . ”

“ The stamps were of course line engraved and printed in the usual sheet arrangement of ten rows of ten. The imprint was the same as on the Queen's head plates, being placed only over stamps 5 and 6 of the top row. The plate numbers began as before at No. 1 for each stamp, and up to the present writing, (Dec. 1910) there have been recorded the following:—
Over a year elapsed before any additions were made to the above set. ”

“ Perhaps no country in the world has ever yet produced such a number of stamps as the United States of America. Foreign nations limit their postal stamps; we issue them in quantity and variety to meet the demands of the public without stint or hindrance. The denominations of postal stamps in the United States are 1 cent, 2 cent, 3 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 12 cent, 24 cent, 30 cent, and 90 cent. ”

“ The stamp accounts show a few curious things. In the first place the announcement of the issue gave the quantity of 8 cent stamps as 200,000. The accounts for 1897 give the number received from the manufacturers as 240,000, and we find in the column headed "Returned by Postmasters as unfit for use," 40,000 copies, and in the column headed "Stamps destroyed as unfit for use", a like amount! When the Post Office Department estimates for the ensuing year were being discussed in Parliament in May, 1898, the following interpellation occurred and was replied to by the Postmaster General: [139] —
Mr. ”

“ Connected with the issue of postal stamps is that strange mania which seizes upon a certain class to collect and treasure up every thing that is termed unique or new in art or science. These stamps in time will become relics, and possess an interest for the antiquarian equal to that of old coins.
To such an extent is this passion carried, that in Europe cabinets are formed and albums invented wherein these stamps are fancifully arranged. ”

“ The plan by which Mr. Rowland Hill, in his pamphlet of 1837, proposed to carry out in practice his uniform penny postage scheme was, shortly stated, first, simply to pay the penny or money with the letters; but secondly, and more especially, by stamped sheets of letter paper, and stamped wrappers or covers. "Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public, from the Stamp Office or Post Office, or both, and at such a price as to include the postage." ... ”

“ The Post Office Department of the United States, besides the stamps for the collection of postage, has employed from time to time for special usages certain seals which, as they are adhesive and in the form of postage stamps and officially used, are here described, although they are of no postal value and not properly stamps, but are all employed to indicate that the packages which bear them are properly secured and have not been tampered with in transit. ”

“ Any one familiar with the law of 1836 will see that the Postmaster General widely exceeded the authority conferred on him as it would be construed to day in making the "arrangement" under the power to provide a carrier system. The labels and stamps mentioned in the letter quoted were probably however, not intended to include the postage stamp actually issued, as these terms are used in various documents, reports, etc., of the period to designate quite different articles, the "stamps" being invariably the hand stamps such as we have already described. ”

“ In the month of June, 1900, the department commenced the issue to Postmasters, of a small book of 2 cent postage stamps, containing 12 stamps, disposed on two sheets of 6 stamps each, and interleaved with wax paper to prevent adhesion of the sheets. The size of the book is such as to make it convenient to be carried in the pocket or pocket-book. Printed on the cover is postal information calculated to be of interest to the public. The price at which the book is issued is 25 cents, one cent over the face value of the stamps being charged to cover the cost of binding, etc. ”

“ The use of adhesive postage stamps was first authorized by act of Congress, approved on the 3rd of March 1847, and on the 1st of June 1856 prepayment by stamps was made compulsory. In 1863 a uniform rate of postage without regard to distance was fixed at three cents, and on the 1st of October 1883, the rate was further reduced to two cents, the equivalent of the British penny postage.
All mail matter for distribution within the United States is divided into four classes. First-class matter includes letters, postal cards, post cards and anything sealed or closed against inspection. ”

“ The regulations respecting special delivery have been so modified that it is no longer necessary for a person despatching a letter which he desires to have delivered immediately, to provide himself with the “special delivery” stamp issued by the department. He may now place upon his letter ordinary postage stamps to the value of ten cents in addition to the stamps required for the prepayment of postage and write across the corner of the envelope the words “special delivery”. This will ensure the special delivery of the letter as provided for in the regulations. ”

“ You will be surprised to learn that something over four millions of letters are sent to the Dead-letter Office every year.
There are three things that render them liable to this: first, being unclaimed by persons to whom they are addressed; second, when some important part of the address is omitted, as James Smith, Maryland; third, the want of postage. All sealed letters must have at least one three-cent stamp, unless they are to be delivered from the same office in which they are mailed, when they must have a one or a two cent stamp, according to whether the office has carriers or not. ”

“ Now I would like you to get me all the different kinds of stamps you can. I would have put in postage for you to return your letter, but your stamps are different, and I know it will be useless, but I will send you American stamps or any favour you may ask. Hoping you will regard my letter as a true one.
“I remain to be your friend as soon as possible. Please let me know to the best of your knowledge whether Wales, Scotland, and Ireland use the same kind of stamp. Hope we may meet some time before we die.”
Our cousins in America are constantly appealing to postmasters for information. ”