Canada

Pence issues Imperforate Laid paper

23rd April 1851

12th May 1851 14th June 1851

The first postage stamp issue of the Province of Canada featured the beaver on the 3-pence, H.R.H. Albert, the Prince Consort on the 6-pence denomination, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria on the 12-pence.

Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edison, the New York security printers, received the contract to print Canadian postage stamps, producing all the requirements until 1st May, 1858. On that day the company name changed, following amalgamation, to the American Bank Note Company with headquarters remaining in New York City. The new firm continued the former printing contract until Canadian Confederation in 1867.

The Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria was reproduced from a contemporary engraving of a full-

length painting by Alfred Edward Chalon, R.A. Although this work of art portrays the young Queen in her robes of state, merely the head appears in various British colonial postage stamp designs, including the 12-pence for the Province of Canada.

On the occasion of Queen Victoria's first visit to the House of Lords, she commissioned Mr. Chalon to

paint this portrait as a gift to her mother, the Duchess of Kent. The memorable event was the prorogation of Parliament on the 17th July 1837, the year of the Queen's accession to the throne.

Canada

Pence issues Imperforate Wove paper

April 1852

Jacques Cartier

January 1855

Greyish Purple Slate Grey

March 1855

2nd June 1857 1st August 1857

Canada

Pence issues Perforated 12 Wove paper

November 1858

January 1859

January 1859

The ½ penny stamps, (popularly called newspaper stamps), were originally purchased to pay newspaper postage when these were mailed to the public. This denomination also charges for carriers' fees, soldiers' letters, and circulars. These stamps were also valid for prepaying postage on periodicals, drop or town letters.

A Post Office circular dated the 18th July 1857, announced the price reduction for the ½-penny stamps for sale at 5 per cent discount in purchases of not less than twenty stamps.

The Portrait of Queen Victoria was taken from a contemporary postage stamp design of Great Britain.

Canada

Cents issues Perforated 12 Wove paper

1st July 1859

1st July 1859 1st July 1859 1883

1st July 1859 1st July 1859

1st August 1864

Canada

Large Queens issue Perforated 12

1868 - 1876

Black

Brown-Red Yellow-Orange Green

Red Olive-Green Dark Brown

Blue Lilac-Grey

Canada

Small Queens issue Perforated 12

1870 - 1887

Black

Yellow Green Dull Red

Slate Green Yellow-Brown

Grey Dull Rose-Lilac

Canada

Widow Weeds issue Perforated 12

15th February 1893

The parcel post rates current in 1893 made it desirable to issue 20-cent and 50-cent stamps.

The stamps were larger than the other denominations in current use and although officially part of the Small Queens issue, these have always been regarded as a separate issue by collectors. The portrait of Her Majesty Queen Victoria was similar to that used on the non-postal one dollar bill stamps of 1868.

Canada

Registration issue Perforated 12

15th November 1875

Orange

Green

Blue

These stamps were issued forte payment of the registration fees, and it was at one point made compulsory to use these, with normal postage stamps not being valid for the payment of this service

The stamps were only in use for a short period of time, with the rule regarding their use being repealed and the use o normal stamps allowed. This led to the issue of the 8-cent of the Small Queens issue, which was to pay the normal 3-cent inland postage and the 5-cent registration fee with one stamp.

Canada

Diamond Jubilee issue

19th June 1897

Two portraits of Queen Victoria from 1837 and 1867. The portrait on the left is from a painting by Alfred Edward Chalon, R. A., and portrays

Her Majesty on the occasion of the prorogation of Parliament on 17th July 1837. This is the same portrait reproduced on the 12-pence Canadian stamp of 1851. Between the portraits are the initials V.R.I., which signify Victoria, Queen and Empress, and below are the dates 1837 and 1897, the years of the Queen's accession and her Diamond Jubilee.

Canada

Maple Leaf issue

1897 - 1898

The change of contract to the American Banknote Company in Ottawa for the production of stamped postal supplies caused a need for new, regular postage stamps and the new contractors started work on them as soon as they finished the Diamond Jubilee Issue.

As a model to work from, the engravers used a photographic portrait of Her Majesty taken at the time

of her Diamond Jubilee. Realistic maple leafs decorated all four corners of the stamps and for this reason, stamp collectors refer to them as the Maple Leaves Issue. In a circular letter dated 25th October 1897, the Department instructed postmasters to avoid selling the new stamps until they had sold corresponding values in the older issue. The result was that the issuance of the maple-leaf stamps in various denominations spread over a period of three months from November 1897, until January 1898.

Canada

Numeral issue

1898 - 1902

Die 1 Die 2

Four thin lines Thick line between to outer frame two thin lines

Canada

Imperial Penny Postage

1898

Blue ocean area

Lavender ocean area

In July 1898, an Imperial Conference on postage rates was held in London. On the proposal of the Canadian representative, Hon. William Mulock, Postmaster General of Canada the scheme was adopted for Great Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, Cape Colony, and Natal. The delegates of the Imperial Conference left the opportunity open to other regions within the British Empire to take part in the Penny Postage providing Her Majesty's Government approved the action.

As chief Canadian proponent of the actual adoption of Imperial Penny Postage, the

Canadian Postmaster General decided to stimulate interest in the event by issuing a special postage stamp covering the new rate and emphasizing the vast extent of the British Empire. For this issue he decided to use a map on the stamps.

The stamp was not meant to be a limited issue; rather it was intended to supplement

the regular stamps for prepayment principally, of overseas British correspondence, although the stamps were available for any other postal use. The map of the world in Mercator's Projection, showed the various parts of the British Empire in red.

The stamp bore the inscription "Xmas 1898" and across the base of the design the

text reads: "WE HOLD A VASTER EMPIRE THAN HAS BEEN."

Canada

2 cent on 3 cent Surcharge

1899

Surcharge on the Maple Leaf issue

Surcharge on the Numeral issue

The black surcharge on 3-cent, carmine, of the previous two issues of 1898, manufactured and surcharged by the American Bank Note Company, Limited, Ottawa.

The current 2-cent purple stamp was in heavy demand for domestic postage purposes, however it was

not of the colour, (red), prescribed by the Universal Postal Union regulations for the inland letter rate. As a temporary measure, the existing 3-cent red stamps were surcharged to reduce their face value to two cents.

The reduction of the domestic letter rate from three to two cents per ounce, effective 1st January 1899,

found the Post Office Department with large stocks of the 3-cent carmine stamps, originally issued on 15th January, and 21st June, 1898. In order to utilize them and prevent confusion with the forthcoming 2-cent carmine issue, the Department instructed the manufacturers to overprint the 3-cent stamps with a surcharge in one line reducing the face value to two cents. The surcharge was arranged in a distinctive manner, concave at the top, so as to obliterate effectually the original words and numerals value.

Wear of the electrotypes caused variations in the apparent thickness of the surcharges.