Part 18 (2/2)
Posterity erects this monument to their honour.”
No advance information was published as to the numbers printed of the several values in the series, as in the case of the Jubilee set, so that little attempt at cornering any particular values was made by speculators. True, large quant.i.ties of the 1/2c value were bought up by people who imagined it would be as rare as the corresponding value of the Jubilee stamps, but as there were two million of these they did not turn out to be the gold-mine it was fondly imagined they would. By September, 1908, all values except the 10c, 15c and 20c had been exhausted and by the end of October these three values were sold out as well. The numbers issued were later given out by the Postmaster-General in answer to two questions propounded to him in the House of Commons by Mr. Perley, a member. The Canadian _Hansard_ gives this data as follows:--
1.--What was the total amount received by the Post Office Department from the sale of the special Tercentenary stamps?
2.--What part of this sum would probably have been received as ordinary revenue if there had been no special issue of stamps?
To these questions the Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General, responded: The following was the issue to Postmasters of the Tercentenary postage stamps:
_Denominations._ _Quant.i.ties._ _Value._ 1/2 cent 2,000,000 $10,000 1 cent 22,530,000 $225,300 2 cent 35,100,000 $702,000 5 cent 1,200,000 $60,000 7 cent 700,000 $49,000 10 cent 500,000 $50,000 15 cent 300,000 $45,000 20 cent 304,200 $60,840 ---------- --------- Totals, 62,634,200 $1,202,140
The department has no knowledge whether the stamps in question have all been sold, as during their issue the ordinary postage stamps were also on sale, both issues being in use as preferred by the public. The proceeds derived from the sale of stamps of the two issues were not kept separately, but treated as arising from a common source. It is, therefore, impossible to state to what extent the issue of the Tercentenary postage stamps may have affected the ordinary revenue.
The fact that the Prince of Wales was an ardent stamp collector resulted in the presentation to him of a specially mounted set as shown by the following paragraph from the WEEKLY:--
As the Prince of Wales is an enthusiastic collector of stamps, His Royal Highness will no doubt be very pleased to receive the set of the special tercentenary stamps which will be presented to him at Quebec. The stamps will be held in small gold boxes, enclosed in a handsome large box of Morocco leather. A second set accompanies the gift in a special gold box, on the cover of the large box is the Prince's crest and a gold plate inscribed as follows: ”Set of Canadian postage stamps issued upon the occasion of the Quebec tercentenary, 1908. Presented to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales by Hon. Rudolphe Lemieux, Postmaster-General of Canada.” Sets of these stamps, in boxes with appropriate crests and monograms, will be presented to Earl Grey, Sir Wilfred Laurier and Hon.
Rudolphe Lemieux.
_Reference List._
1908. Engraved and printed by the American Bank Note Co., Ottawa. No wmk. Perf. 12.
85. 1/2c dark brown, Scott's No. 96.
86. 1c blue green, Scott's No. 97.
87. 2c carmine, Scott's No. 98.
88. 5c dark blue, Scott's No. 99.
89. 7c olive green, Scott's No. 100.
90. 10c dark violet, Scott's No. 101.
91. 15c red orange, Scott's No. 102.
92. 20c yellow brown, Scott's No. 103.
CHAPTER XXIV.
_The King George Stamps._
On May 6th, 1910, King George V succeeded to the throne but the Dominion of Canada did not take steps towards issuing a series of stamps bearing the portrait of the new monarch until some time later. The 1c and 2c denominations were recorded in the _Monthly Journal_ for January, 1912, so they were doubtless on sale on the 1st day of that month. The other values--5c, 7c, 10c, 20c and 50c--were placed on sale very soon afterwards and we believe the full series was in circulation before the end of January.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
The new stamps form a highly attractive set and they are without question the handsomest set of ”George” stamps issued by any of the British Colonies. The portrait, which shows His Majesty in an admiral's uniform, three-quarter face to left, is, as the _Monthly Journal_ states ”the best portrait of King George that has yet appeared on stamps.” The portrait is contained within an oval above which the words CANADA POSTAGE are curved in bold sans-serif capitals. Below is the value ONE CENT, etc., in words while in each of the lower angles the value is shown in figures on a plain square as in the case of the King Edward stamps. In the upper corners are crowns, again like the King Edward labels, but the treatment of the stamp as a whole is widely dissimilar.
The portrait oval is smaller than before so that in place of the almost microscopical maple leaves shown on the King Edward stamps we now find a spray of these leaves, beautifully drawn, in each of the lower spandrels.
The stamps were printed in sheets of 100 as before with the usual arrangement of marginal imprint and plate numbers. No record seems to have been made of the plates but that a very large number of the 2c at any rate were used is obvious from the high numbers found.
<script>