Canadian Philatelist Philatéliste canadien - The Royal Philatelic ...

Private Post Cards Rated as Letters
George B. Arfken, FRPSC and William S. Pawluk
With the January 1895 Supplement to
the Official Postal Guide dated December
29, 1894, private post cards with Canadian
addresses were admitted to the mail,
effective January 1, 1895:
“On and after the 1st January next,
Private Cards, prepaid by a one cent
postage stamp affixed thereon, may
be sent by mail within the Dominion
of Canada under the following
[1], [2]
regulations:”
The January 1895 Official Postal Guide
extended the authorization to eight
countries:
“Private Post Cards conforming to
the conditions set forth in the section
relating thereto under the head of “Post
Cards,” may, if prepaid 2 cents, be posted
in Canada addressed to any of the
following countries: Austria, Hungary,
Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy,
Newfoundland and Switzerland.”
Jan. 1895 Official Postal Guide p. xxix
The Canadian Post Office insisted that:
“... the face should be reserved
exclusively for the address and the
superposition ‘Private Post Card’.”
Jan. 1898 Official Postal Guide p. xxxi
“This sounded very simple but by
1898 there were numerous violations of
these regulations and uncertainty within
the Post Office as to how and when
these regulations should be enforced.
Handling patriotic private post cards
must have been a particular problem.
Figure 1 illustrates the difficulty. The
card was send to the Ottawa Dead Letter
Office possibly because illustrations such
as these were not permitted (until 1899).
The D.L.O. chose not to enforce the
regulation and placed the cover in a mail
bag for the U.K.”
Figure 1. A J.C. Wilson patriotic private post card, posted in Toronto
June 19, 1898 and received in Bath, England on July 4, 1898. This card
should have been charged as a letter.
A Grand Trunk Railway view card, Figure 2, received much
harsher treatment. The card (actually an official Canada post
card) was charged as a letter because this advertising was not
permitted in international mail until 1899. Canada supplied
the T and Britain the 3d (due).
Figure 2. P18, a government issue post card intended for domestic advertising,
uprated with a 1-cent Numeral to the 2-cent UPU post card rate.
Mailed in Montreal, July 25, 1898 and addressed to London, England.
There is a London AU 8 98 receiver. This card was charged as a 5 cent letter.
The 3-cent deficiency was doubled to 6 cents or 3d.
Canada should have stamped the card in Figure 3 with a
T/15, the 15 giving the deficiency in French centimes. The T
in the hexagon was stamped in London and should not have
been obliterated.
268 • the CP / le PC • SO06