Canada year 1868 – 12½ c Blue Used stamp
The 12½ cent blue stamp you’re referring to is the First Cents Issue stamp issued by the Post Office Department of the Province of Canada in 1868.
Here are some key details about this stamp:
- It features a profile portrait of Queen Victoria based on the famous “Chalon Head” engraving.
- The denomination “12 1/2” is shown at the bottom in cents currency.
- The color is a deep blue shade printed on wove paper.
- It was printed by the British American Bank Note Company in Ottawa using tailed portrait vignettes.
- The 12½ cent rate was for triple domestic letter rate or single letter rate to the United States at the time.
- It is perforated 12 and has a Scott catalog number of 18 in unused condition.
- Only about 300,000 were issued before Canadian stamps were superseded by the first Dominion of Canada issues later in 1868.
- Unused examples are quite scarce today, with used examples being more readily available to collectors.
This distinctive blue 12½ cent stamp with the classic Chalon portrait was one of the last issues produced before Canada’s national postage stamps took over from the provincial series. It’s an important and valuable rarity from early post-Confederation Canadian philately.
