(2) Single stamps, and stamps that are not in complete sheets, should be pasted on alternate pages of separate sheets of paper, with _not more than one hundred stamps on each page_. Any stamps that have stuck together whilst in the possession of the Postmaster, must be taken apart (which can easily be done by immersing them for a few minutes in water) and then pasted on sheets of paper as above directed.
Postmasters of _Non-Accounting_ Offices are particularly asked to bear in mind that any 3c. letter-cards, 3c. stamped envelopes or 3c. postage stamps which conformably to this instruction, they may receive from the public in exchange for other stamps and find unsaleable, _must be returned, as above directed, to the City Post Offices from which they respectively obtain their supplies_, and not to the Department.
_As only the unused remnant of 3c. stamps now in the Department will be surcharged_, Postmasters must not send in, with a view to their surcharge, any 3c. stamps in their possession nor accept 3c. stamps from the public for that purpose.
Postmasters must distinctly understand that the exchange of stamps herein permitted applies _only_ to the 3c. letter-card, the 3c. stamped envelope and 3c postage stamp.
R. M. COULTER, _Deputy Postmaster General_.
As a matter of fact the 2 cent purple seems to have lasted about a week longer than was anticipated in the above circular, so that the surcharged 3 cent stamps were not issued until the 28th July.[152] A correspondent of the _Weekly Philatelic Era_, in its issue for 22nd July, said: "I learn that the 3c numeral and some 3c with the four maple leaves will be surcharged," which proved correct; those first issued on the date mentioned above were of the numeral type, while on the 8th August[153] the "maple leaf" 3 cent made its appearance with the same surcharge.
[153] =Mekeel's Weekly Stamp News=, XIII: 308.
Illustrations of the two stamps will be found as numbers 41 and 42 on Plate II. It is stated that the surcharge was made up in its peculiar form so as to prevent counterfeiting by the use of ordinary type. At any rate the graded height of the numeral and letters, giving the concave effect to the top of the surcharge, shows it to have been specially prepared. There is some variation in the thickness of the surcharge, due perhaps to inking and to wearing of the plates. The overprinting was done in full sheets of one hundred from a special plate, in black ink, and should normally be horizontally across the bottom of the stamps. Poor registering of the sheets in printing caused the position to vary even up to about the middle of the stamp in some cases, and of course there had to be some inverted surcharges in both varieties. The number of these has not been published. Illustrations of the inverts will be found as numbers 44 and 45 on Plate II.