Was Bluenose intended for parcel post?

Recently, when I set up my page about Bluenose I
found an old RCSD-post by Bob Ingraham mentioning
that the stamp was intended for parcel post. With
Bob's permission I have quoted this on my web page

http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900356...daBluenose.htm

I have been unable to have this verified, and wonder
whether any of you can confirm this -- alternatively
point me to a web page where I can find information
about Canadian postal rates back in the 20s.

Bob's statement might imply that any Bluenose on
cover is a falsification.

Any help and info about this would be much appreciated.

Mette

Then of course, there is the not so rare, "Bluenose on glassine" :0)
seems our Canadian friends are very proud of this issue.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...oto&PhotoID=76

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 20:49:25 +0200, "A.M.Heindorff"
wrote:

Recently, when I set up my page about Bluenose I
found an old RCSD-post by Bob Ingraham mentioning
that the stamp was intended for parcel post. With
Bob's permission I have quoted this on my web page

http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900356...daBluenose.htm

I have been unable to have this verified, and wonder
whether any of you can confirm this -- alternatively
point me to a web page where I can find information
about Canadian postal rates back in the 20s.

Bob's statement might imply that any Bluenose on
cover is a falsification.

Any help and info about this would be much appreciated.

Mette




Mette:

I would like to clarify Bob's statement.

The 50 cents Bluenose may have been destined for parcels
as it had a high face calue for its day.
However, it was valid for ALL postage purposes..
Unlike the USA, Canada never had special parcel oost stamps.

A regular domestic letter in 1928 cost 2 cents.
Airmail domestic was 5 cents.
Special Delivery was 20 cents.
I believe basic Registration was 10 cents but went up
depending on value of the letter..

S0 an overweight international airmail, registered ,
special delivery letter could cost 50 cents.

Blair



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TC wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 20:49:25 +0200, "A.M.Heindorff"
wrote:

Recently, when I set up my page about Bluenose I
found an old RCSD-post by Bob Ingraham mentioning
that the stamp was intended for parcel post. With
Bob's permission I have quoted this on my web page

http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900356...daBluenose.htm

I have been unable to have this verified, and wonder
whether any of you can confirm this -- alternatively
point me to a web page where I can find information
about Canadian postal rates back in the 20s.

Bob's statement might imply that any Bluenose on
cover is a falsification.

Any help and info about this would be much appreciated.

Mette




Mette:

I would like to clarify Bob's statement.

The 50 cents Bluenose may have been destined for parcels
as it had a high face calue for its day.
However, it was valid for ALL postage purposes..
Unlike the USA, Canada never had special parcel oost stamps.

A regular domestic letter in 1928 cost 2 cents.
Airmail domestic was 5 cents.
Special Delivery was 20 cents.
I believe basic Registration was 10 cents but went up
depending on value of the letter..

S0 an overweight international airmail, registered ,
special delivery letter could cost 50 cents.

Thanks a lot, Blair, for your good answer.

Mette

Rodney wrote in message
...

Then of course, there is the not so rare, "Bluenose on glassine" :0)
seems our Canadian friends are very proud of this issue.

http://groups.msn.com/Stamps/shoebox...oto&PhotoID=76

Yes, and very suitable for housing "parcels"
(read: loads) of stamps that need to be sorted ;-)

Mette

A.M.Heindorff wrote in message
...
Recently, when I set up my page about Bluenose I
found an old RCSD-post by Bob Ingraham mentioning
that the stamp was intended for parcel post. With
Bob's permission I have quoted this on my web page

http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900356...daBluenose.htm

I have been unable to have this verified, and wonder
whether any of you can confirm this -- alternatively
point me to a web page where I can find information
about Canadian postal rates back in the 20s.

Bob's statement might imply that any Bluenose on
cover is a falsification.

Any help and info about this would be much appreciated.

Thanks to everybody who responded to my query, also
in private. All answers have been most helpful. For the
completion here is a very informative answer I received
from Roy Lingen on another forum:

quote:
Mette wrote:
Bob's statement is interesting because it might imply that
any Bluenose on cover is a falsification.

Yes, Bob's statement is correct. In order to get up to 50c
postage at the time, the item would generally have had to
have been a parcel. However, the implication that any
Bluenose cover is therefore suspect is going a little too
far. Other "special rates" could have gone that high as
well. For example, consider the following (fictitious)
cover:

9oz (255gm) registered to a non-British Empire UPU country
(i.e. almost any country in Europe, South America, Asia
etc). This could easily be a larger envelope carrying legal
papers.

Postage rate:
1st oz -- 8c
each additional oz 4c/ oz -- +32c
registration -- 10c
Total postage 50c

Such a cover might reasonably have carried a Bluenose
single, and would be an extremely valuable cover today
(since single usages of high value stamps, paying exactly
the correct rate are very rare and desired by postal
historians).

In fact, there are two other more common sources for used
Bluenoses.

1) Bank money parcels -- the banks at the time moved
currency from bank to bank, using registered mail, fully
insured. The insurance fees added up! Most of the Blueoses I
have seen "on cover" are on tags that were attached to bags
of money. There is a famous cover with 30 copies of the $1
Mt. Edith Cavel (of the next Canadian definitive series
after the Bluenose) that paid exactly the right rate to mail
a bar of gold to the Canadian mint from out west.

2) Mette, on your web page you draw attention to the "CTO"
look of corner cancels on many Bluenoses. No question, many
of these stamps were "favour cancelled" long after they went
out of use. The stamp was only current for a little under
two years (Jan 8, 1929 until the Grand Pre was issued Dec
4, 1930). It was readily available at face value in
collector circles until well into the 1940s. Many nicely
cancelled copies will have the year conveniently just off
the stamp, or will show a date in the late 30's or early
40's. Used collectors would have done this to get a nice
used copy because most of the legitimately used ones would
have had the ugly, heavy roller cancels. Purists will look
long for a cds cancelled copy with the date in the period of
use. That finally leads me to the other place they got used
-- as receipts for bulk mailings. A newspaper might deliver
hundreds of newspapers to the post office for bulk mailing.
They would often receive a receipt with many copies of high
value stamps attached and cancelled as a receipt for the
bulk postage. These are the source of many legitimately
cancelled cds copies available.

I do not know of a webpage with Canadian rates, but I do
have a recently published book with basic information on
letter (not parcel) rates.

Hope this helps,
Roy
End of quote.

--
Ann Mette Heindorff
amhstamps (at) adr dot dk
http://slaniastamps.school.dk
http://continue.to/stamptravel
http://danish-christmasseals.school.dk