le referred to above says that
the balance of 49,490 stamps were destroyed on May 1st, 1857, "in
accordance with the practice of the Department in cases of the
discontinuance of stamps" though as this was the first Canadian stamp to
be discontinued, a precedent could hardly have been established.

The following interesting excerpt from the _Stamp Collectors' Magazine_
for April, 1870, states that the 12d value was discontinued in 1855 and
it also lays considerable stress on the scarcity of used specimens of
this stamp, viz:--

One of our readers observing from a reply we made to a
correspondent in the last October number, that we were in doubt as
to whether the 12d was ever actually used, has been good enough to
write the Deputy Postmaster-General on the subject and has obtained
from him the following reply:--

"OTTAWA, 28th October, 1869.

"DEAR SIR:--In reply to your note of the 26th inst., let me say
that the twelve penny postage stamps were issued to the public in
1851, but did not find favor, and so few were sold--only a few
hundred altogether in three or four years--that they ceased to be
issued in 1855.

"I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,

"W. A. SMYTH."

This is satisfactorily conclusive as to the emission of the stamp in
question; but if even only a few hundreds were used, we are surprised
that no used copies turn up. Were they used otherwise than for postage?
Mr. Philbrick informs us that no unused copy of the stamp was ever seen
by him, nor does he know of its existence. Plenty of proofs on India
paper, etc., exist, but the paper of the stamp was laid and thin, of a
hard texture.

An extract from the _Stamp Collectors' Monthly Gazette_, published at
St. John, New Brunswick, in September, 1869, shows that the rarity of
the 12d was already recognised as witnessed by the fact that "even $5"
could be obtained for a specimen. We give the paragraph in full:--

This stamp, as some of our readers are aware, was in use but a
short time, so short, that many persons even those residing in
Canada, knew nothing about it. One gentleman living in Quebec, to
whom we had written on the subject some time ago, informed us that
we must have been laboring under some mistake, when we asked him
for some particulars about it. He told us that no such stamp was
ever issued; but a subsequent letter from him told a totally