King Edward VII Precancelled 50 Cents

Is there anyone out there who can provide information on the 50 cent precancelled stamp #95? I have seen these stamps with a Montreal overprint but have never seen one on piece.

There are really two questions: 1. What company in Montreal used these stamps? and 2. What were they mailing?

I can only guess that they may have been used fur bulk mailing --- but why would that involve the use of a precancelled stamp?

Any assistance will be appreciated

The stamp you have s a precancel. It would have been used by any company that needed to do bulk mailing in Montreal!

Most high value precancels were used on parcels so the chance of finding one on cover or with indication of user is unlikely. Back in the days before UPS & Fedex, the post offices really had a monopoly on parcel shipment. All parcels had to go via the PO and all PO shipments had to use stamps. You can imagine how many more high value stamps were used back in the old days. Handling packages, rating the cost, applying stamps and cancelling took a lot of PO manpower. It was easier to let trusted customers do most of the work themselves with precancels so parcels could be taken to the PO stamped up correctly, ready to go. The same applies for USA precancels.

Montreal was the only city to issue precancels on the 50 cent (Scott #95) of the 1903-1908 King Edward VII issue.

Two different precancel designs exist, identified in Unitrade Precancel Catalogue as 2-95 and 4-95.

Here is the 2-95 version:



I do not have a 4-95 version, but here is the 4-94 which is the same precancel design as the 4-95 only printed on Scott #94, the 20 cent issue.



You can see the difference in the precancels design; font change, horizontal bars, and the 'Q' of Quebec has different serifs/accent (??).