The following article comes from The Stamp News (February and March, 1895) and should be of interest to collectors of China.

For the following cutting we are indebted to the Chairman of the “Ichang Public Improvements Committee,” who has, however, omitted to furnish us with the name of the paper from which it is taken. It may be of interest to mention that the wrapper enclosing the cutting was franked with one of the new ½ candarin stamps, that being apparently the rate for a book packet from Ichang to Shanghai, a 2 cent Hong Kong stamp representing the postage from Shanghai to London.

“Last month an advertisement appeared in our columns announcing that a Local Post Office had been established at Ichang, under the auspices of a Public Improvements Committee elected by the foreign Landholders, and that this Post-office would commence work on the 1st December. The Chairman of the Public Improvements Committee has now kindly sent us a set of the eight stamps in use, which are of the denomination of ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 30 candareens respectively. The stamps are printed in Japan from designs furnished by the Committee, and with one exception are commendable, though a mistake has been committed in making them so excessively large, as those of the two lowest denominations are over 1¼ in. either way, while all the others are 1½ in. by 1⅛ in.

“The ½candareen stamp is of light brown colour, with the design of a cash bearing the value in Chinese characters.

“The 1 candareen stamp has four cash of the reigns of the present Emperor and three of his predecessors, though properly speaking only the coin of the reigning Emperor should be shown, and it is of a deep chrome-yellow colour.

“The 2 candareens stamp is of mauve colour, with the old Chinese characters for Ichang in the centre, surrounded by a border of flowers, with the swastika at the four corners.

“The 3 candareens stamp is of violet colour, with a circular arrangement of the pah-kwa, having 1894 in the centre.

“The 5 candareens is of rose colour, and has the modem characters for Ichang in a lozenge-shaped key border.

“The 10 candareens stamp is of olive-green, with the dssisn of the Reeves pheasant. which is found – only about Ichang and in Szechuen.

“The otter, which is much used about Ichang for fishing purposes, forms the design for the 15 candareens stamp, which is of light blue colour.

“Lastly, the 30 candareens bears diagonally across the white surface of the stamp a mysterious design in carmine-red, which would puzzle a philatelist everlastingly were not the word “Settlement” printed in one border, whereby one is guided to the fact that it is a plan of the settlement which is depicted on the stamp, a truly ambitious design if nothing else.

“All of the eight stamps have ‘Ichang’ in Roman characters at the top, with the denomination at the bottom; but candareen is invariably given as ‘candarin,’ and the mistake is made, in the case of the 10 and 30 candareens stamps, of giving the value not in candareens, but as one and three mace. There is also too much variation in the Chinese characters giving the various denominations, and it would have been better had these been uniform.

“There is no doubt that the establishment of this Post-office at Ichang will be a benefit to all residents who were formerly compelled to trust their letters to the officers of steamers calling at that port for delivery to the Post-office at Hankow, or were under the necessity of using the Customs post at the prohibitively high rates charged. But now all will be plain sailing, for the Ichang Office is officially connected with Hankow, Shanghai, and other ports where Post-offices exist, and arrangements have been made for a mutual recognition of stamps and the receipt and delivery of mail matter. Any surplus revenue derived from the sale of stamps will be devoted by the Committee to the improvement of the port, and as there cannot be much expense in running the Ichang Post-office, that establishment ought to be a certain and valuable source of revenue to the comunnity.”