Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal StationeryHowes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
History
Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery
Howes, Clifton A. (Clifton Armstrong)
Postage stamps -- Canada; Postal stationery -- Canada
For other varieties in this series we have the 1/2 cent on "bluish-white
wove paper", listed by M. Moens in the sixth edition of his catalogue.
Messrs. Corwin and King say this "corresponds to our grayish paper, the
shade sometimes being quite intense." But they list the entire series on
"thin, soft, grayish wove paper", as well as the 1/2 cent and 1 cent
brown-red on "pelure grayish paper". It may be that imperfect wiping of
the plates had left an extra grayish tint upon the paper of the specimen
that Moens singled out for cataloguing, just as occurred in the case of
most values of the Post Office Department stamps of the United States.
Messrs. Corwin and King[100] give an extremely lengthy reference list of
this issue on no less than _seventeen_ varieties of paper, with the
remark that, "every variety we mention is distinct from any other", but,
with Major Evans, we must remark that "we confess we are unable to
follow our friend Mr. King through all the intricacies of these
varieties of paper ... but the differences are, perhaps, more real than
is indicted in the descriptions." On inspection the "seventeen
varieties" seem to combine themselves into I: laid paper, of thick and
thin qualities; II: watermarked paper; III: yellowish wove paper, very
thin to very thick; and IV: grayish wove paper, from pelure to very
thick. In both of the wove papers are found the differences due to the
process of manufacture, the even texture of the plain wove variety and
the mottled texture of the so-called "wire-wove" variety.
[100] =Metropolitan Philatelist=, II: 55 and =Monthly Journal=, VIII:
236.
The paper used for this issue is responsible for variations in the size
of the stamps similar in character and origin to those we have already
thoroughly discussed in connection with the 7-1/2 and 10 pence stamps of
1855-7. The design of the series is not calculated to render these
variations so apparent as in the former case, but the extreme variations
we have found have been carefully noted and are presented in the
following list. It will be seen that the variation is confined to a half
millimeter in each dimension.
1/2 cent, 16-3/4 × 21-1/2 mm.
17 × 21 mm.
1 cent, 19-1/2 × 24-1/2 mm.
20 × 24 mm.
2 cents, 19-1/2 × 24-1/2 mm.
20 × 24 mm.
3 cents, 19-1/2 × 24-1/2 mm.
20 × 24 mm.
5 cents, 19 × 24-1/2 mm.
? ?
6 cents, 20 × 24-1/2 mm.
20-1/2 × 24 mm.
12-1/2 cents, 19-1/2 × 24-1/2 mm.
20 × 24 mm.
15 cents, 19-3/4 × 24-1/2 mm.
20 × 24 mm.
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