The stamps, like those of the preceding issues, were printed from line-engraved plates and, with one exception, these plates contained one hundred impressions arranged in ten horizontal rows of ten each. The exception referred to occurred in the 1/2c, the first plate for which contained 200 stamps, arranged in ten rows of twenty stamps each. This is mentioned in the _Weekly Philatelic Era_ as follows:-- By some misunderstanding the contractors, the American Bank Note Co., set the sheet up with 200 stamps, and the first five hundred sheets were so printed. The sheets were afterwards cut in two through the imprint, and we have these half sheets with a close imperforated margin on either the left or right edge. Afterwards sheets of 100 stamps were issued, all the stamps perforated on all four sides. Plate number collectors will find the earliest sheets difficult to obtain. Both sheets bear the plate number 1. The imprint on the sheets followed the plan originated with the Jubilee series, "OTTAWA--No--1," etc., being placed in the centre of the top margin. Each value began with No. 1 and apparently for the 5c, 6c, 8c, and 10c the one plate sufficed. For the 1/2c, as we have already shown, there were two plates, both numbered "1"; while for the 1c there were two plates, for the 2c, three plates, and for the 3c, six plates. The stamps were printed on stout white wove paper, similar to that used for the Jubilee stamps and at some time or other a slightly thinner and more brittle paper seems to have been used. The paper for the 5c is of a distinctly bluish color--this being the first occasion on which colored paper was used for any of the postage stamps of the Dominion. The perforation was the regulation gauge of 12, which has been in continuous use since 1858, and, as the _Philatelic Record_ stated when first chronicling the issue, "many of the stamp are badly centered, a characteristic defect of the American Bank Note Company's work." The 5c is known entirely imperforate. _Reference List._ 1897. Engraved and Printed by the American Bank Note Co., Ottawa, on wove paper. Perf. 12. 52. 1/2c black, Scott's No. 66. 53. 1c green, Scott's No. 67. 54. 2c purple, Scott's No. 68. 55. 3c carmine, Scott's No. 69. 56. 5c dark blue on bluish, Scott's No. 70. 57. 6c brown, Scott's No. 71. 58. 8c orange, Scott's No. 72. 59. 10c brown-violet, Scott's No. 73. CHAPTER XV.--_The "Numeral" Issue of 1898._ The "maple-leaf" issue had not been long in use before complaints were made that owing to the lack of plain numerals it was a difficult matter to distinguish the various denominations. In its issue for April 2nd, 1898, the _Metropolitan Philatelist_ stated another ground for complaint and also referred to a forthcoming change, viz.:--