MODERN PRECANCEL ERRORS

There does not appear to be a large number of overprinting errors related to modern precancels and many that do exist seem to be very scarce or rare.  For example for all KG VI and QE II issues there are only three doubles and one triple in the bar styles V,W,X and Y.  One is the one cent green coil from 1937, V-238-D and another KGVI, the X-255-D 5 cent blue War issue; the others are the 1973 Pearson 6 cent caricature:  Y-591-D and Y-591-T this latter being a new find just prior to the publication of the 6^th edition.  It was listed and sold as a double but on closer inspection was clearly an unlisted triple.

A total of 456 MOON items are listed in the CPCC.  There were doubles and inverts in the older issues but there is only one known double in the KGVI era, Toronto 15-249-D, the green one cent war issue from 1942.  I assume that this lack of doubles in this era indicates more sophisticated and automated printing equipment which relies much less on human intervention, however I have no specific details on equipment used during this time period and whether it was more modern and reliable than used previously.  Chapter 2 of the CPCH is interesting but of little help regarding equipment used particularly in more recent years.  This lack of errors may also be a result of improved quality control though the availability of other types of errors indicates that QA was far from perfect.  Chapter 2 of the CPCH hints that the relatively large numbers of doubles that are available from older issues, in particular Admirals, were the result of an active policy by the Agency to create these items for collectors.  I do not believe this to be the case since many of the doubles and combinations etc are clearly a result of mis-feeding of sheets which was fairly common in paper printing.  Additionally, if it had been a successful marketing plan to sell more stamps, why would it suddenly stop?  What is more likely is that under different circumstances these “errors” might have been thrown in the trash by the Post Office but they found a market and decided to sell the “errors”.

Most modern precancel errors relate to other manufacturing issues rather than the precanceling process. 

Types of known modern errors on precancelled stamps are:

Misperforated stamps [horizontal and vertical]

Colour shifts and partial colour shifts

Pre-print paper crease

During-print paper crease

Offsets on gum: both precancel offsets and stamp offsets

Tagging errors: one bar tag, tag missing

Imperf top margin

Warning legend missing

Warning legend printed on stamps not selvage

Printed on gum side

Although modern PC errors are mostly very scarce to unique, a few being more common such as X-326 2 cent green misperf which is reasonably easy to acquire and is known on cover.

                                                                               

Also the George VI Vancouver 6-249 can be found misperf but is much scarcer.

 

Pre-printing paper creases are not common but can be found and I normally buy any I see.

Tagging errors can be found and are fairly easy to acquire as single stamps but as multiples they are scarcer and are priced accordingly.

 

Color shifts and partial color shifts can be found on the Floral definitives of 1977:

 

Also on Y-591 Pearson 6 cent and Y-714 Parliament 12 cent as shown below.  Only one sheet of each was found.

Precancel offsets where the PC overprint is printed on reverse on the gum side of a stamp are not common but can be found:

 

                                                                           Woodstock 2-195-D with same double on gum side

                                       Montreal 4-119-ID with Kitchener style 1 double invert on gum

I know of only one example of a precancelled stamp, X-338, with the stamp [without precancel] offset on the reverse and it is shown below:

The rarest and probably most important error is the Y 705 one cent Gentian floral definitive printed on the gummed side.  Only one sheet was produced and only four corner blocks of four appear to have survived according to Canada’s leading dealer in modern errors.  What happened to the other 84 stamps is a mystery.  Perhaps they will turn up one day.

 

Printed on gum side

 

Another rare item is the misperf and imperf at top margin Karsh 329 5 cent blue.  Only two or three sheets are known and have been broken down into upper warning strip block of 20 including plate block and then various other combinations of misperforates including singles and blocks of various sizes.  One warning strip has survived intact; others may have been cut up for resale since Unitrade lists a single at $500.

There are three sheets of Borden 3 cent brown catalogue number Y-588 which are known without warning legend at left.  The PC print is shifted left 7 mm and the RH warning is not in the selvage but on the RH column of stamps.  It would be interesting to find an example on cover with part of the warning strip on the stamp.  I have a pane of 100 showing both errors and below is a scan of the top three rows.

I personally enjoy these minor and major errors.  They are rare, visually arresting and have survived against all odds.  If any collector has additional errors to share I will gladly add to the article.

 

THE ONE CENT YELLOW ADMIRAL

SCOTT 105

AS A PRECANCEL

 

Without doubt, the one cent yellow admiral is one of Canada’s lowliest stamps.  It was purchased for a penny which, even back in the early part of the twentieth century, was not a lot of money.  It was in use for 15 years and, during that timeframe, 1.2 billion were printed, distributed and mailed across town, across the province, across the country and around the world.  Over one billion were produced at a time when the population of Canada was only eight million; the equivalent of every man woman and child using 150 a year.  Of course, at that time the mail was the main method of communicating both for business and personal affairs. No emails, no faxes, minimal use of telephones, no TV to advertize products, no on-line bill payment, so the mail was vital to communicate messages and information.

                             Lathework                          Two rare items                A “combination” block

                                                                                                  Top pair triple inverts

 

OVER ONE BILLION ISSUED

One billion stamps is a lot of stamps.  How much paper was used?  How many trees felled? How much glue mixed and applied to produce that many 105’s?  How many miles did such a lowly stamp travel? 

It is quite a boring stamp too.  Like all Admirals, it is mono-chrome and features the engraving of a long-dead monarch [Jan 20^th 1936] who is unknown or forgotten by most Canadians.  However, stamp collectors know he was one of us: a philatelist and avid collector.  King George V played a large role in building the Royal Philatelic Collection into the most comprehensive collection of United Kingdom and Commonwealth stamps in the world.  He must have collected a lot of stamps with his own face on them since during his reign the British Empire still extended across the globe.  He had a tattoo of a red and blue dragon on his arm when he was still the Duke of York.  He was serving in the Royal Navy on HMS Baccante and his tattoo was done by a Japanese tattoo artist called Hori Chyo. 

I wonder what he thought of the Canada Scott 105?  He probably found it boring too; unless he collected precancels. 

                                               

                                                              King George V tattoo

Used examples of the 105 are catalogued at a mere 20 cents.  As a used stamp it has no real value and the color is pretty bad.  Maybe the color of the 108 is worse.  Even a well-centered MNH example in pristine condition would barely fetch $100 [2010].

It does have its scarce items but they are few and far between.  Even the lathework tops out at $500 per block catalogue value and less at auction.

However, during its lifetime the humble 105 was precancelled in many ways with one bar and fifty different town styles.  A relatively small quantity of the 1.2 billion was overprinted with a number of different printing plates over a number of years and the 105 was given many new identities and the lowly stamp was made different, more interesting, special and collectible.  So special, in fact, that putting together a complete collection of just precancelled 105’s would be a tall order.  It would contain 259 different precancels excluding plate blocks, perfins, lathework, constant plate varieties etc.  Of the 259 stamps, according to the 6^th Edition of the Canadian Precancel Catalogue, ten are valued at $100, nine at $150 and thirty five at between $200 and $300. In addition, there are three rarities:  Amherst at $3000, Chatham at $700 and Sydney at $3000.   All of these higher value stamps, in particular the rarities, would likely sell at well above catalogue at an auction.  So, sixty two of the 259 are more difficult to come by but most of the rest can be found over time and an interesting collection built up.  It would be an interesting way to begin a precancel collection, but even without the rarities it would still cost around $10,000 to put together, plus, of course, a lot of time.  A complete collection would make an attractive exhibit.

Any collector who needs more technical information on the one cent yellow Admiral should check Unitrade’s catalogue of Canadian Stamps and read Marler.

 

 

           

             

ROCK ISLAND QUEBEC

PRECANCEL [MOON 1142]

 

Rock Island Quebec is a small town today and was even smaller in the 1930’s when it was issued precancel stamps.  It merged with three other towns in 1995 to form Stanstead which has a combined population of 3000 people.  It is located on the US/Canadian border.  The nearby Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the border.  Haskell Free Library and Opera House 

                               

Haskell Library & Opera House

It sits astride the US-Canadian Border.

 

US-Canadian Border

Located in the reading room of the Haskell

    Library & Opera House in Derby Line,

 

Rock Island was settled in 1798 by Samuel and Selah Pomroy from Massachusetts. In 1802, a bridge was built across the Tomifobia River to ease access to Derby Line. The following year, Col. Charles Kilborn built a saw mill and a corn mill, then set up a dam on the river to feed them. A few years later, a channel was dug in the bend of the river. The territory located between the channel and the river was named Rock Island.  Rock Island was incorporated as a village in 1892, and became a city in 1957.

The wife of Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin in 1922 is a native of Rock Island and a park is named in their honor.

The town is on the US border and was one of the many smuggling points into the USA for liquor in the 20’s and 30’s and eventually back into Canada for consumer goods.

 

It is also the home of the Dairy Association Company, the manufacturers of Bag Balm. Bag Balm is a salve developed in 1899 to soothe irritation on cows’ udders after milking!  It also is used for "squeaky bed springs, psoriasis, dry facial skin, cracked fingers, burns, zits, diaper rash, saddle sores, sunburn, pruned trees, rifles, shell casings, bed sores and radiation burns."  Would it help philatelists with tweezer rash?

Bag Balm was taken to the North Pole by Admiral Byrd, it was used by Allied troops in World War II (to protect weapons from rust), it was used at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11 for the paws of cadaver-sniffing dogs, and it has been used by American troops in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rock Island was also issued precancelled postage stamps and since it was such a small town, were these stamps used to help sell Bag Balm?   A Bag Balm PC cover would be a great find! 
 

                                                                 Style 1                          Style 2

More interesting, perhaps, than a combined library/opera house existing, much less  straddling an international border, and an udder balm that works miracles on saddle sores and radiation burns, are a couple of precancels issued to Rock Island in 1935; the Jubilee Issue 1-211 one cent green and 1-212 two cent brown and the main reason for the article.

 

                                                                    1-211                      1-212

 I find them interesting for three reasons.  First they are part of the King George V Silver Jubilee issue and are the only “commemoratives” after the 1897 “Jubilees” of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.  Second, they both have portraits of future monarchs; King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II.  Indeed the issue also contained a third future monarch, Edward VIII who became king in January 1936 after his father died aged 70 injecting with an overdose of morphine and cocaine.  He abdicated within a year and this was the only Canadian stamp with his portrait as Prince of Wales. The third interesting point about 211 and 212 is that no other town in Canada was issued these particular stamps precancelled and no other town specific stamps were so narrowly issued.  In this sense, at least, they are rare and the reason for this unusual situation is explained below.

There were two main users of precancels in Rock Island as explained in the Handbook and as expanded upon by Lussey in his exhibit.  One user was Butterfield Tools which had an operation in Rock Island for many years until it was closed down in 1982 after a long and bitter industrial dispute.  For more information:

http://townshipsheritage.com/article/butterfields-important-invention-leads-international-factory

The main user of precancels was probably Spencer Corsets, Canada, Ltd.  The General Manager at the time, J.D. Ferguson was a philatelist and a keen collector of precancels.  The reason that Rock Island is the only town issued with the 1935 Jubilees is because he specifically requested them and persisted at a higher level when his request was originally denied by the Post Office.  Whether his company was the only user is not clear but since his was a special request he was almost certainly the exclusive user.  According to Lussey, H.L. Chandler of Montreal recorded on February 16^th 1938 the following information which he obtained from Mr. Ferguson that, of the two Jubilees, between one and five thousand of the one cent were printed but only one thousand of the two cent.  As far as the Medallion  and KGV issue are concerned, a large number of the Medallion one cent were used, less than two thousand of the two cent and only one thousand of the three cent.  Both George V items were used at a rate of about 1500 per month.

 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fashions_And_Figures  for information on Spencer Corsets.

Two styles of 1142 Moon PC’s were issued to Rock Island.  There are a total of 13 stamps to collect one of which is elusive [to me at least].  It is the 1-197 3 cent carmine Die 1.  It is listed at $150.  I have it in my $150 want list which is longer than expected leading me to believe that there are many very scarce stamps priced at $150 and Rock Island has one.  If only ten panes of the Medallion three cents were printed, is it likely that both dies were available as per the catalogue? 

CANADA PRECANCEL PROVOST

ADRIAN ELLIS – THE MACDONALD-ELLIS COLLECTION

 

This is a block of twelve of the one cent admiral issue of Canada in never hinged condition with a Provost Alberta Canada roller cancel.  This is most unusual until you learn that this block is from a lone sheet of 100 that were roller cancelled to be used as provisional precancels by a business in the town of Provost with the understanding that regular precancels would follow.  However the post office decided that not enough demand was there to warrant regular precancel production, leaving the 1 sheet of 100 provisional precancels the lone survivors.  This block is probably the largest multiple and possibly the only multiple remaining of this venture.  The block came out of a major precancel collection put together in Edmonton AB which is the major city nearest to Provost.  Although there is no written documentation for this block, knowing the collection and the man who put the collection together I believe what is said is accurate.  The block is with full unmarked never hinged gum which does add validity to the report of this as a provisional precancel.  A very rare and probably unique piece which could be described as “semi-official”.

The Confederation Issue

THE CONFEDERATION ISSUE

In 1927 the Post Office issued four regular stamps and a Special Delivery [E3] to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of confederation.  The one cent orange #141 with the face of Sir John A. Macdonald was the only one precancelled.

Unlike Admirals and Small Queens for example it is little seen in PC albums since it was only overprinted in 3 styles for two towns and there are only 6 variants.  The entire listing for the Scott #141 is:

 

MONTREAL 6-141

MONTREAL 6-141-I

MONTREAL 7-141

MONTREAL 7-141-I

TORONTO 12-141

TORONTO 12-141-I

The highlighted item is rare and catalogued at $200 and is on my want list but is a rare item I was not really aware of and have never seen as far as I recall.

A very fine used non PC example in Unitrade is $2 and all the regular PC’s are priced below this with the Toronto regular being only 50 cents.  This may be because SCPC is being conservative or because a large number of PC’s from this issue were precancelled if only for two cities.  In theory this is a possibility since domestic and local rates at that time were 2 cents per ounce and “printed matter” was 1cent per 4 ounces.  If anyone has more information about how many precancelled number 141 were issued let me know.  Given its low price, I do not have a large number of duplicates which may indicate it was not overprinted in large volume. 

THE CANADA PRECANCELLED WIDOW WEEDS

Style “T” regular and vertical

When Prince Albert died of typhoid fever in Dec 1861 at the age of 42, Queen Victoria wore widow’s weeds, or mourning clothes for the rest of her life.  “weeds” is a corruption of an old English word “waed” meaning “garment”.  Hence the name for Scott numbers 46 and 47.  Although part of the Small Queen issue, I tend to look at them separately, partly because of their size, the fact that they are early high values and because of their precancel varieties.

The 20 cent Widow Weed was only precancelled with bars, specifically styles A, C, J, R, S, T and U.  There are a total of 17 different varieties of which one is not listed in the Standard Canada Precancel Catalogue 6^th Edition [SCPC]. 

Style “J” regular, double and vertical

The following chart lists all the known items and the holdings of some major collectors.  It is likely that in one or two instances one collector purchased an item from another [the Lussey, Walburn and Reiche collections have been sold] so there is duplication.  The rarity factor is my personal estimate.  [See article on rarity factors]

WIDOW	SCPC	RARITY
WEEDS	VALUE	FACTOR
#46	$	ESTIMATE	LUSSEY	WALBURN	REICHE	DM	AE
A-46	200	6	X	X			X
C-46	200	8				X
J-46	150	6		X	X	X	X
J-46 D	200	10
J-46 V	250	8	X		X		X
R-46	200	4	X	X	X	X	X
R-46D	200	10
R-46 V	200	4	X	X	X	X	X
S-46	150	4	X	X	X	X	X
S-46 D	250	6	X	X		X
S-46 V	200	6	X	X	X		X
T-46	200	6		X	X	X	X
T-46 D	UNLIST	8	X		X
T- 46 V	200	4	X	X	X	X	X
U-46	200	4		X	X	X	X
U-46 T	250	10
U-46 V	200	6			X	X	X
TOTAL	17		9	10	12	10	11

There are three items that are listed that were not in the Lussey, Walburn or Reiche collections and are not in two current major collections.  If they exist they may be unique.   The unlisted item in the Lussey sale was as follows:

“Lot 161 T-46 D used single, double, LL corner added, crease, VF centred. UNLISTED.  Estimate $50.”  Sold for $55.  A bargain since condition means nothing in such a rare stamp.  Still unlisted in 6^th edition of the catalogue.

The 50 cent Widow Weed was precancelled by bars, Montreal and Toronto overprints.

      

   

                                  

                                                    Toronto                                        Toronto                                                  

                                                    2-47-Y                                          2-47-R     

                                           Quadruple two invert                         Triple one invert                

There are nine bar types but 3 were not in the collections of Lussey, Walburn or Reiche and are not known in two other collections.  These should be considered major rarities and worth significantly more than catalogue value if they do exist.   Two additional styles are also very rare since only one of each was in the Walburn collection.  These were:

                                                            S-47 V

                                                            T-47 V

The Toronto 2-47 ED is a major rarity with only two known and  2-47 Q and 2-47 X are both rare though the quantities of each is not known. 

The rarity in Montreal is the 1-47 I.  According to Lussey, there are only two copies.  Although the chart below shows 5 copies, it is likely that Lussey was not far wrong.  One collector bought the Lussey copy and Reiche sold to a collector who sold to me.  There is therefore probably a third copy from the Walburn collection which was bought by a UK collector.

 Some of the more common 50 cent Widow Weeds are known in pairs but larger multiples are rare.  There is one block of four EACH of the U-47 VD and the Toronto 2-47 which may be the largest multiples.

The widow weeds are an interesting narrow area for a collector but trying to complete a collection will prove frustrating.

There was one other item that was precancelled in the Widow Weeds with an Ottawa cancel.  It is the so-called “experimental”.  There was one sheet of 100 OG.  To follow.

WIDOW	SCPC	RARITY
WEEDS	VALUE	FACTOR
#47	$	ESTIMATE	LUSSEY	WALBURN	REICHE	DM	AE
A-47	250	10
I-47 V	200	10
S-47 V	250	10		X
T-47	250	10
T-47V	250	10		X			X
U-47	100	6	X	X	X	X	X
U-47 D	150	6	X	X	X	X	X
U-47 V	100	6	X	X	X	X	X
U-47 VD	100	6	X	X	X	X	BLK4
TORONTO
2-47	50	2	X	X	X	BLK 4	X
2-47 D	50	2	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 W3I	400	10	X			X
2-47 I	50	2	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 ID	100	2	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 M	50	2	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 Q	200	10
2-47 R	250	2	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 T	150	4	X	X	X	X	X
2-47 X	300	10				X
2-47 Y	200	6	X	X	X	X	X
MONTREAL
1-47	50	2	X	X	X	X	X
1-47 D	50	2	X	X	X	X	X
1-47 I	600	8	X	X	X	X	X
TOTAL			16	17	16	17	16