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 20th 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 6th
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.
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