The Tagging on the 1972-1978 Caricature Issue of Canada


This week I cover the aspect of the tagging on these stamps. A lot has been written in the catalogues such as Unitrade over the last 30 years about the tagging on these stamps, that did not used to receive any attention at all: namely the distinction between the OP-2 and OP-4 variations of Ottawa tagging, as well as the 3 mm and 4 mm variations. However, there are other qualities to the tagging that are worthy of attention by the diligent specialist as well. This week's post discusses two of these in depth:

1. The intensity of the tagging, as it appears under normal light, and
2. The different methods that were used to apply the tagging to the stamps.

In the case of the low value stamps printed by Canadian Bank Note Company, there are notable differences in the appearance of the tagging on the stamps. Some stamps have tagging that is very light, being barely visible under normal lighting conditions, while others have moderate tagging that is clearly visible. Some stamps also have very dark tagging that is deep yellow in colour.



The stamp on the left, shows the light tagging, while the moderate tagging is shown in the middle, and the dark tagging is shown on the right. What is interesting is that the dark tagging only seems to occur on the very late printings made after December 1976. Thus, these differences do appear to have philatelic significance, rather than just being random.

The method of application of the tagging seems to have differed for the various printings also. This concept is not new, as those familiar with the Great Britain stamps for the 1960's will no doubt have had some exposure to this already. For that country many of the phosphors can be found applied either by typography or flexography.

The low value stamps printed by CBN always have tagging that appears completely solid under UV light, and it would appear that this was applied by flexography. However, for the stamps printed by the BABN, the earliest printings show a distinct "screened" appearance to the tagging, in which a dotted pattern is clearly visible within the tagging. Later, this gives way to far more solid appearing tagging, which appears deeper and brighter yellow under UV. Finally, the last printings of the perf. 12.5 x 12 and all the printings perf. 13.3 show clearly mottled tagging that appears to have been applied by rubber cylinder.

In addition to the different appearance of the tagging under UV, the different forms of tagging also appear different under normal light. The mottled tagging always can be seen on the stamps as thick, glossy bands that run down the sides of the stamp. In contrast, the other forms of tagging appear quite dull and, with the exception of the Winnipeg tagging, are barely visible on the stamps at all.

The picture below shows the three types of tagging on the $1 Vancouver, which, it turns out, is the best stamp on which to show the three types:



In this picture, the bottom stamp is one of the original 1973 printings showing the screened tagging. The upper left stamp is the mottled tagging on a late printing made on hibrite paper, while the upper right stamp is a more solid, but not mottled tag, from one of the mid-range printings made between late 1973 and 1975.

Be sure to visit my website to read the full post. In my post I also present some of the tagging varieties that are found as well as the 1-bar tag shifts. You can access the full post by way of the following link:

https://www.brixtonchrome.com/blogs/canadian-stamps-and-postal-history/the-tagging-on-the-1972-1978-caricature-issue

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I will Be Shortening The Length Of My Posts Effective Next Week

It has become apparent lately that I simply do not have enough time to write my detailed blog posts, while tending to the other aspects of my business and personal life that need attention. I am finding that to complete these posts to the standard that I believe is important is taking me between 8-10 hours, which is essentially an entire day for the Canadian post and about half a day for the Nigeria post. I can only really devote a day to blogging in a week. So, my choices are basically to either change my posting schedule to once per week, or shorten the length of my posts, so that I can still deliver some content each and every week.

After careful consideration, I have decided to opt for the shorter posts. I have done some research on reader engagement, and there is quite a lot of evidence to support the notion that readers will engage better with shorter posts anyways.

So, starting with next week's post, I will be breaking the posts up into parts. 1969's commemoratives wil…
Read more

The Federal Bill Stamps 1864-1890's

Image
Overview
The bill stamps of Canada are the first revenues to be listed by Van Dam and also provide a fine field for the philatelist who is looking to collect beautiful stamps, while having the chance to form large studies of varieties. 
There were three issues of bill stamps all shown below:



They were each printed by a different firm, with the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) printing the first issue shown in the middle, the American Bank Note Company (ABN) printing the second issue, shown on the right and finally the British American Bank Note Company (BABN) printing the third issue, shown at left. All stamps were printed in sheets of 100. The first issue was in use from 1864-1865, the second from 1865-1868 and the third from 1868 until the 1890's.

The purpose of the bill stamps was to evidence payment of stamp duties on monetary instruments like promissory notes and cheques. The amount of tax required to be paid would, of course vary with the face amount of the instrument. Chequ…
Read more

The Coil Stamps of the 1967-1973 Centennial Issue

Image
Today's post will examine the coil stamps that were produced for this issue. Generally, coils were only produced for the first, second and third class local, and forwarded letter rates. Prior to this issue, most coils were sold in vending machines, but starting in 1969, with the 6c orange, coils were produced in rolls of 100 and sold to the public in this form, with free plastic dispensers.

The coil stamps were all printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company. They can generally be divided into two groups:


The initial issue printed in imperial dimensions, which consisted of the 3c, 4c and 5c. These were printed in rolls of 500 stamps each, with starter strips at the front of each roll that consisted of 10 blank, stamp sized cream coloured labels.  On the end of the roll, after the 500th stamp, would be an end strip consisting of 10 stamp sized blank, coloured labels. The colour could vary (yellow on the 3c and pale red on the 4c for instance). The denomination of the stamp was usuall…
Read more