Canadian Philately - The Stamps and Postal History of Canada 1851 to Present by Brixton Chrome

Today's post will delve into a specific set of plate flaws that are specific to one value from the series: the 2c Pacific Coast totem pole. Two weeks ago I touched on the existence of several different plate flaws involving the eyes on the totem pole.  In total, there are some 33 different varieties, that are located in different positions, on the various panes that comprise a full post office sheet of 600 stamps. Today, I will attempt to illustrate as many of these as I currently have in stock. Then, as I acquire more of the 33 known varieties, I will update this post to add examples. As a starting point, it is important to know what the normal totem pole looks like: In the normal totem pole, the 4 eyes of both the figure at the top and the figure in the centre of the pole consist of solid circles of colour that are surrounded by a larger circle. These eyes are "closed". The varieties consist in one or more of the four eyes being either: 1. Fully "open...

Today's post will delve into some of the more prominent constant plate flaws and varieties that are known to collectors of this issue. I will attempt to provide a high resolution scan of each flaw where I can, describe the flaw and provide its location as to plate and sheet position. In instances where I do not have an example, and cannot find an image, I will provide a description, and will add an image later, when one becomes available. 1c Northern Lights and Dogsled Team - Airplane in Sky This variety is found on selected 25c booklets printed by the BABN that contained the 1c, 6c and 8c stamps, that were first issued on December 30, 1971. It is constant in the sense, that it is always found on the same stamp when it occurs: the 1c stamp from the middle row of the booklet. It is quite a prominent variety, being visible to the naked eye, without a magnifying glass. However, it is not found on every example of the 25c booklets that were printed, but only on a few printings....

Today, I will start my discussion of the final, physical characteristic of the stamps from this issue: the plate characteristics and flaws. Today's post will be an overview of the different plate characteristics and flaws, followed by a detailed discussion of plate characteristics. Then I will deal with the specifics of plate flaws in more detail through some additional posts over the next few weeks. At the broadest level there are three aspects of interest: plate characteristics, freaks and plate flaws. Plate characteristics are those properties of the printing itself that are intentional and by design. They are, consequently generally present on every stamp in the print run, and distinguish one printing from another, or one group of printings from another. Plate flaws on the other hand are anomalies in the stamp design that occur on a limited number of stamps in each sheet. Those which occur randomly in the printing are dubbed "non-constant", while those that occur o...