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

I just received an almost complete collection of the 2c, 3c nd 4c plate blocks from this issue, which contained nearly all of the lower left positions. So I have been able to update my list of order numbers on these blocks as well as supply specific information about the spacing between the numerals of the order number themselves, so that you can begin to understand what narrow spacing is, as well as what constitutes wide spacing. You can access the updated post by following this link:

http://canadianphilately.blogspot.ca/2015/11/plate-blocks-and-winnipeg-tagging-on.html

Today's post will be the first of a mini-series dealing with the third definitive to be issued during Queen Elizabeth II's reign. It has come to be known as the Cameo Issue, due in large part to the plain, no-nonsense side portrait of the queen that was used to produce the low values for the series. I used to absolutely loathe this series as I thought the designs were too plain. I was much more interested in the intricacies of the classic Large Queens and the like. However, in the last few years, as I became more aware of the design aesthetic of the early 1960's that came to be characterized by the sleek, minimalism of designers like Saarinen and Eames, I started to appreciate it, much much more than I did as a child. The designs were very modern and very chic for the times. It would prove to be a very popular series with the public and probably would have continued for more than five years, had it not been for the fact that Canada celebrated its centennial year in 1967, …

I just received a small lot of 2c green plate blocks from this issue, many with the lower left positions showing the order numbers. I have updated the post that I wrote on October 30, 2015 dealing with this topic to include the order numbers as well as the spacing between the numerals, as I have become aware of differences in the spacing between the numbers themselves.

You can read about it in the updated post via the following link:

http://canadianphilately.blogspot.ca/2015/10/the-plate-blocks-and-plate-sheets-of.html

Today's post will explore the 25 commemorative issues that were released between 1958 and 1962. Unlike the previous period, there were no multi-year series produced. All 25 stamps were individual, stand-alone issues.

During this period we begin to see the dominance of bi-colour printing over monocolour, with 15 of the 25 issues being bicoloured. This period also features one of Canada's rarest stamps: the famous Inverted Seaway, of which a mere 400 were printed. This occurred when two full sheets were accidentally fed into the presses on the second run upside down, resulting in the famous inverted centre. It was overlooked by quality control inspection due to the very symmetrical nature of the design.

There were a few notable aspects of production that differed from previous periods as well. During this period we see the appearance of an intermediate sized stamp that is about half way between the larger, horizontal format commemoratives and the smaller stamps. It's vertic…