Lot 146 Canada #595var 15c Multicolored Mountain Sheep, 1972 Landscape Definitives, A VFNH Inscription Plate Pair With DF Gray Blue/NF Gray Blue, Ghost Print Doubling Of Inscription, Faded Tag Bars OP4, Vertical Ribbed Surface Paper

A VFNH inscription plate pair of the 15c multicolored Mountain Sheep from the 1972 Landscape Definitives with DF gray blue/NF gray blue, ghost print doubling of inscription, faded tag bars OP4, vertical ribbed surface paper.

Nearly solid background, type 1, perf 12.5 x 12.

Unitrade values this at $100. The pair offered here grades 75 as follows:

Centering/Margins: 45/70

Paper Freshness: 5/5

Colour: 5/5

Impression: 5/5

Absence of Visible Paper Flaws: 5/5

Perforations: 10/10

The 15c Mountain Sheep, in addition to the two main types can be found with background printing that varies in terms of how solid the printing appears. The coarsest is the screened background, in which individual screening dots are visible in the numerals, postes-postage and the background colour. These dots are clearly separated. The screened background is by far the scarcest of the types. Then, there is the semi-solid background, in which the dots are still visible, but are beginning to merge into one another. The nearly solid background is almost solid, but some screening dots can still be made out. The solid background may have some jaggedness to the lines, but there will be no individually discremable screening dots visible. Nearly all of the type 2 printings are either the nearly solid or solid background. The perf. 13.3 printings all have the solid background.

We have listed the two or three colour shift varieties that can be found on each of the values in this issue. For some strange reason, Unitrade only listed, until recently those varieties related to the 15c and 25c values. They de-listed them in the 2023 edition of the catalogue on the grounds that they aren't constant. However, our position is that this was a poor decision because these varieties are visually striking and thus very much collectible in our opinion. They also are not anywhere near as common as one might think, making up between 5-10% of all the stamps printed for each major printing. For each of the varieties found on the 10c, 20c and 50c that were never listed in Unitrade, we have coined a name for the variety and explained what causes it. We have generally estimated most at between $5-$15 each, which is in line with what Unitrade valued them at before they de-listed them. The main varieties that exists on this value are the blue tail, the raised rump, the white backed sheep, which was never listed in Unitrade and the double headed sheep. The blue tail exists on all type 1 and type 2 printings, but so far I have only found the raised rump on the type 2 printings.

The original OP-4 migratory tagging can be found in two colours: bluish white bars and yellow bars. The difference does not appear to be due to the migration, as non-migrated examples can be found of the faded, bluish white tagging, while the yellow bars are almost always migrated, but there are a few non-migrated examples. The scans show what the difference between migrated and non-migrated tagging looks like. Often, the migration makes the inks appear to be fluorescent, when they are not. Unitrade asserts that non-OP4 tagges stamps contaminated with the tagging are damaged stamps, which may lead one to conclude that migrated OP-4 stamps are defective, but such is not the case. Most OP4 stamps are fully or partially migrated at this point, some 50 years after they were issued, and very little migration will occur now.