Lot 194 Canada #773, 775 12c & 30c Multicolored Madonna Of The Flowering Pea & Virgin And Child, 1978 Christmas, 2 VFNH Sealed Packs Of Plate Blocks On DF/DF Papers With LF & HF Type 4A Insert Cards, Unitrade Cat. As Blocks $19

2 VFNH sealed packs of plate blocks of the 12c & 30c multicolored Madonna Of The Flowering Pea & Virgin And Child from the 1978 Christmas on DF/DF papers with LF & HF type 4a insert cards.

The 12c pack is the LF insert card, and the smaller font, while the 30c pack has the HF insert card.

Unitrade values these at $19. The packs offered here grade 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 sealed packages of plate blocks and single stamps first made their appearance on the Canadian philatelic Scene in 1973, as best I can determine. They are an exciting and emerging new field within Canadian philately, as Canada Post went through no fewer than 6 basic design changes for their inser cards, and several of these exist with two or three sub-types. Whenever a change was made it often happens that a particular definitive or commemorative issue may have been issued with more than one type of pack design. We have seen as many as three for one issue. Also, the fluorescence of the card stock used for the cards varies widely from DF to HB, and in some cases when the Philatelic Department ran out of a particular size card, a certain size sealing bag or the blocks themselves, improvisations were made to allow production to continue, and all of these varieties are collectible. The best part is that no one knows the relative scarcities, so you can pick up scarce varieties for less than you would otherwise pay. These packs are the subject of this week's blog post. In it, you will find a full explanation of the terminology that we have used in the lot descriptions, such as the pack types and so forth.