Lot 275 Canada #269 10c Olive Green Great Bear Lake, 1946-1951 Peace Issue, Fine NH Plate 2 Upper Right Blocks of 4, Cream Gum With a Semi-Gloss Sheen, Horizontal Ribbed Paper, With and Without 2 Plate Dots in Right Selvedge

Fine NH plate 2 upper right blocks of 4 of the 10c olive green Great Bear Lake from the 1946-1951 Peace Issue with and without 2 plate dots in right selvedge. Printed on horizontal ribbed paper and cream gum with a semi-gloss sheen. Although not listed specifically by Unitrade, the stamps of this issue, like the previous War Issue exist with several different paper and gum types. In terms of paper so far I have been able to ascertain that there are five basic types:

(1) A an opaque horizontal ribbed paper.
(2) A vertical wove paper that is smooth on the printing surface.
(3) a vertical wove paper that shows strong horizontal ribbing.
(4) A thin translucent horizontal ribbed paper.
(5) A thicker vertical wove paper that is a distinct toned cream colour, so far only seen on the Special Delivery stamp.

The gum found on these issues includes:

(1) Cream with a semi-gloss sheen.
(2) Cream with a satin sheen.
(3) Yellowish cream with a semi-gloss sheen.
(4) Deep yellowish cream with a semi-gloss sheen.
(5) Streaky cream with a satin sheen.
(6) Streaky cream with a semi-gloss sheen.
(7) Deep cream with a satin sheen.

These differences are useful because they give clues as to the order of the printings, and an individual stamp can be assigned to an approximate year based on these characteristics. For example, the late printings will share the same characteristics as the early printings of the 1953 Karsh Issue. For this issue, that would appear to be the strongly ribbed papers, and those papers that are thicker, as well as the gums with a semi-gloss sheens. These would appear to be from between 1950 and 1951.

The plate blocks show plate dots in various postions on the lower left, lower right and occasionally the upper right blocks. Studies of Elizabethan material have concluded that these dots signal different printings. In additon, on the lower left blocks only, there are different spacings between the plate number and No., as well as between the numbers of the print order number. I refer to narrow, intermediate and wide spacings in my descriptions. Narrow spacing has the numbers or letters very close together. A small space between the letters or numbers is intermediate spacing, and finally a space of more than 2-3 mm is wide spacing.

Unitrade values these at $26.25. The plate blocks offered here grade 70 as follows:

Centering/Margins: 40/70

Paper Freshness: 5/5

Colour: 5/5

Impression: 5/5

Absence of Visible Paper Flaws: 5/5

Perforations: 10/10