Lot 98 Newfoundland #41 1c Deep Violet Brown Edward, Prince Of Wales, 1880-1886 Third Cents Issue, A Very Fine Unused Single With Perf 12

A very fine unused single of the 1c deep violet brown Edward, Prince Of Wales from the 1880-1886 Third Cents Issue.

Unitrade values a gummed version of this stamp at $100, so for unused we're estimating it at $50. The stamps offered here grade between 75 and as follows:

Centering/Margins: 50/70

Paper Freshness: 5/5

Colour: 5/5

Impression: 5/5

Absence of Visible Paper Flaws: 2/5

Perforations: 8/10

The Third Cents issue is very confusing because of the way the issue is laid out in both Scott and Unitrade, as well as the names given to the shades, which are not very useful for identifying the individual printings. The key to understanding the set and being able to correctly identify the printings lies in understanding that there are three groups of printings for each value, which correspond closely to the Montreal and Ottawa periods of the Small Queen issues of Canada. The first printings, made between 1880 and 1887 are generally in duller or paler colours, but the main identifying characteristic is the stout wove paper that shows coarse mesh. This paper can be either horizontal or vertical wove, and is hard. These printings comprise all shades of 41, 46, the dull blue shades of 49, and 53. Both #41 and #53 show a wide variation in the shades, so the colour designations "violet brown" and "pale blue" are not very meaningful and will result in misclassifications if you rely on colour alone, as some shades of #53 are quite deep, and some shades of #41 are quite dull, but are not greyish. The second group are printings made from 1887 to 1894. These are generally on soft vertical or horizontal wove paper, that is quite thin and often stout, but not as hard as the earlier paper. Shades tend to be much darker, and so most shades of 42, 44, 48, blue and bright blue shades of 49, 51, 54 and 56 fall into this group. Then, the last group are the 1894-1896 postal reissues. These are generally in brighter colours and the paper is always thicker, soft and tends not to show mesh. The 5c blue tends more towards ultramarine than blue, but again, there is quite a range of shades for #55. The stamps that fit into this group are #43, 45, 47, 49b, 52, 55, 57, 58 and 59.