Lot 98 Canada #254 4c Dark Carmine King George VI, 1942-1943 War Issue, A Fine NH LL Plate 32 Block Of 4 With A Cracked Plate

A fine NH LL plate 32 block of 4 of the 4c dark carmine King George VI from the 1942-1943 War Issue with a cracked plate.

Unitrade values this at $37.5. The block offered here grades 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

Although not listed specifically by Unitrade, the stamps of this 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 horizontal ribbed paper.
(2) A horizontal wove with light vertical ribbing visible on the gum, found only on some coils.
(3) a vertical wove paper that is smooth on the surface, but shows distinct horizontal mesh through the back.
(4) A soft vertical wove paper that shows distinct vertical mesh, even without backlighting (clear vertical mesh). On some coils this paper is horizontal wove.
(5) A crisp vertical wove paper that shows no distinct mesh. On the coils this is horizontal wove.
(6) A medium vertical wove that shows vertical mesh, but only when backlit. (vertical mesh).

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) Brownish cream with a semi-gloss sheen.
(8) White gum with a satin sheen.
(9) Deep cream with a satin sheen.
(10) Crackly cream gum 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 1949-1952 Postes-Postage Issue. For this issue, that would appear to be the ribbed papers, and those papers with no distinct mesh, as well as the gums with a satin sheen. These would appear to be from between 1947 and 1949. The soft vertical wove paper and vertical wove with clear vertical mesh appears to be from before 1945. Very brownish gum is also associated with early printings made before 1945, while mottled gum appears to be from the period between 1945 and 1947.

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 addition, 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.