Common Plate Varieties On Modern Canadian Stamps.

Regarding the missing medallion #579, I agree with alanl.

I asked the question 2 years ago at a stamp show in Montreal to Robert Cooperman from City Stamp Montreal and through email to Gary Lyon of the Eastern Aunctions Ltd. Both said that the one with the medallion IS the variety.

The writers of the Unitrade catalogue were supposed to bring the correction at least in the 2012 edition. I have the edition and the correction has not been made.

Could it be in the 2013 edition? Somebody has it?

alanl : Unitrade 723Aiv...`black sweater`...large dot on chest
of the man crossing the road... how many copies do you have

The 2013 Unitrade says 579i missing medallion.
I`m not sure about the dot, maybe 5 or 6 copies.

alanl, I would be interested in 723Aiii and 723Aiv.
Let me know your needs or the amount for both

Unitrade #481 The Rain Gauge



The variety #481ii is called "sunspot" which is a tiny small dot in the lower left hand side of the sun

Unitrade #540 Samuel Hearne.
He was the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic Ocean, via the Coppermine River
Following is the regular issue



Variety : #540i with a "ghost" print, color red is doubled




There is another variety : #540ii a scratch beside south spoke which I don't have and interested to get one

Voyage of the Nonsuch, Unitrade #482

Very surprisingly, the Unitrade cat. does not mention this well known variety about this stamp : the big and the small waves, but, there is a word about the "pink waves" a variety which is the result of a color shift...

Following are the two pictures : one with the big waves and the second one with the small waves

Everybody know about the reverse St-Laurent Seaway #387...



... mine is a setting, a fake but a good space filler

Unitrade #431



There are 2, maybe more, but the "twos" should be in the catalogue as a well known varieties

1. The White Tale on the "Q"



2. The White Lines over CANADA

#535i_Hook on 6




and a non constant but cute : "A Frog lying on a branch" (lower left side of the stamp), looking like a green "X" ... so start you engine gentlemen and try to find one

#655 Merritt and the Welland Canal

There is a mention in the Unitrade 2012 about the variety but no cat. number for it :
"Minor colour shifts result in "hair over barn" variety, value $2 "

Famous #723 Street Definitives

The variety is quite constant but not listed ... should be easy to find

On the original stamp (first on left), on the right side between the building and the standard lamp post, you see only 1 electric post.

The variety shows 2 electric posts because of a strong color shift... like most of the other varieties for this item!

Some of the "constant" varieties listed and illustrated in this thread are *not* constant ... a perforation or colour shift is *not* constant.

Re: listing in the Unitrade

Page 27, in the Introduction to the catalogue (which very few people actually read!), includes the following:

Although that statement is mainly correct it does not mean
that these varieties shown are not fun to search for and to collect.

Besides the title of this thread is Common plate varieties,
not Constant plate varieties

The Darnell catalogue includes a small boatload of such listings, but I never sought them out. I think it was Darnell's listing for the Girl Guides stamp that finally convinced me not to collect the colour shift varieties, and to stop buying things that had been listed in Unitrade like the Nonsuch large waves / small waves thing or the Welland Canal "hair touching barn" variety. Darnell's listing for the Girl Guides stamp showed something surprisingly valuable (I think $10.00?) for copies with the inner blue design shifted relative to the outer brown design. To me, they were just poorly-centred stamps, certainly nothing that was worth vastly more than a properly centred copy.

Ian Kimmerly wants $150 for this block! If it had been so shifted that the perforations ran through a bunch of the design, then I could see the "value" in it (I don't buy such things myself, but to each their own ...). But as is, it's just a block of homely stamps to me.

Ryan