Canada Victoria "Maple Leaf" 3¢ Carmine Variety

I would like to benefit from the considerable expertise of the members of this blog.
Here are my two examples of #69 (1898)



The left one is obviously taller than the other. Yet, upon consulting Unitrade (2014, pg.62), there is no mention of any such variety. (just imperfs, a re-entry, and precancelled)

I suspect that this is the difference between flat & rotary press printings. If so, why would it not be noted in Unitrade? If not, what kind of variety is it?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I believe the difference in height was probably due to the weave of the paper. My guess is that one stamp is on horizontal wove paper and the other is on vertical wove. If so, the two stamps should also differ in width. You can best detect the weave by examining the stamp from the back though a strong light source.

Several values of this series are known with this paper variety. Two of them are catalogued in Unitrade, the 8c and 10c.

I believe the QV Numeral issue and the KE VII issue have similar paper varieties.

This type of paper variety is well known on some Admiral stamps. Most Admiral stamps are on vertical wove paper, but the early printings of the booklets with the 1c green and 2c carmine come on horizontal wove paper (the so-called "squat" printings), and a few sheet stamps have also been reported with this paper variety. See the following for more information:

http://www.bnaps.org/ore/VanSomeren...ps-Paper.htm

Wow! Thanks AdmCol. I did not know about directional weaves.

The taller stamp (left) seems slightly slimmer than the shorter (right).



But there are hinge remnants over the gum which make it hard to see any undisturbed paper.



But this picture prompts me to ask: is the size difference due to paper shrinkage? If so, would not the perfs also be proportionately shrunk? Here the taller stamp seems to be a full perf higher.
... No, wait! The perforation is done after it has dried, right?

I wonder that this variety is not listed in Unitrade.

Thanks to any responders.

Since these stamps were both flat plate wet printed, these stamps tend to shrink against the grain after they were printed and dried, but before being gummed and perforated. The stamp on the left appears to have a vertical grain on the back which resulted it it shrinking slightly horizontally, but being longer vertically. The stamp on the right appears to have a horizontal grain on the back which resulted in it shrinking slightly vertically, but being wider horizontally. I am not sure for this issue which wove direction (vertical or horizontal) is more common, but on other issues vertical wove appears to be more common for sheet stamps.