Canadian Stamp Scott# 148

just won this stamp on e-bay. stamp has one vertical strait side. Is this very uncommon ?

scotcher65..Welcome to the forum..Can you post a picture for us to see what you see..?

It's a straight edge which exists on some early Canadian stamps. It wasn't until around 1935 that they were gone only to reappear in 1968 for some issues.

Hi scotcher65. You ask an interesting question. Canadian stamps of this period and size are printed in large sheets with typically 200 stamps and then cut into smaller panes of 50 stamps for post office use. Depending on how the sheets are perforated and cut, this may result in stamps from some of the edges of the final panes having straight sides with no perforation. Definitive stamps from this era that come from booklets will also have straight sides.

Although the stamps with straight sides would obviously be less common than those with perforations all around, they are typically less desirable to collectors. Under most circumstances, they sell for a little less than a stamp with full perforations. Some collectors do specialise in these stamps and use them to build out a plate or centre cross from the specific stamp positions.

This stamp from 1927 is frequently seen with straight sides either on one or even two adjacent sides. A quick search through Canadian stamps on ebay for stamp "148" should reveal a number of these with straight sides.

Hope this answers your question.

Canada Post started making the straight edges, to combat people from coming in to purchase the four corners of the sheet. The post office had so many broken sheets from plate block collectors, that they stopped making plate blocks on the sheets. They just had trimmed edges. Then people started complaining, and the post office relented, and put them back on.

Actually fantail I think it would be more correct to say that Canada Post started issuing panes with plate block numbers and panes without. Panes sent to post offices generally did not have plate corner blocks.