Definition Of Rib

The term RIB occurs with stamp 565 in Unitrade. I have not found the definition of this term and hope someone knows what it is. I don't think it is "ribbed," but one never knows.

Ribbed Paper - a paper that clearly shows fine parallel lines running through it.
Ribbed paper is found on many of the Bank Notes. In fact, the presence of ribbed
paper on a single copy of the twenty-four cent Bank Note, is the source of one of the
great controversies in U.S. philately, Scott 164, the twenty-four cent Continental

It's funny you said 565 in Unitrade, because the Unitrade catalogue have a page with Symbols and Abbreviations and RIB is there. RIB = ribbed surface paper

Askphil :
Ribbed paper: paper which shows fine parallel ridges on one or both sides of a stamp, aka Repp paper.
Ribbed paper: paper showing on the surface a continuous series of ribs or ridges.

Don't think you are on your Pat Malone, in having to understand it.
The Scott 164 ribbed, was initially denied by an expert,
and the editor's of Scott said it did not exist. (Now listed at c$357,000)

..........or so the story goes.

The Canada $1 Unitrade 600i is on horizontally Ribbed Paper also. $10 Catalog value.

You could also search your inventory of Canada # 4 which lists as a 2 to 3 time premium over wove paper.They are hard to find though....

Thank you everybody. The word "ribbed" turns up in various places, such as the Wilding Elizabeths, and I know what that means. The term RIB was one I had not seen defined, but now that it is pointed out to me that it also means "ribbed" I cannot help but wonder why the mixing of terms in the same Unitrade catalogue (2013). Also, thanks for the clue about 600i and 164s of which I have lots. Now, if I can only figure out what Pat Malone refers to.

For the 164 he was talking about US Scott 164. And I don't see what it's have to do about a question on unitrade catalog

What is important is all the abbreviations are on a page at the start or end of the unitrade catalog depending if it's a recent or old one

They also have abbreviations for vertical and horizontal RIB

The Victorian Era 1/2d (Scott 8a, 8b) is cataloged separately for vertical and horizontal ribbed paper. Both are scarce with high catalog value, the vertical scarcer with much higher value.

The 3d Sc # 4c is also ribbed

The ribbing of the post-1937 Canadian stamps has to do with the twill-binding of the long sieve in the paper machine.

The weft threads [across the sieve] are relatively thicker than the warp threads [lengthwise along the sieve].

Apart from that since 1971 a multi-layered sieve was introduced that has a completely different looking binding!


The subject of paper structures [wires, watermarks] is one of the most difficult subjects of philately. I know of well-wrought philatelic Manuals that avoid the subject simply because it was considered too difficult!

The main problem had been the problems of visualizing what the trained eye can see - in either preparing drawing or give verbal descriptions. Fortunately we have strong computer scanners now, which - by using 1200dpi or more - can help us visualizing! That is what I have been doing for ages, and I think we should instruct the beginning philatelists how to do the trick!

Linen-bindng:



after connecting the cross-overs by a blue line:



Twill-binding:



after connecting the cross-overs by a blue line:



The purples lines represent diagonals our eyes are less likely to see, but still!

In the linen-binding the diagonals are symmetrical and are equidistant - the next parallel blue line is just as far way in the case of the ascending lines as of the descending lines.

In the twill-binding, however, the ascending blue lines are nearer to each other!

I hope this will make it clear why I refer to the linen-binding as symmetrical and to the twill-binding as asymmetrical. It is not just the angles of the blue lines but also the density!

The linen-binding was thre ONLY one for machine made paper since 1850 and it had NO room for "laid" or "ribbed" paper. All that was written by philatelists ever are just fairy tales. Extra "lines" were either applied in a later stage of the paper manufacturing OR were part of a watermark!

So don't believe the fairy tales the US or Canada specialist tells you :)

What you call "wove" is a normal linen-binding! Nothing else used during 1850-1937!

ALL postage stamps on machine made paper have this whether it shows or not.

There is NO ribbed nor hatched although you may call this so:

This is a normal twill-binding that was used for the first time in the Canadian paper industry!