Question Concerning Small Queen Paper

Flyspecking a 3 cent small queen I noticed fiber in the paper, sort of a brownish strand. Is this a normal thing or is it consistent with a particular printing?

Also, there are a few other things going on with this stamp.
Over inking at the top.
Guide/position dot at the 3 o'clock

The 3 o'clock position dot is indicative of the Montreal plate(s) made in 1886. There is nothing unusual with the 'off colour' fibre strand in the paper nor is there anything unusual with inking varieties. I have just finished sorting a batch of about 100 (+/-) 3 cent Small Queens and found about 1 in 3 had some sort of inking anomaly.
The Small Queen issue is a great study and can keep you interested for years on end. The best reference on the subject is the book by John Hillson & Ted Nixon "Canada's Postage Stamps of the Small Queen Era, 1870 - 1897". It is available through the Greene Foundation for $150.
GJP

Nice example of an ink smear at the top. Agree that inking issues are quite common. The PD 3 is nice. What is the perf measurement? Nice SON town cancel, as well!

Moyock13
I have gone through over 500+ 3cent small queens..

gportch and Lars714 are correct...Many inking problems.

Robert

Lars714, looks like it's perf'd at 12x12. I measured against Leuchtturm and Showgard.

Interesting study piece! Thanks for the response. Is this a digital photo instead of a scan?

It's a scan, at 2400 dpi. However the stamp is still on paper. It's on part of an envelop, I have yet to remove it. I tend to not remove old stamps for fear of damaging them. When I acquired the stamp it was on the paper fragment.

I may try to remove it using an eye dropper, I'm not much for the soak and remove method.