Canada / Sweden 2010 Marine Life Booklet Varieties

Puzzler, I raided another virgin Post Office in Langley, and they had two packs of 25, one had 3 booklets already sold.

Here is what I found:

4 cylinder position 1
4 cylinder position 2
3 Control numbers (with no cylinders)
Zero Counting tabs. I could not even see invisible ones. (Does that make sense? )

The numbers are 045246, 47 and 49. It could be that 48 was one of the three sold to a customer. The girl there told me I was the first collector to ask for "numbers", and had never heard of them before.

i hope you 2 are planning to send me one of each variety with 1000 booklets or so you wont have space when the next issue hits. at least BC can run away on his turlte but puzzler will be left puzzled.

Boy, I'd like to see how all this is going to list in next year's issue of the Unitrade!

David

That will be interesting, David!

We still don't know what those serial numbers represent - however, from the sample we have across the country, 92,000 to 93,000 appears the highest possible numbers. They are consecutive, but WHAT are they counting?

There were 275,000 booklets of 8 (or 2,200,000 stamps), serial numbers from 1 (lowest seen is 857) to 93,000 (highest seen 92,608). Obviously the panes of 8 were cut from a larger sheet, but crunch these numbers and the math does NOT make sense!

Adding new data from Bee See from Langley, BC above we get the figures:

Totals for 192 booklets approximately (+/- 2 booklets)
Blue 1 = 19 = 9.9%
Blue 2 = 18 = 9.4%
6-Digit = 21 = 10.9% chance of finding on.
Average of 10.1%

I will not count the missing 045248 as I have had 50 booklets with three numbers and one odd number also, so to have another in sequence is not a sure thing.

List of serial numbers updated on Page 5 Page 1.

David, I would be curious also. It is close to printing time or getting there I think.

Robin Harris (editor of Unitrade catalogue) mentioned he may write an article on these on a weekend but failed to mention which weekend! I am patiently waiting.

He has much data from across Canada that we do not have access to on some issues anyway. Not sure how his info gathering actually works. I have emailed him some data and plan to email the newest data we have also.

I have been sharing the list of numbers in a database format with Bee See for inclusion on his web site but do not know what exactly he plans for that. ?

Bee See, there are always some stamps (booklets) sent to the UPU and to UPU member nations (I think about 400 nowadays they are sending out) for each issue.

Plus perhaps some sent to the Archives etc and Her Majesty the Queen I would assume and hope. Plus plus plus, I don't know what all really. I didn't get any, I know that.

Ooh, ooh, we know now where numbers 1-856 went to!

Perhaps some fell off the truck on the way from Sweden to Canada?

Or off the boat. Or aircraft. Or dirigible.

Note that so far anyway, in our relative small and teensy sampling, we have not encountered any booklets that repeat these serial control (Swedish KN) numbers.

So perhaps they are separate from the 1's and 2's cylinder numbers altogether. All it would take is one number to prove that theory wrong though.

Where are those printing plate sheets or whatever you call them????

Email from Canada Post:
Courtesy of Robin Harris, Website: www.adminware.ca

All numbers and markings are to improve quality and security in the production process.

Pagination number is there for our security process to keep track on number of stamps printed in relation to waste and deliveries.
Pagination
1 each 10 for booklet
1 each 10 for minisheet

The 1 and 2 is there to keep track of where on the printing cylinder the stamp is located, since we print a continuous web print. Historically the print cylinder consists of two plates, one number for each plate.
No 1
1 each 10 for booklet
1 each 20 for minisheet
No 2
1 each 10 for booklet
1 each 20 for minisheet

The 50 mark is for booklets only where there is a mark for making sure that there are 50 in each bundle.
1 each 50 for booklets.

A product with both a pagination number and a cylinder number is called a double. For this format we do not have an exact figure but according to our calculation 25% of all booklets with a pagination number should also have a no 1 and 25% a no 2. Half of these percentages for the minisheet.

A triple for the booklet is very rare and is for this format nothing we can predict.

Hope this gives some valuable information to your collectors

That sounds like (to me) that there are numbers on the souvenir sheets also. I do not have any of these at all. Has anyone seen any of the souvenir / mini sheetswith cylinder numbers (1's or 2's) or control numbers (6-digit) ?

I just checked one post office today and they are completely out of all stamps of this series. Have to ask tomorrow at another.

It appears those numbers appear ONLY on the Swedish souvenir sheet, not the Canadian. I had bought 10 near the day of issue and no markings, and checked another 20 at a local RPO, and no numbers what so ever.

I just looked at Sweden Post at http://www.posten.se/c/stamp_issues_marine_life
and there is no Swedish souvenir sheet.

They have the booklet of four different stamps, maximum cards, one for each stamp, a mini-poster they call a sheet that has the four Swedish stamps and the two Canada stamps on it in clear plastic strips, and a nice combo FDC.

I just called another Post Office and they are out of the souvenir sheets themselves.

If Canada Post, as per the above email, put numbers on 1 in 20 sheets then they are the rare items. Rarer than the booklets. It would be nice to know for sure though.

A great 4-page article on this subject has arrived in my mailbox within the latest edition of the BNAPS Elizabethan Study Group newsletter, The Corgi Times. I am constantly amazed at the incredibly detailed research and reporting work done by Robin and his many collaborators, including BeeSee.

Still, I remain grateful that I am not a collector of commemoratives and their varieties! Too many for my budget! Canadian Elizabethan definitives and Christmas keep me busy enough!

Peter