Canada Unitrade Booklet Bk154Af Variety

The old McCann Canadian booklet catalogue listed 4 varieties for this booklet for glued flap, open flap and tag bars on the top of the label for each type. Unitrade has listed 2 more varieties 154Ae and 154Af for the same glued and open types but with the address on the back cover in full uppercase.

So here is my question. I have 2 open flap types with the address on the back cover in full uppercase. One has the tag bar at the top of the label and the other has no tagging on the label. So is the one with the tag bar on the label BK154Ad or an unlisted variety?

Hmmm! No replies. Let me ask the question another way. Does anyone have a BK154Ad with the tagging on the pane label and a mixture of upper and lower case lettering of the address on the back cover?

The Canada specialist for Canada booklet stamps is Bernd Duddeck.

PMStamp,
can you show us a picture of the panel label?

OK here are 4 pictures. First is Unitrade BK154Af with no tagging at the top of the labels. The 2nd is for the same booklet back cover with the address in full upper case. The third is the booklet with the tagging at the top of the labels which is either Unitrade BK154Ad or an unlisted variety since the 4th picture shows the full uppercase address on the back cover of this booklet.

Perhaps the editor (a member of this forum) for the Unitrade catalog can chime in. Also the comment about contacting Bernd Duddeck has lead me nowhere. If I try a search under members for this name all I get is an "Invalid name" reply.

I prefer to answer specific questions about the Unitrade catalogue via e-mails rather than via an on-line forum. With that said I do follow various forums watching for potential new finds. No one has contacted myself directly regarding this booklet.

My last contact with Bernd Duddeck was in 2018. Others I have asked are not aware of his involvement in Canadian philately these days.

I know a far better expert on modern Canadian booklets and will ask him for his opinion on this as I do not know the answer myself.

Robin Harris
Editor, Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps

Thanks Robin.

Hi all:

A very good question. Perhaps I can help with it (I speak only for the Elizabethan+ portion of the catalogue as this is all I contribute to). The Unitrade catalogue does try to list and value all major varieties of booklet covers and panes (and combinations). By exception only it lists / values fluorescence of the cover stock, and to date has not provided a comprehensive listing of what booklets come with and without tag bars on top of labels. The latter is partly due to not yet having a full list of what booklets exist with these differences and the appropriate scarcity factors, and also to what is appropriate to list in this catalogue (vs. a more detailed booklets-only catalogue). Additional data on this may be added in future editions of the catalogue or its new version (whatever that may be...).

Back to Bk154A...
I have a record of Bk154Ae (sealed cover) with and without the extra tag bar on the labels. My prices were the same for each, based on the catalogue listing. I do NOT have any copies of either version at this time. I also currently have the same versions on Bk154Af (open cover). Again, no price differentiation between them for a lack of more data. All four booklets have text on the back in capital letters as shown in the previous photos.

I have not seen a press sheet of these booklet panes to better understand how the panes were laid out and where the panes without tag bars on the top labels were positioned, but my guess would be at the top booklet row on the sheet where the extra tagging on these labels was not included as it was not required. This information would help to clarify relative scarcity and thus potential value. Booklets that do have tagging at top of the labels would have then come from other portions of the sheet where the extra tagging lines simply come from stamps in the booklet pane above. They should be the majority of booklets found.

Does this help?

PS. I have also not heard from Berndt for a number of years now (though he knows me), and have no idea to what extent he is still involved with Canadian booklets.

Mirko Zatka
Zatka Philately Ltd.

I have many tagging varieties of US booklets and booklet panes, ranging from the very obvious to the very freaky.
Assuming these booklet panes were made with technology similar to US panes (which I'd say is a reasonable idea) and looking at the pictures above, I see nothing special, really.
This seems to be a problem of the tagging mat or different amounts of taggant. The top pane seems to have very little tagging fluid spilling into the top frame (above the label). The bottom pane can easily be explained by a small downward shift of the tagging mat, or more taggant applied, flowing into the top.

I see no reasons to call the two panes two different varieties of a booklet. Just minor tagging varities.

I would agree with your comments if the Unitrade catalogue did not have such a huge difference in price. The open cover booklet with no tagging on the label is listed at CAD$36 and the open cover booklet with the tagging on the label is listed as CAD$375. That is too much of a price difference to ignore.

While I agree that there are many varieties on stamps (in Canada and elsewhere) due to shifts in placement of the tagging bars and/or miscuts / misperforations of stamp booklet panes or sheets), these tagging varieties are caused by the design of the plate used to apply the taggant to the stamps. In some cases, on the press sheet, the tagging widths may be wider or narrower than elsewhere (or added / missing), and thus can be collected as separate varieties. If the presence or lack of tagging at top of the labels was caused by shifts, then the rest of the booklet pane would be affected in a similar manner (ie off-center or mis-tagged stamps, etc.), but that is not what we see on the illustrated booklets - the stamps are normal.

These tagging cylinder varieties occur on a number of Canadian definitive booklet panes issued from the late 1980s through the late 1990s, as well as on a few commemorative booklet panes of that time period.

Mirko, I agree with your comments and am just wondering why with the introduction of the BK154Ae and BK154Af numbers for the upper case address lettering an associated BK154Ag and BK154Ah was not assigned to account for the label tagging panes in order to be consistent with the BK154Aa to BK154ad varieties? Also why is the listing price for the BK154Ad variety nearly 10 times the price of the others ($375 in my 2023 Unitrade)? Does the same hold true for the open upper case variety with label tagging?

He was the contact for the OXPEX/OTEX stamp show.

Jogil: where do you see that?

The price for Bk154Ad was put in the catalogue based on collector feedback. I have never seen or heard of one myself, until one collector sent me a scan (and the actual booklet) to verify its existence. The value was based on what he paid to acquire it.

If more turn up, the price will be amended, but so far nothing new has been reported (logic says more should exist, but who knows where and if they were distributed).

Newer booklets exist that would have been produced for Canada Post in large numbers, but where only a few have ever been found (one such example is Bk205Ac).