3 Cent Small Queen Question

Hi Everyone,

First, I am fairly new to stamp collecting. I inherited a stamp collection within the past year and have sorted and stored that, which lead to me creating my own stamp collection. For some highly unknown reason I am most interested in Canada scott below 300, with love going towards those small queens. The 3 cent queen is my favourite. My goal is to be able identify them - perhaps a crazy goal for a newbie. (note: I am not able to distinguish colours or paper yet)

So...
I have a small queen that is causing problems. A pic is attached. For this stamp I am getting 12.29 (top) x 12.30(right) x 12.20 (bottom) x 12.24 (left) using "STAMP COLLECTING BLOG'S Perforation Gauge". I have used both the "divide holes by measurement * 20", "placing the dots on the perfs" and a physical gauge from lighthouse. Obviously my measurements should be the same on top/bottom and left/right - they are not and most of the measurements I have taken are a much closer match. I assume this stamp is 12 1/4 x 12 1/4, on my physical gauge this stamp seems to match almost perfectly to 12.25 x12.25. The problem is the dot in the lower left hand corner. The grain is vertical. I have found a brief period of time when Montreal switched to Second Ottawa that has 12.25 x 12.25 with vertical grain (In the shoemakers table???), however these should not have lower left dots. (past 1879)

My question is, is the dot in fact a plate dot? Do I suck at measuring both physically and digitally? Has anyone seen this?

Note: This stamp in question was purchased from a lot on ebay. There is another stamp in this purchase that I am getting 12.14 (top) x 12.24 (right) x 12.14 (bottom) x 12.24 (left) also vertical. When I use my physical gauge this one matches the normal 12 x 12.25 more closely than the 12.25 x 12.25. SIGH.

Looking forward to anyones opinions/thoughts.

Note: I do have a magnifier at 10x and also one at 60-100x zoom.

Welcome to the forum, and best wishes in your quest for good stamps and knowledge. You seem to have a collector's eye and are asking good questions.

One clue which will help you is the cancel, which this I think is part of a Toronto duplex. It has a defined period of use.

I can't 100% answer your question as I am not sure where the #37 ends and #41 begins. The general convention says the Second Ottawa period begins with the distinct rose carmine #41a shade, which appears late 1888 and disappears mid 1889. But naturally it's more complex than that.

Late Montreal printings are findable perf 12 1/4. The Hillson/Nixon book is probably your best resource if you wish to take a deep dive into learning.

There are other collectors better equipped than I to help, perhaps they will add to my brief reply.

Thank you Archerg, I am interested in "taking a deep dive", and have been trying to find / figure out which book(s) would be helpful. I have come across the book you named, it's good to know that it's actually helpful.

Embarrassingly I haven't been paying any attention to using the cancels to assist in identification, unless a date is present. I briefly looked around for a "list of Canadian cancels" and came up empty handed. So I have started making my own list based on covers with locations, date(s) - from the pictures in online auctions.

These queens are so beautiful and intriguing they are worth the effort to understand. I am going to carry on with the assumption that these all come from the late Montreal to early 2nd Ottawa period - thank you for this.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Small Queens.
As Glen Archer remarked in his response, you are well advised to purchase a copy of the Hillson/Nixon book (CANADA'S POSTAGE STAMPS OF THE SMALL QUEEN ERA, 1870-1897) which is available from the Greene Foundation. It is fairly expensive but worth every cent. I also suggest that you purchase a good perf gauge. For the Small Queens I recommend the Stanley Gibbons 'Instanta' for accurate readings (I just checked and they are available on ebay). There are 14 different perforation measurements for the 3 cent SQ that tie the stamp to different production periods. I suspect that your stamp may be the 1876 Montreal printing.

I should also have mentioned that the cancellation on your stamp is part of the TORONTO duplex marking (number DON-1715B) that entered service October 15, 1880 and remained in use until March 2, 1889.

Interesting stamp. Did you update the perfs? I would think the lower left plate dot shows this as a #37.