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My Classification Of Small Queen

 
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Valued Member
359 Posts
Posted 01/25/2025   8:29 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this topic Add Murasama to your friends list Get a Link to this Message
I would like to show you my classification of this little group of Small Queen… First I must say that I started with zero knowledge of these stamps, and it took me a lot of information and time until I was fairly sure that I had classified them correctly… it has not been days but months, like someone who puts together a puzzle and finally all the pieces fit together. It is really only a rough classification, since for example I do not have a precise perforation gauge, an aspect that I will work on when possible. It is a shame that the colours on the monitors do not reflect the real colours.
I will describe the classification criteria:

1st OTTAWA:
-1c This stamp does not have any visible dots, this complicates things, but its paper has a mesh visible with a simple magnifying glass, and above all an orange colour without yellow traces.
-1c This stamp has a visible dot in the lower left corner, the mesh of the paper is visible even with the naked eye, and its colour is strongly orange.
-3c This stamp has a visible dot in the lower left corner, although it is inside the ornament. The paper has a mesh that is visible with a magnifying glass and it seems very silky to me. Its orange color made me doubt at first, but under a microscope the pigment is red, it is not any of the known and valuable colors of this stamp, but a pale orange red.
1st MONTREAL:
-1c This stamp has a visible dot in the lower left corner. The paper has no mesh or it is difficult to see but it is not a poor quality paper. Its color is very yellow.
-3c This stamp has a dot in the upper left corner. The paper has a vertical mesh that is visible with a magnifying glass. The color is reddish orange, which made me doubt, but under a microscope the orange pigment abounds over the red.
-3c This stamp has a dot in the lower left corner. The paper has no mesh or it is very difficult to see, it does not seem to be of poor quality. The color is bright orange.
2ª MONTREAL
-2c This stamp has a dot at 9 o'clock inside the oval. The paper does not seem to be of good quality. The color is blue green.
-3c This stamp has a dot at 9 o'clock. Its paper has no mesh and is not of good quality. Its color is Orange red.
2ª OTTAWA
-1c This stamp has no visible dot. The paper is not of good quality. The color is yellow. Its cancellation is dated 94.
-2c This stamp has no visible dot. The paper has mesh when viewed with a magnifying glass and is not of poor quality. Its color is deep blue green.
-3c This stamp has no visible dot. Its paper has mesh visible with a magnifying glass and is not of poor quality. Its color is Bright Vermillon. Its cancellation is from 94.
-3c This stamp has no visible dot. The paper is not of good quality. The color is orange vermillon. Its cancellation is from 96.
-3c This stamp has no visible dot. Its paper is of poor quality. Its color is pale vermillion.

I hope you like it.



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Valued Member
Canada
205 Posts
Posted 01/27/2025   9:02 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Lars714 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Nice description - thanks for taking the time to post. Very interesting
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Valued Member
359 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   07:14 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Murasama to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Thank you!!
I'll tell you a detail that I don't know if it will help (I have no advertising desire) but I have observed that on the screen of my Macbook the colors are not real, perhaps the yellows are, but the oranges are very red and the greens are very green. However, looking at the forum on the screen of my old iPhone 6s+, the colors of the stamps match reality...
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Bedrock Of The Community
11509 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   07:29 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Up to about the end of 1879 in laying down each plate, the siderographer incised a position dot on the right of where each impression was to be rocked in on the printing plate. On the printed sheet this appears as a dot under the left corner of the stamp on all but the first vertical row – the reason the first row does not show this dot is because the dot under each stamp is actually the positioning point for the stamp to its left, so that while the tenth vertical row shows such a dot, and 90% of the stamps printed from these plates will have one, must be from an early plate – though not necessarily from an early printing. For example, only one plate was made for the Ten Cents value – in 1874 – so no Ten Cents is from the First Ottawa Period – and was in use both at Montreal and the end of the Second Ottawa Period. Yet another plate, one of the Six Cents, made probably in 1872, known as the "A" plate, was laid down with a transfer roller – the tool used to rock stamp impressions on to the printing plate – which had a loose side point – the device on the tool which was placed on the position dot to locate each impression in its correct position – and it sprang during the tremendous pressure exerted in rocking in, with the result that in its original state that plate has TWO dots, and, due to subsequent repairs, wound up with three and even on some positions, four dots. It was still in use in the 1890's. However, most plates which showed a lower left position dot were out of use by the early 1880's so its presence generally indicates either a First Ottawa or an early Montreal printing.
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Bedrock Of The Community
11509 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   07:33 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
The basic perforation measurements of Small Queens are 12, 11.75, 11.5x12, 11.75x12, and 12x12.25.

First Ottawas are given in the catalogues as being Perf 12. Very few are apart from first printings, and accurately these will read on an original 'Instanta,' approximately 11.9 all round. The standard gauge for First Ottawas is 11.75 all round (accurately approximately 11.85 – I say approximately because one of the endearing features of early line perforators is that the pins were not mathematically equally spaced). Any Small Queen gauging just under 12 or about 11.75 all round is almost certainly First Ottawa.

The early Montreal printings gauged 11.5 x 11.75, then 11.5 x 12, later 11.75 x 12, then 12 all round, and finally 12 x 12.25. A Small Queen with any of the first three measurements is a Montreal printing.

Second Ottawas are usually 12 all round. Very occasionally, they can be 12 x 12.25, which is why paper must also be considered in one's determination.
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Bedrock Of The Community
11509 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   07:36 am  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
As a rule of thumb, the earlier the printing, the better quality the paper used.

First Ottawa printings:

Paper a) A high quality medium thickness wove showing a clear grain on the back and smooth to the touch.

Paper b) Thick soft white paper, sometimes erroneously described as blotting paper, wrong because this paper has a very fine horizontal grain,. It was so soft that perforation pins were inclined to tear rather than punch the holes, so they look 'hairy' and there is often a lot of 'confetti' still adhering to the holes. To be found only on the One and Three Cents, as well as the Large Queens still printed at the time (Half, Two & Six Cents) it was in use around the end of 1871 and is scarce.

Paper c) Thin soft very white paper with a vertical grain, used in 1872 for some printings.

None of these papers were used in Montreal.

Montreal printings:

Paper d) Wove paper where the thickness can vary from thin to stout, creamy or yellowish in colour with a grain that is more marked and the backs therefore feel rougher. Depending on how the sheet to be printed was offered to the press, the grain can be either horizontal, the norm, or vertical. Because printing throughout the period, and in fact right up to 1922 with subsequent issues, was done on dampened paper, stamps with a vertical grain tend to be taller and narrower than those with one horizontal; the paper if breathed on will tend to curl side to side rather than top to bottom.

Paper e) Pelure paper – sometimes called 'onionskin' paper because it is so thin and transparent, very rare on the issue and if one comes across a copy, one is extremely lucky.

Paper f) Similar to Paper (d) but thin and clearly of poorer quality.

Second Ottawa printings:

Paper g) Poor thin quality paper with an indeterminate grain, it resembles rag stock, and stamps often show an embossing effect on the back.
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Valued Member
Canada
205 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   6:28 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add Lars714 to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Hello Rogdcam - what is this quote from?
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Bedrock Of The Community
11509 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   6:33 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add rogdcam to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
Hi Lars - It is from the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada.

https://rpsc.org/Library/SmallQueen...l_Queens.htm
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Valued Member
197 Posts
Posted 01/28/2025   7:57 pm  Show Profile Bookmark this reply Add paddle_more to your friends list  Get a Link to this Reply
That link's a keeper. The stamps not so much but learning how to identify them is something I can't brag about yet. So many stamps so little time for lazy 'ol me.
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