The new stamps form a highly attractive set and they are without question the handsomest set of “George” stamps issued by any of the British Colonies. The portrait, which shows His Majesty in an admiral's uniform, three-quarter face to left, is, as the Monthly Journal states “the best portrait of King George that has yet appeared on stamps.” The portrait is contained within an oval above which the words CANADA POSTAGE are curved in bold sans-serif capitals. Below is the value ONE CENT, etc., in words while in each of the lower angles the value is shown in figures on a plain square as in the case of the King Edward stamps. In the upper corners are crowns, again like the King Edward labels, but the treatment of the stamp as a whole is widely dissimilar. The portrait oval is smaller than before so that in place of the almost microscopical maple leaves shown on the King Edward stamps we now find a spray of these leaves, beautifully drawn, in each of the lower spandrels.
The stamps were printed in sheets of 100 as before with the usual arrangement of marginal imprint and plate numbers. No record seems to have been made of the plates but that a very large number of the 2c at any rate were used is obvious from the high numbers found.
The 1c and 2c values show a number of prominent shades. Just a month after the stamps were first chronicled the Monthly Journal noted that the 1c existed in two distinct shades—“yellow-green and blue-green”. In October, 1912, the same journal mentioned the receipt of the 5c “in a very markedly altered shade, deep ultramarine instead of the previous deep indigo”, while in January, 1913, we read of two very pronounced shades of the 2c—bright carmine and dull rose-red—in addition to the usual rose-carmine tint. In November, 1913, this denomination was noted in still another striking shade described as “almost carmine-lake”.
In the February, 1913, issue of the Philatelic Gazette reference is made to these shades and other varieties as follows:—
Collectors of shades should not fail to secure before it is too late, the interesting series of such varieties in the current King George series of Canada. In the 1 cent stamp four distinct shades are noted and in the 2 cent value no less than ten distinct shades from a pale carmine rose to deep carmine and from a real brick red to a reddish-brown or sienna red.
Several “errors” or “freaks of printing” have appeared, mostly in the early impressions, caused probably by the rush and push of the printers in trying to meet the large demand. I have noted the following and believe they will be of interest to collectors:
1 Cent.—An accent between CANADA and POSTAGE; also accents between N and D of CANADA.
2 Cent.—The same varieties may be found on the 2 cent stamp printed from plate one.
2 Cent.—On plate two there appeared on the 97th stamp on the plate a marked accent on the C of CENTS.