Description
Canada Official 1949 $1 purple, type O3, SGO170a, "O.H.M.S." overprint, variety Missing stop after "S" (R10/2, lower left pane), neatly cancelled by light "ST JOHN" circular date stamp.
Very rare, with this variety only present on a small number of sheets (the variety occurred only once per sheet), and the first used example we have ever handled. Used examples are much rarer than mint examples.
Accompanied with a British Philatelic Association (BPA) certificate of authenticity (2017).
This Post-War Canadian Official Issue series was used exclusively by government departments. The overprint “O.H.M.S.” (On His Majesty’s Service), was applied to regular postage stamps to denote official federal use during the reign of King George VI.
The $1 purple “Ferry at Prince Edward Island” was issued in 1946, depicting a ferry crossing the Northumberland Strait, a symbol of post-war national unity and infrastructure development.
The “O.H.M.S.” overprint began in 1949 as a short-lived but significant attempt to visibly mark government postage, eventually replaced by “G” overprints in 1950.
The “O.H.M.S.” overprints were not popular with many within the Canadian bureaucracy; some departments resisted using them, which partly led to their short issuance period.
The overprinting process was manual and prone to inconsistency, resulting in a range of collectible printing varieties. Many varieties are minor such as spacing or smudges. This "missing stop" is a major variety and extremely desirable.
Discover more about this stamp here.
Stanley Gibbons catalogue value: £10,000.
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