The Small Queens

Perforations

Inevitably one will come across two gauges, the ‘Instanta’ made by Stanley Gibbons and the ‘Kiusalas’ which was designed for Large and Small Queens and, as a result, is totally unintelligible to any collector who does not have one. Printed on aluminium its raison d’ętre was the false premise that because American and Canadian engineers used imperial measurements, standard perforation gauges, which are based on so many holes to two centimetres, are misleading when applied to early Canadian Issues as the machines used to perforate the stamps must have been made  also using imperial measurements, and there would therefore be so many pins to the inch, rather than centimetres. Unfortunately what was overlooked was firstly that British engineers at the time also used imperial measurements as a rule, but the inventor of the first successful perforating machine, Henry Archer, based  his comb perforator on 16 pins to 2cm, later changed to 14 pins to 2 cm for the simple reason that British ‘Line-Engraved’ (the same printing method used for all Canadian stamps until the present reign and also called ‘recess printing’ or more correctly ‘intaglio printing’), i.e. Penny Blacks and Penny Reds, were centred at two centimetres – so are Small Queens, Admirals, Muftis etc. In other words the measurement from the edge of a given stamp to the same edge of its immediate neighbour is 2 cm. The Canadian and American stamp printers did not, however, use Archer’s comb perforating machine – a comb perforates three sides at a time and is progressed down the sheet.  Another British firm, Bemrose & Co., had patented a line perforating machine. The American printers Toppen Carpenter imported one, and, guess what, the perforating heads were also based on 16 pins to 2cm, which you will find on the first perforated United States stamps. It was this machine that was the basis of those subsequently bought by the British American Bank Note Company. Other minor drawbacks of the Kiusalas is that it can’t be used for stamps on cover or for large blocks for the simple reason one cannot see through it.

There are two versions of the ‘Instanta’ gauge, which is probably the most useful perforation measuring device made. The early ones on clear slightly yellowish plastic measure anything from 16 to 10 holes per 2 cm. The later version is on thinner plastic, and because the Malay States in the fifties used 17 gauge perforations, it reads from 18 to 10; it is not quite as accurate as the earlier version, but, for most, is perfectly satisfactory. My own view is that the only use of the Kiusalas is to check the accuracy of ones Instanta!

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.