Lot 364

19th C. Canadian Stamps - Small Queen 3-Cent Victoria, Lot of 200

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Lot 364
19th C. Canadian Stamps - Small Queen 3-Cent Victoria, Lot of 200

19th C. Canadian Stamps - Small Queen 3-Cent Victoria, Lot of 200

Estimate: $500 - $750

Starting Bid: $250

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

North America, Canada, Dominion of Canada, ca. 1870–1897 CE. A substantial accumulation of two hundred used three-cent stamps from Canada's celebrated "Small Queen" series, each bearing the profile of Queen Victoria in orange-red. Issued under the Dominion of Canada and catalogued as Scott #37, these diminutive engravings were the workhorse of ordinary domestic letter postage during the late Victorian decades. The design presents the sovereign's diademed bust in left profile within an ornamental oval frame, rendered by the American Bank Note Company in fine line-engraving. Every example here is postally used and cancelled, the strikes of grid, roller, and duplex hammers testifying to a generation of correspondence carried across a young and expanding confederation. Preserved in glassine housings, the lot offers depth for shade study, cancellation variety, and perforation analysis prized by specialists of British North American philately. Size (all the same): 0.8125" W x 1" H (2.1 cm W x 2.5 cm H).

The Small Queen definitives replaced the physically larger "Large Queen" issue of 1868 and remained in service until the Maple Leaf issue of 1897, spanning nearly the whole of Canada's early postal maturity. Their long life produced a rich spectrum of shades, papers, perforations, and printings, divided by collectors chiefly between the Montreal and Ottawa printing periods, which is why bulk lots such as this reward patient sorting. The three-cent value paid the standard first-class domestic letter rate for most of the era, making it by far the most commonly encountered denomination and a foundational study group for anyone building a specialized Victorian Canada collection.

Provenance: private Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA collection, by inheritance, collected 1970's

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Item # 200416

  • Condition: All in very good condition.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000