imprint is like that on the sheets of the
"maple leaf" issue and, again as with that series, the numbering of the
plates started with "1" for each denomination. So little interest seems
to have been taken in these marginal varieties that no authoritative
record of the several plates employed has been kept. Mr. Howes gives but
one plate for the 1/2c, 6c, 8c and 10c values, three for the 5c, four
each for the 2c and 3c, and six for the 1c but it seems highly probable
there were many more especially for such values as the 1c and 2c which
were used in very large quantities.

In 1901 there were rumours that some of the stamps of this type had been
re-engraved, the foundation for the canard being the following paragraph
from the WEEKLY:--

Mr. H. A. Chapman has sent me a specimen of a re-engraved 1c Canada
numeral, in which the differences from the first issue demand
recognition. The re-engraved type is shorter and wider than the one
preceding it. I note also that the 2c is said to exist in the same
condition.

In reprinting this statement the _Philatelic Record_ observed "Can this
be true; or is it only another case of a slight difference caused by the
shrinkage after wetting the sheets for printing purposes?"

The _Monthly Journal_ for September. 1901, soon set the matter at rest
as shown by the following extract:--

Miss A. L. Swift very kindly informs us that a friend of hers made
enquiries at headquarters in Ottawa, and was assured that no
re-engraving whatever has taken place, and that any differences
that exist must be due to shrinkage or expansion of the paper
during the process of printing. Our correspondent, who is a
well-known American writer upon philatelic subjects and a careful
philatelist, tells us that the 1/2c, 1c and 2c of the numeral type
and several values of the Maple Leaf type, show these variations,
and adds that in the case of the 1/2c of both issues one size is
found in grey-black only, and the other in deep black only. It is
possible that the amount or thickness of the ink employed may have
some effect upon the varying shrinkage of the paper.

The same journal refers to the matter again in the following month,
viz.:--

In reference to the question of the variations in the size of the
stamps of the last two issues of this Colony, a correspondent tells
us that he has been studying these stamps,