vern ultimately acquired what was left of this imperforate sheet,
and later submitted the stamps to the officials at Ottawa, who
pronounced them but "printer's waste". Mr. Severn, in adding to the
history of these imperforates, says:--

They seemingly had been trampled upon and subjected to the usage
that would be given such castoff material. Further, it was said
that they had been blown or thrown out of a window, no doubt. It
was suggested that the stamps be returned to Ottawa and that there
were moral grounds for such a course on the part of the holders.
The description of "printer's waste" seems to be correct and the
inference is that the stamps never had been gummed. They belong to
that class of curiosities that appeal strongly to the specialist,
but which the ordinary collector regards as something apart from
his collecting policy.

The stamps did not go back to Ottawa, and the postal authorities there
annoyed, doubtless righteously, that such things should escape from
their well regulated printing establishment went to considerable trouble
to make the imperforates of small monetary value. The following
paragraph, written by a correspondent of the WEEKLY, was the first
inkling collectors had that the department had thought any more of the
matter:--

It may be of interest to know that the last supplement to the
Canadian Post Office Guide contains the following: "In view of
representations which have been made to the Department, it has been
decided to permit the sale of the 2-cent denomination of Canadian
postage stamps of the current issue, in sheets of 100, _without the
usual perforation._" I at once asked for a sheet of the 2-cent, and
incidentally said I would take a sheet of the other denominations
if available. A reply came today informing me that only the 2-cent
would be available, and then not for some time, as the department
intends to make a separate printing of these stamps, to supply
whatever demand may occur.

It was stipulated that applications for these imperforate stamps should
be made to the Postmaster at Ottawa. When the sheets of these stamps
came into collectors' hands it was found they had been printed from
plates 13 and 14--the same as those from which the originally chronicled
"errors" were printed. It is obvious that the Department issued these
stamps simply to "get back" at the holder