Saskatchewan's van Dam SL57-67 Dull paper, PVA Gum set completed!
In the 1970's and beyond, Kasimir Bileski studied the varieties of papers and gums in the 1968 Saskatchewan Law stamps of van Dam SL57-SL67. He bought up as many sets that he could find and left many notes on his progress. To show the rarity of this completed set (and other like varieties), Bileski wrote that he had traveled over ten thousand miles buying plenty of Saskatchewan Laws in search of certain varieties. He stated that he had an excellent idea of what exists, and the relative scarcity. He commented that "No one will ever know how many stamps there are in the set or what is a 'set'". The notes continues to say that “it is impossible for everything that was printed to exist MINT in a complete form”. Bileski's research was on an immense scale considering the time, money and travel involved. That was quite a considerable feat, considering the period. These days, scanners, electronic records and e-mail bridge the distances a lot easier than in the 70's and early 80's.
John Graper also did extensive research back in the 1980's on these sets.
Two years ago, a collector by the name of Kenneth M Prescott took up the challenge of expanding on the knowledge that both Bileski and Graper had accumulated. Prescott said that "If not for Graper's notes , I would not have had an idea of what was found by him. It was a good starting point for me". So, Prescott set out trying to complete sets that were once thought to be non-existent or have an extremely rare possibility of ever being completed.
One elusive stamp stood in the way of Prescott completing the first known set of SL57-SL67, dull paper, PVA gum. That stamp was SL65. Kenneth approached me in "The Revenue Stamps Group" on Facebook where I was visiting and posting on behalf of my online business, "Moreland Revenue Stamps" He asked if I could help find several stamps and this was one of them. I soon asked a collector who I know in Ontario, named Dave Hannay who is very knowledgeable in the area of Canadian Revenue Stamps. He has put in countless hours to assist getting the E.S.J. van Dam 2017 Catalogue completed. Well, it turned out that he did own that missing stamp. I purchased it and several weeks later, it had traveled from Kincardine to myself, in Angus, Ontario, then on to Boston, Massachusetts to find its place in the Prescott collection.
This is a milestone for Kenneth Prescott who is overjoyed to claim to have completed the set and to be able to share his knowledge and discovery to other like-minded collectors.
Below, see the scan of the incomplete set plus the stamp that filled it.
Prescott will complete another set if a van Dam SL59 on dull paper with Dextrine gum exists!
Below are some pictures to further substantiate the claim.
This photo under blacklight shows the PVA gum of the set.
This photo shows the dull paper and PVA gum.
This photo also shows the dull paper.
This final photo shows the completed set.
- updates, May 17, 2017 - added four photos showing the PVA gum and dull paper.
copyright, Steve Moreland, (Moreland Revenue Stamps), May 16, 2017 This article cannot be shared or duplicated in any form without the permission of the author and/or Kenneth Prescott