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By James Bone

French inscription on Canadian postage stamps began in July 1908, appropriately in time for a series of stamps commemorating the three-hundredth anniversary of the founding of Quebec by Samuel de Champlain. However, bilingual postage stamps were not consistently issued until the commemorative series of June 1927, depicting subjects such as the Fathers of Confederation and the then not-yet opened new Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, with equal prominence given to the French language. As the former federal Translation Service (now the Translation Bureau) provided translations for the text used on stamps, there was usually no problem with the French used. All that was to change with a small error in 1946, producing the first Canadian postage issued with a spelling mistake.

As aviation and air mail were still relatively new innovations at the time, air mail stamps were issued for customers willing to pay a premium for the service. Additionally, one could pay for special delivery service to expedite their mail. In July 1942, a stamp combining both air mail and special delivery services was issued, depicting a plane flying over Drummondville, Quebec. In September 1946, a new special delivery service air mail stamp was issued, this time depicting the brand-new Douglas DC-4M airplane flying over the Plains of Abraham and the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec City, with a tiny flaw that was about to make Canadian philatelic history.

Detail of approved pane of Special Delivery stamps with spelling error (MIKAN 2222196).

Like with all postage stamps of the era, engravers working at a printing company, in this case Canadian Bank Note Company (CBNC) in Ottawa, adapted the design for this issue into a postage stamp-sized printing die. Prior to printing, proofs of the die and a sample pane of stamps were approved by both the printer and by the Post Office Department. The stamp was released to customers on September 16, 1946. As found in the archival records of the Post Office Department, only a few days later on October 1, Postmaster General Ernest Bertrand received a letter from J. A. Boissonneault of Quebec City. Boissonneault advised Bertrand that there was an error on the stamp: the French word exprès had been engraved with the wrong accent, the circumflex instead of the accent grave, rendered as “exprês” instead.

Detail of approved die proof with spelling error (MIKAN 2222194).

Boissonneault’s letter set off a storm of activity at the office of the Deputy Postmaster General (DPMG) under acting DPMG H. E. Atwater, who inquired after the stamp translator from the Translation Service, a certain Mr. Marier, to confirm if Boissonneault was correct. Marier inspected an enlargement of the die proof and confirmed the error. Atwater then wrote to CBNC Vice-President P. J. Wood for an explanation of how this happened, given that previous Special Delivery stamps were issued with the correct French. In turn, Wood replied to Atwater, apologizing for the error but also reminding him that the die proof had been approved by both CBNC and by the Post Office Department; the error escaping notice was, in fact, a shared responsibility. Wood suggested to Atwater that the die be altered to correct the error but also cautioned Atwater of the possible danger should the change be noticed and publicized. On October 5, Atwater authorized the modification of the die to correct the error, agreeing that, doubtless, it will be noticed by stamp collectors. On the same day, a reply was sent to Boissonneault, thanking him for drawing attention to the matter and assuring him that a correction would be made.

News of the error surfaced first in an article in the Ottawa Journal issue of October 7, 1946. In the article, A. Stanley Deaville, superintendent of the Postage Stamp Division, acknowledged awareness of the error and indicated that stamps with the error already printed and released for sale would not be withdrawn. Given that some 300 000 stamps had been printed with the error, it may have been too difficult to recall them. He also speculated that the left half of the offending circumflex may actually be part of the first e in the word delivery that appears above exprès – a statement which upon inspection does not stand up to scrutiny.

By October 8, CBNC had altered the engraved die and sent a new proof for approval to Atwater, which was accepted and returned on October 10. The corrected stamps went out for sale on December 3, 1946, with 900 000 eventually being printed.

Detail of approved die proof with corrected spelling (MIKAN 2222203).

Library and Archives Canada recently acquired the printer’s index copy of the die proof for the corrected stamp that was kept by CBNC and confirms the specific change that was made.

Printer’s index copy of the die proof for the Special Delivery air mail stamp with corrected spelling (MIKAN 6221976).

Our philatelic holdings also include the copy of the die proof that was approved by Atwater. Interestingly, perhaps in their haste to settle the matter, the approval date written by hand on the proof “(9/9/46)” is clearly incorrect, early by an entire month, as the proof would have gone to the Post Office Department for approval on October 9, 1946.

Die proof approved for the Special Delivery air mail stamp with corrected spelling, but with an incorrect date (MIKAN 2222203).

While rare, this would not be the last time Canadian postage was issued with spelling mistakes. In January 2012, as part of the “Canadian Pride” series, the bobsled athlete Pierre Lueders was featured on a stamp that had two spelling mistakes. In microprinting on the stamp, as well as on the text of the series booklet cover, souvenir sheets and prepaid postal cards, Lueders’s name was misspelled as “Leuders.” Additionally, in the tagging, an anti-counterfeiting security feature visible under ultraviolet light, Lueders name is again misspelled, as is the word Permanent, written as “Permanant.” Like with the Special Delivery air mail stamp of 1946, both of these errors were corrected in later reprintings but remain popular among collectors.

James Bone is an archivist with the Visual and Sound Archives section of the Private Archives and Published Heritage Branch of Library and Archives Canada.