Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain

Vol. 1 No. 3; September 1, 2003

Canadian Pacific Railway Company

by Michael Behm

The Candian Pacific Railway Company (CPR) had offices in London, England at 62-65 Charing Cross, and at 8 Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, S.W., and at the Royal Liver Building in Liverpool. It was the London offices that began the practice of perforating stamps for postal use, and of aquiring overprinted stamps for fiscal use. (The use of perfins would spread to other CPR offices in Belgium, Germany, and Canada.)

There are at least two versions of the Candian Pacific Railway overprint. The earliest appears on SG 442; the later version is known on SG 488 and 518.

 
First pattern Second pattern

 CPR 1CPR 2
TextCANADIAN/PACIFIC/RAILWAYCANADIAN/PACIFIC/RAILWAY CO.
Stylehv3ahv3a
FontB1B1
Usage1939/12/8 
Issues442448, 518
Dimensions  a: 12.75
 f: 14.8
 g: 11.2
 h: 13.0
 y: 2.0		  a: 13.25
 f: 12.2
 g: 9.0
 h: 16.2
 y: 1.6
(explanation of dimension codes)


This is an example of the first CPR pattern on piece:


(Click to see a larger version (112KB)).


This article draws on research by R. J. M. Bowman that was published in "Perfins Used by Railway Companies on the Stamps of Great Britain", 1976.

Send comments or questions to mjbehm@kw.igs.net