Canada 12d black

Province of Canada, 12d black, June 14, 1851 Canada's great rarity began as a flop. Of the 51,000 printed, only 1,450 were ever sold, and the rest were destroyed. Around 150 copies are thought to survive, only a handful of them unused, so most collectors will never own one. It still belongs in every Canadian collector's vocabulary. The portrait is the Chalon Head of a young Queen Victoria, taken from Alfred Edward Chalon's 1837 painting, and its stark black ink looks nothing like the red Three-Penny Beaver issued the same spring. An unused single sold for $292,500 at Sparks Auctions in Ottawa in January 2023, and a mint pair brought $625,000 plus premium at Eastern Auctions in 2024.