The first Canadian definitive stamps with a portrait of King George V were issued in December 1911, and were in use for the next 17 years or so - longer than any other definitive set except the Small Queens. Stamp collectors call these stamps the Admirals because the portrait shows King George V dressed in his Admiral of the Fleet uniform.

During the Admiral era, Canadian stamps and their usage were affected by many factors. For example:

• World War I interrupted the supplies of pigments from Europe as well as the supply of high quality steel used for printing plates.
• The printers changed from printing stamps on wet ungummed paper to dry pre-gummed paper.
• A growing population and increased use of the mails required that the printers find faster ways of printing greater numbers of stamps.
• In 1915, a 1¢ War Tax was placed on each piece of mail. Eleven years later it was repealed.
• The postal rates changed numerous times. This resulted in new stamps being issued to meet these rates, and existing denominations being issued in new colors.
• Increased use of stamp vending and affixing machines prompted the Post Office to issue stamps in coil format.
• Increased popularity of stamp booklets resulted in their continued issuance during this era.
• New services such as Airmail were offered by the Post Office.
• Old cancelling devices were gradually phased out as new types of cancels were introduced.

All of these factors combine to make the Admirals and their usage a most fascinating issue to study.

I feel a collector wishing to study the Admiral issue - or stamps of any other era, for that matter - should know the basics about printing processes, perforations, dies, paper, etc. Only by being knowledgeable in such matters will he/she be able to move forward in the study of these stamps and their uses. To that end, I've decided to write on different facets of the Admirals that I feel are important to the basic study of these stamps.

• The formats in which the Admirals were issued.
• Identifying wet and dry printings.
• Identifying the different dies on the Admirals.
• Paper varieties on the Admirals.
• Stamps with straight edges: from post office panes or booklet panes?
• Coil paste-up stamps.
• Fake coils and imperforate stamps.
• Forged overprints on the Admirals.
• Terminology used by George C. Marler in his 1982 book, The Admiral Issue of Canada.
• Plate and printing varieties.
• Postal and fiscal cancellations.
• Postal rates of the Admiral era.
• Bibliography.

Special thanks to John Burnett for all his advice, suggestions, and encouragement and to Leopold Beaudet for his editorial work on revisions to this article.