Kershaw, Kenneth A. (2013). The Re-Entries and Varieties in the 3-Cent Small Queen.

What is likely Ken Kershaw’s last BNAPS book, The Re-Entries and Varieties in the 3-Cent Small Queen, is a major study of what is probably the most collected and studied stamp ever issued by Canada. Using his technique of first scanning a stamp at a high 1200DPI (dots per inch) resolution to produce a master image, then reducing that image to a more workable 300DPI for illustrating the book, he has filled this 448 page volume with easy to see and use replicas of a huge number of the variations of the 3¢ Small Queen. Setting the stage with illustrations of guide dots and lines, marginal flaws, kiss prints, imprint types, plate corrosion flaws and short transfers, he then moves on to over 145 pages of re-entries and 250 pages of varieties. Both the re-entries and varieties are listed according to the position of particular segments of the stamp and then by stamp position on the printing sheet. Because of the long life and the large number of plates prepared for the 3¢ Small Queen, with few exceptions it is not possible to identify each variety by the actual printing plate used to produce the stamp being viewed. It is expected that collectors of the 3¢ Small Queen will have hours of fun checking their holdings against the illustrations in this book.Ken Kershaw was born in England and became fascinated by plants at an early age. He graduated from Manchester University with a B Sc degree in Botany in 1952. After military service he went on to a Ph. D. degree working on pattern in vegetation, and was appointed lecturer in Plant Ecology at Imperial College London in 1957. He was seconded to Ahmadu Bello University in northern Nigeria for two years. On his return to Imperial College he became involved with lichen ecology, particularly in alpine and arctic areas, in addition to his work on computer modeling and data analysis. He obtained his D Sc in 1965 and was appointed Professor at McMaster University, Hamilton in 1969. His research was then devoted heavily to the ecology of the Canadian low arctic and northern boreal forest areas, and in 1982 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of several university texts.Ken’s passion for wild plants has been transferred to Canadian philately. He sees his plating work simply as the “taxonomy of bits of paper” and after a lifetime of plant taxonomy finds it a fairly straightforward and fascinating hobby.