The stamps had an odd look. No matter how she turned the red, white and blue issue commemorating the St. Lawrence Seaway opening,* Mildred Mason, 20, a stenographer for a Winnipeg theater chain, could not get them right side up. She looked closer and realized that the center design and some lettering on 27 newly purchased stamps were upside down.
Stenographer Mason and five others promptly formed a syndicate, notified Winnipeg Stamp Dealer Kasimir Bileski of their find. Astounded at the error, the first to reach the public in Canada's century of stamp printing, Bileski offered the syndicate $1,000 a...