Thank you. Indeed it was a space added from the formatting where i was saving it.

I was given the following two articles by @drakos and I now have a better understanding of the public and private keys.

https://steemit.com/steemit/@drakos/steem-private-and-public-keys-demystified

https://steemit.com/help/@drakos/tips-and-guidelines-steem-account-security

Thank you @fristin and @drakos