COLUMNS

Commonwealth Communiqué
Shining a light on New Zealand
insurance stamps (Page 7)

Looking Back
Lunar New Year series features
many rare varieties (Page 10)

Focus on Collecting
African-Canadians prominent
on recent stamp issues (Page 11)

Deltiology
Massachusetts publisher touts
Canada during Prohibition (Page 14)

Looking Back
Royal Wedding stamps collecting
highlight of 2011 (Page 16)

New Issues
From around the world (Page 18)

Grassroots Philately
New year great time
for new direction (Page 22)

FEATURES

Black History Month stamps honour activist, wrangler (Page 6)

REGULARS

CSN Marketplace
Are you buying or selling? (Page 19)

Show and Bourse
Check out the shows in your area (Page 23)

EDITORIAL

Good start to 2012 for collectors of Canada

By Bret Evans

This issue of Canadian Stamp News focuses on some of the new Canadian stamps that will be issued during the first part of the year.

While much of the attention, understandably, is on the high-profile Jubilee issues, we also get a look at a new bunch of definitives.

Those stamps, particularly the Canadian pride series, are the real workhorses of letter-mail.

As usual, the five flag stamps give me mixed impressions. As images go, they are quite attractive, and I will admit that most of them sort of give that patriotic, warm fuzzy feeling that I suspect the designs were trying to achieve. But two of them, bobsled and flag carrier, seem to be leftovers from the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Now I do know that both sports compete every single year, not just every four years, but I'm pretty sure that bobsledding was way down in terms of consumer profile before the Games. Perhaps the idea is that this year, as our athletes go to London to compete in the Summer Games, the sight of a flag carrier from eight years ago will inspire us to reach new heights, but frankly I doubt that will happen.

Still the series is good, and three out of five stamps is still 60 per cent, better than I got on most of my high school tests.

As for the flowers and baby animals, "cute and pretty" sort of sums up my attitude.

The lunar zodiacs, while not popular with many collectors, are once again stunning from a visual point of view. The series almost always features great art and printing, so give it a close look.

The Black History Month stamps are more traditional and I think that's a good thing.

The direction of this series has been to honour spectacular individuals. These people are role models, not just for black Canadians, but for all of us.

This year, the stamps honour a woman who stood up to right a wrong, and a man who made significant contributions to Canada.

I also have to give a big shout out for the Art Canada stamps.

Joe Fafard may not be the most mainstream of Canadian artists, but I find his work whimsical and expressive. He proves to us that Canadian art doesn't always have to be about trees and rocks.

I have always thought that stamp collecting often takes itself a bit too seriously.

There is no doubt that serious research can and should be done, and that exhibiting is a valued way to share knowledge. But this is also supposed to be, at least for most collectors, a diversion to relieve and escape the stress of daily life.

I hope that every quarter I find at least one stamp that makes me smile, one stamp that makes me proud, and one stamp that makes me go, "Wow." That happened with this issue.

One down, three to go.

Canada Post to celebrate Jubilee all year (Continued)

By Bret Evans

The program launch was set for Jan. 16, with the release of the official Jubilee stamp, a permanent domestic stamp issued in booklets of 10. The design is credited to Getty Images photographer Scott Barbour and designer is Gottschalk+Ash International. As with all stamps depicting the monarch, Rideau Hall and Buckingham Palace were involved in the process.

The Jubilee stamp is a vignette taken from a photograph of Queen Elizabeth in a state carriage, bearing the inscription "Diamond Jubilee" in both English and French.

Canadian Bank Note Company printed six million stamps on Tullis Russell paper with five-colour lithography. They have four-sided tagging and simulated perforations.

The official first-day cover has an Ottawa cancel dated Jan. 16.

The same day saw the launch of the first miniature pane, each of which have a block of four stamps from a different era of Queen Elizabeth's reign, with images relating to that time in the selvedge.

The first stamp shows the 4-cent stamp from the 1953 Coronation issue (Scott #330).

The second mini-pane, to be issued Feb. 6, shows another 5-cent stamp, this one issued on the occasion of the Queen's royal visit in 1967, Canada's centennial year (SC #471).

The third pane, to be issued March 6, shows the Silver Jubilee stamp of 1978 (SC #704).

All of the mini-panes were printed by Lowe-Martin on Tullis Russell paper with four-sided tagging. The first two will be printed in eight-colour lithography, the third with nine colours. The mini-panes have 13-plus perforations. The firm will print 800,000 of each of the mini-panes.

During the second part of the year, a further three mini-panes will be issued, along with an intaglio-printed stamp depicting both early and contemporary portraits of the Queen in a design that Canada Post says "echoes" the Jubilee stamps of Queen Victoria.

Singles of all Jubilee stamps will be included in collectors' packs and the 2012 Collection Canada.

The mini-panes are also available in folders. The folder for each one is different, and includes a postcard that shows all of the Queen Elizabeth II stamps issued during each 10-year period.

Canadian pride

The Canadian Pride definitives, better known as "flag" definitives to many collectors, were also released on Jan. 16.

The five stamps show Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis St. Laurent, a vintage van, a child at Canada Day celebrations, Olympian Nicolas Gill (flag-bearer at the 2004 Athens Summer Games), and Canadian bobsledder Pierre Leuders in competition.

The self-adhesive stamps were printed by Canadian Bank Note and are issued in booklets of 10 and 30.

They were produced using four-colour lithography on Tullis Russell paper with four-sided tagging and simulated perforations.

There is also a souvenir sheet with a limit of 197,000, produced with water-activated adhesive and 13+ perforations. It has a St. John's, N.L., cancel.

Baby animals

Also on Jan. 16, Canada Post released four definitive stamps showing baby wildlife, the second such issue in the series.

This year's stamps include a domestic permanent-rate stamp showing three baby racoons; a $1.05 oversized stamp show showing two caribou; a $1.29 United States rate with loons; and a $1.80 international rate depicting baby moose.

Designed by Monique Dufour and Sophie Lafortune. The stamps were issued in booklets of six, coils and strips. The strips are either four or 10 stamps of each design. The domestic-rate stamp is in a 100-stamp coil, the others in 50-stamp coils. All of the stamps are self-adhesive and printed by Lowe-Martin in five-colour lithography on Tullis Russell paper with four-side tagging and simulated perforations.

There is also a souvenir sheet with all four stamps. While the definitives are continuously printed, the sheet, with water-activated adhesive and 13-plus perforations, has a limit of 197,000. The OFDC has the souvenir sheet and a Ridgetown, Ont., cancel. The photograph used on the raccoon stamp was taken in nearby Rondeau Provincial Park.

All of the definitive stamps are also being issued in the form of postage-paid postcards.

Flowers

On March 1, a new set of floral stamps will be issued.

The issue will consist of two permanent domestic-rate stamps showing daylilies.

Printed by Lowe-Martin, the stamps will be issued in booklets of 10, coils of 50 with two stamps alternating, strips of four and 10, and in postcard form.

There will also be a souvenir sheet with both stamps. The OFDC will have the souvenir sheet and a Flowers Cove, N.L., cancel.

Black history

Two stamps will be issued in February for Black History Month.

The permanent-rate domestic stamps depict John Ware, a former slave and cowboy who helped establish the ranching industry in southern Alberta, and Viola Desmond, a woman who refused to sit in a blacks-only part of a Halifax theatre and was charged and convicted of not paying the 1-cent provincial tax on the more expensive seat.

The stamps will be issued in booklets of 10 and as a gutter product, with six of each design.

There will be two OFDCs: one for Ware with a Calgary cancel, and one for Desmond with a Halifax cancel.

Art Canada

The work of Saskatchewan artist Joe Fafard will be honoured on three stamps.

The permanent domestic-rate stamp features his sculpture of a cow, Smoothly She Shifted; the U.S.-rate stamp has the sculpture Dear Vincent, and the international-rate stamp shows Capillery, three laser-cut bronze horses.

The domestic stamp will be issued in booklets of 16, the other two in booklets of six, with all three on the souvenir sheet. There is also an uncut press sheet with two panes and four souvenir sheets, with a limit of 1,500 sheets. Finally, there is a gutter product.

There are two OFDCs, one for the domestic stamp, and one for the souvenir sheet.

Canada Post is issuing postcard versions of all three stamps.

In early January, Canada Post announced the issue of a limited-edition framed set of the lunar zodiac stamps showing a souvenir sheet enlargement bearing an international-rate stamp and imagery taken from the domestic stamp.

January 31, 2012 to February 13, 2012 issue of Canadian Coin News