Canadian Philately - The Stamps and Postal History of Canada 1851 to Present by Brixton Chrome

Today's post takes us through the very first commemorative stamp issues of Queen Elizabeth's reign. During the first three years of her reign, the post office released six different issues, which comprised 11 stamps in total. Two of these issues were a continuation of the Prime Ministers series that had begun in 1951, while a new multi-year Wildlife series was started in 1953.

The first of these issues, the Red Cross Conference issue, which was released on July 26, 1952, was the first stamp of Canada to be produced from a printing technique other than engraving. It was produced from a combination of engraving and lithography. Another first, was that this period featured the first commemorative issue to be issued in booklet form. This issue was the 5c beaver from the 1954 Wildlife Issue, that was released on April 1, 1954.

Despite there being no listed varieties in Unitrade, patience and close attention will reveal that there are some really good shades to be found, paper vari…

Today, I am veering off the beaten Canada path to post about Newfoundland stamps, having realized that it has been a long time since I wrote anything about Newfoundland. The issue that I will write about is the definitive issue that first appeared during King George V's reign in 1932, and was in use all the way until 1949 when Newfoundland joined confederation and became part of Canada

Only a few countries in the Commonwealth have the distinction of having issued stamps whose designs remained almost entirely unchanged from the reign of King George V to King George VI. Bermuda issued a few stamps like this, as did Ireland and New Zealand. However, Newfoundland is one of the few stand-out colonies that did this as well. Except for a few low values, whose designs were changed to portraits of the royal family members, the set remained largely unchanged through the 17 year period.

Because issue quantities of Newfoundland stamps were lower in general compared to Canadian issues of the …