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

This is an issue that took a long time to grow on me. I found the designs in general lacked the ornateness of the earlier issues. It was years before I understood that the simplicity of the designs was intentional and meant to send a no-nonsense message to the citizenry. The idea was that in a time of war, one should direct all extra resources and efforts to fighting the war. Therefore it was determined that it would be inappropriate to continue with the ornate designs of the earlier, pre-war period. Once I was able to evaluate this issue in the broader historical context, I found that I was able to appreciate it far more than I had previously.

It is a vastly under-collected set to be sure, with most collectors relegating it to a single page in their albums. However, it is probably one of the most complicated definitive issues of this period, as we shall soon see. The complexity comes mainly from the vast number of plate blocks and booklets, but as with the previous two issues, there…

There were not very many commemorative issues for the King George VI period until after the War, but today's post will deal with the two commemorative issues that appeared before the War: the 1937 Coronation issue, and the 1939 Royal Visit Issue.

The scope is very limited for the 1937 Coronation, although there are quite a few proof items for it that are more challenging, and one can always seek out better frankings on cover. However, it is the 1939 Royal Visit issue that affords real scope and challenge for the specialist. The main attraction of this issue lies in the plate blocks. This was the very first bicoloured engraved issue to be produced, and it is in fact one of the only such issues prior to the introduction of multi-colour printing in the late 1960's. Consequently, two separate plates were employed to print each stamp in the set: one for the frame, and the other for the vignette. The result is a surprisingly large number of different plate blocks, some of which are…