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

I thought I had better let our readers know that we are not going to be doing any new posts this week because we are busy counting inventory for our fiscal year end, and I expect this to take all of this week. We will return next Monday with a post about the 1928-1929 Scroll Issue. In the meantime, we encourage those of you who are new to the blog, to take a look at some of the older posts. Specifically, you will find many detailed posts on such issues as: Large and Small Queens The 1954-62 Wilding Issue The 1953-62 Karsh Issue The 1911-27 Admiral Issue Enjoy, and we will be back next week. 

Overview Today's post will deal with the second commemorative issue of 1927 that was released on the same day as the previous set, the 60th Anniversary of Confederation Issue. Collectors call it the Historical Issue because it depicts historical figures only and includes three of the fathers of confederation who are never seen again on any Canadian stamp. The issue was actually intended to be released originally in 1926 when it was printed, but for some strange reason, the Post Office Department decided to hold it back and release it on the same day as the Confederation Issue, June 29, 1927. The points of interest with this issue are much the same as the Confederation issue, but not quite as extensive. Consequently for an area of specialization, this issue will often be collected with the confederation issue.  One thing that I forgot to cover in my post about the Confederation issue are the paper and gum differences, which although subtle are collectible I believe. I ...

Overview This neat little commemorative set was issued on June 29, 1927, the same day as the Historical Issue. It is one of those sets that most collectors buy for their albums and never think much about. Indeed, Unitrade contains really just one page of listings and so it seems to be a set that does not afford much opportunity for specialization. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, there are several points of interest around which a specialized collection could be formed as we shall see. These include: Shade variations on all values except possibly the 12c, as I have not seen any shade variations on that value.  Differences in both the thickness of the paper and visibility of mesh.  Some plate flaws can be found, though these are scarce.  The era of First Day Covers is generally recognized to have begun with this issue, and so it is possible to look for different cachets.  Most of the stamps take CDS cancels beautifully, so a ca...

        This is my last detailed post on the ever-popular Admiral Issue of 1911-1928. Today's post will deal with the War Tax stamps that were first issued in 1915. In that year, as a measure to finance involvement in World War I, a 1c war tax was levied on all lettermail, increasing the current postage rates. Initially, it was decided to issue separate postage stamps for the actual war tax itself and then later for the war tax and the postage. Finally, in 1918, these stamps were discontinued and the 3c brown was issued to cover both the basic postage and the war tax, without any mention of the said tax. There were three basic issues for the war tax stamps: 1. The first issue shown at the left had the words "war tax" in white letters in two lines across the design. There were two denominations issued for this design: a 1c dark green and a 2c carmine-red. The only stamp intended to be used for postage was the 1c, with the 2c being intended for use on cheques ...

Today's post will be my second last detailed post on the Admiral Issue. This post will look at three aspects of this issue that appeared toward the end of it's life: The issued imperforate stamps of 1924; The part-perforate coil stamps of 1924; The provisional surcharges of 1926. The Issued Imperforate Stamps of 1924 The three current low values were issued in imperforate form between October 6, 1923 and January 23, 1924. They were only available through the philatelic agency and were not sold through post offices - a fact that suggests that they were completely philatelic in nature and were not really intended to be used commercially. Indeed, most used examples that one comes across were used on first flight covers in the 1928-1935 period. Finding pairs used in period is quite a challenge. More than one plate was used to print each value, so a specialist may wish to obtain plate numbered examples from each plate: 1c yellow - 50,000 stamps printed from pla...