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

In normal parlance the term "philatelist" and "stamp collector" are used synonymously, with many non-collectors often saying "what is that fancy word used to describe stamp collecting? I know it is "phil-a something. I can't pronounce it". Most collectors will then tell the person that a stamp collector is a "philatelist" or will otherwise agree with the person who equates the two, as if the two were playing a game of Trivial Pursuit. But as a dealer and professional philatelic blogger, it has occurred to me that philately and stamp collecting, though very close to one another, are not, in fact, the same thing. In the rest of this post, I will explain the difference between the two, and then I will conclude with some more reasons why I believe that both are the most rewarding of hobbies, and why I believe they are misunderstood by most people in general. Stamp Collecting Stamp collecting involves the pursuit and accumulation of st...

Today's post will be my last post for 2017, as I need to take a few days off over Christmas and spend some time doing something other than studying stamps! However, I will try to make it a fairly meaty post, to give you lots of material to consider over the holidays. Today's post will examine all of the remaining booklets other than those containing the 8c Parliamentary Library stamp. Those will be covered in my first post of the New Year. Unfortunately, there is one booklet that I will discuss today that I do not have an illustration of: the 6c black booklet pane of 25, perf. 12.5 x 12. I had ordered one last week, specifically so that I would have it to scan and include an image of here today, but it hasn't arrived yet. However, I will update this post with an image, as soon as it does. The booklets to be examined today will fall into two groups: The OPAL booklet, produced by the Canadian Bank Note Company in October 1970 and,  The booklets produced by the BABNC t...

Today, I start to examine the integral booklets that were produced for this issue. They are called "integral" because the booklet covers were a single piece of cardstock, which was folded, and the booklet panes were glued onto the cover using the tab of the pane, rather than being either stapled or stitched. They were also significant as they were the very first time that se-tenant combinations of different designs and denominations were to appear in the same booklet pane. The printing technology required to accomplish this was in the hands of the British American Bank Note Company (BABNC) rather than the CBN. So the introduction of these booklets marks a unique period in Canadian stamp production in which two different printing firms collaborated to produce a Canadian stamp issue. Prior to this, every issue of Canadian stamps was printed by one firm or another, but never two firms at the same time. These booklets are also interesting in the sense that they are the first boo...