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

This week I turn my attention to the 1968 commemorative issues. As I point out in my detailed post that follows, this year marks the beginning of a new era in which certain aspects of stamp production that had been experimental in previous years now becomes standard practice. These aspects are: All of the stamps printed are now in the new metric sizes, rather than the old imperial ones.  Fluorescent papers are now the norm rather than the exception. Straight edged sheet stamps appear for the first time since 1934.  Cello-paqs, which had been in use since 1961 are discontinued in favour of large softcover booklets for the Christmas issues.  Lithography, photogravure, engraving and lithography, and engraving and photogravure all become mainstream methods of printing. Photogravure and engraving is a completely new method of printing that BABN introduces in this year, and photogravure is introduced for the first time by CBN. Prior to this almost all Canadian st...

Today's post marks the first in a new series - one that will explore the intricacies of the commemorative stamps that were issued between 1967 and 1972, just before the next definitive issue, the Caricature issue appeared. I have elected to keep each post restricted to the stamps of just one year, so I anticipate that this series will consist of six posts.  The commemorative issues are often overlooked by specialists who think that since they were only issued for a brief period of time, and because they are aimed at collectors, that there is nothing interesting to study about them. I wholeheartedly disagree. For one thing they serve as important time markers for the various changes that the post office adopted in terms of paper, perforation, gum, ink and tagging. By carefully studying these changes in the commemorative stamps and being familiar with the dates, you form a basis against which to study the same changes that you encounter in the definitive stamps of the same ...

Today, I finally reach the end of my detailed coverage of this incredible definitive issue, with the $1 value depicting the Edmonton Oilfield, by H.G Glyde. Like most of the stamps in this issue, this stamp had many printings and there are plenty of paper and gum varieties to collect, as well as a few subtle shades.  Unitrade lists no fewer than 6 varieties of this stamp, four of which have dextrine gum, and the remaining two of which are PVA gum printings. The dextrine gum printings are listed as existing on dull, dead, low fluorescent and hibrite paper. As is the case for the other values of this series, the paper exhibits other differences besides the fluorescence level, and the low and medium fluorescent papers are actually flecked papers at a lower fluorescence level, which appear brighter than they actually are, due to the fluorescent fibre content of the paper.  The shades found on this stamp are very subtle and really only visible when several stamps are ve...

Today's post took longer than expected because I took a different approach this time. Rather than detail the paper varieties, shades and paper varieties separately, I identified the shade varieties first and then for each identified variety of shade, I detailed the paper and gum varieties. This makes for a more precise determination of the maximum number of varieties that may be found. In any event, you can access the full post on my website, by clicking on the following link: https://brixtonchrome.com/blogs/canadian-stamps-and-postal-history/the-50c-summers-stores-stamp-from-the-1967-1973-centennial-issue