The 1967 Commemorative Issues




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 period. Thus, the commemorative stamps are a very important tool to the study of the definitive sets. Perhaps they may even be the most important tool of all. 
In studying these stamps closely we come to see that there are 11 different varieties of paper, ignoring fluorescence, four line perforations, and seven types of dextrine gum. Some of these are found on only one stamp, while others are found on nearly all the issues for the year. Some appear in a narrow 2 or 3 month period in 1967. Because of this, we can use the information we learn about the paper and gum types and when they appeared to draw conclusions about the 1967-1973 Centennial definitives and can likely assign at least some of the early printings to specific months in 1967. 
Please click on the following link to read the full post:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Federal Bill Stamps 1864-1890's

Image
Overview The bill stamps of Canada are the first revenues to be listed by Van Dam and also provide a fine field for the philatelist who is looking to collect beautiful stamps, while having the chance to form large studies of varieties.  There were three issues of bill stamps all shown below: They were each printed by a different firm, with the Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) printing the first issue shown in the middle, the American Bank Note Company (ABN) printing the second issue, shown on the right and finally the British American Bank Note Company (BABN) printing the third issue, shown at left. All stamps were printed in sheets of 100. The first issue was in use from 1864-1865, the second from 1865-1868 and the third from 1868 until the 1890's. The purpose of the bill stamps was to evidence payment of stamp duties on monetary instruments like promissory notes and cheques. The amount of tax required to be paid would, of course vary with the face amount of th
Read more

The Imperforate Pence Issues of Canada 1851-1858

Image
The very first, and most expensive regular stamp issues of Canada were the impreforate pence issues, which first appeared on April 23, 1851. There were 6 basic stamps of the following designs and colours: 3d orange red or red featuring a beaver in a river. 6d slate violet or variants of grey, featuring HRH Prince Albert 12d black featuring the Alfred Chalon portrait of Queen Victoria 10d blue featuring a three quarter portrait of Jacques Cartier. 1/2d rose featuring the William Wyon bust portrait of Queen Victoria 71/2d green featuring the Chalon portrait of Queen Victoria Sir Sanford Fleming, who was instrumental in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and who was featured on a stamp issued in 1977, designed the 3d and 6d values. The 10d was adapted from a sketch by William Henry Griffin. The 1/2d design was after a bust designed by William Wyon, which was popular on the coins issued during the period in the UK. Finally the 71/2d and 12d values were based on the
Read more

The Commemorative Issues of 1969 - Part Two

Image
Today's post completes my examination of the 1969 commemorative issues of Canada, and looks at the last 9 stamps issued in that year. Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) printed all but two of these using either lithography or engraving and lithography, while the British American Bank Note Company printed the other two, using engraving and photogravure.  For these last 9 stamps, high fluorescent or hibrite paper is now the norm, for all except two issues: the Issac Brock Issue and the Stephen Leacock issue, which was the last one to appear on November 12, 1969. Unitrade does list a dull paper variety on the other BABN issue, the Charlottetown Bicentennial, though no other dull paper varieties, are, as yet known on the other issues. Gum and perforation displays the usual variations that were noted in the last post and there are a good number of constant varieties on the lithographed stamps. None of these were listed 20 years ago, having all reached prominence since then. So, th
Read more