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

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 ar...

Overview Today's post will explore a set that is completely unique to all of British Commonwealth philately: a commemorative issue, whose size and whose designs are almost entirely based on those of a contemporary definitive issue. Newfoundland issued  the 1937 Omnibus Coronation designs, just like every other crown colony in the Empire. But then it was decided that in addition to these, another commemorative set was to be issued, which would feature the designs of the current Resources definitive issue. The result was what collectors today know as the Long Coronation Issue. It consisted of eleven stamps ranging from the 1c to 48c, similar to the Resources definitive issue. In addition, with only three exceptions, being the 1c, 3c and 7c, the remaining 8 denominations were almost exactly the same as the corresponding definitives, with a portrait of King George VI added at the right (or left in the case of the 8c) and an inscription with the date of the Coronation added at the to...