Postage stamps and postal history of Canada

The postal history of Canada falls into four major periods: French control (1604-1763), British control (1763-1841) [ [http://www.civilisations.ca/cpm/chrono/chcmene.html A Chronology of Canadian Postal History] ] , the Province of Canada (1841-1867), and the Dominion of Canada, since 1867.

French control

The earliest reference to a postal service is of couriers in 1705, namely the "first courier" Pedro da Silva,carrying the Governor's despatches by boat, along with (for a fee) private letters. A regular postal system was proposed in 1721, but would have been too expensive at the time, and was not created until 1734, when a road existed between Montreal and Quebec. Post houses were established at intervals of nine miles (14 km) or so, along with ferries across the rivers. Fees were 10 sols between the two major cities, and 5 sols to Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

British control

The British captured Montreal in 1760, and shortly thereafter established a military postal system that handled letters between Quebec and Montreal, and from Montreal to Albany, New York.

The peace treaty of 1763 inaugurated the development of a civilian post. The Postmasters General of the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin and William Foxcroft surveyed a route between New York and Quebec, and contracted Quebec-Montreal mail to a Hugh Finlay, who provided a weekly service at 8d per letter. Mail to New York took two weeks and cost about a shilling. The service was quite successful, the Quebec-Montreal route increasing to twice/week, and eventually branching out to include Skenesborough.

The American Revolutionary War disrupted mail to New York, and also showed the weakness in not having an all-British route to Halifax, Nova Scotia , and in 1787 a complicated route was set up through Riviere du Loup, Fredericton, Digby, and Annapolis. Upper Canada had its own semi-monthly route through Kingston, Niagara, Detroit, and as far as Michilimackinac on Lake Huron.

Finlay was succeeded in 1800 by George Heriot, then in 1816 Daniel Sutherland took over as Postmaster General. By this time dozens of post offices were being opened. 1816 was also when the postal services of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia were separated, and not rejoined until 1868.

Postmarks had been in use since 1764, Finlay having been introduced to them by Franklin. The earliest markings were town names in a straight line.

As is typical of the period, the postal service introduced ever-more-complicated systems of rates for mail, depending on destination and distance. In 1840 Rowland Hill proposed a uniform rate for Great Britain that could be prepaid by postage stamps, and on May 25, 1849, the Legislative Assembly of Canada resolved to adopt the use of stamps in Canada.

Province of Canada

The first stamps of the province were in the values of 3d, 6d, and 12d. Designed by Sir Sandford Fleming, the "Threepenny Beaver" depicted a beaver in an oval frame, and is considered the first Canadian postage stamp. In fact was the first official postage stamp anywhere to picture an animal, though an unofficial postmaster's provisional from St. Louis, Missouri had shown two bears in 1845. The 6d was a portrait of Prince Albert and the 12d (1 shilling) a portrait of Queen Victoria. The first issues were made on laid paper, which did not stick as well to envelopes, and so in 1852 the printers switched to wove paper. Thus the earliest issues on laid paper are quite rare; a grand total of only 1,450 copies of the 12d were ever issued, and copies today sell for upwards of US$50,000 apiece.

In the late 1850s, the postal service came out with new values: ½d, 7½d, and 10d, the first two depicting Victoria, and the 10d featuring a portrait of Jacques Cartier. The 7½d was unusual in that it was also denominated "6 Pence Sterling". In 1858 stamps began to be perforated.

In 1859 the province standardized on a single decimal monetary system, which also meant new stamps would be needed. In general the existing designs were used, resulting in a series of five stamps of values from 1¢ to 17¢, plus a 2¢ value issued in 1864.

Dominion of Canada, Victorian period

The Dominion came into existence July 1, 1867, assembled from colonies each of which had their own stamps, so the new government issued a new series of stamps on April 1, 1868, superseding all previous issues. These featured a profile of Queen Victoria, based on an engraving by Charles Henry Jeens and became known to philatelists as the "Large Queens". They ranged in value from ½¢ to 15¢. While mostly printed on wove paper, a few of the 1¢, 2¢, and 3¢ values were also printed on laid paper; only two examples of the Canada 2c Large Queen on laid paper are known, making it Canada's rarest stamp.

The Large Queens had a relatively short life, being replaced in 1870 by the "Small Queens", smaller stamps of the same basic design, adopted to be able to produce more stamps more quickly. The Small Queens came in a number of printings between 1870 and 1897. In 1893 20¢ and 50¢ stamps came out with a 3/4 portrait of Victoria.

When Prince Edward Island became a Canadian province in 1873, it sold off all of its remaining pre-Canadian stamps at discounted prices, flooding the market with over 1.5 million cheap stamps. Since these stamps had next to no value, forgers had no compelling reason to make copies. Today, since forged versions of Prince Edward Island stamps are harder to find than the original, the forgeries are more valuable. Library and Archives Canada holds a forged, lithographed version of a stamp from 1870 that features an engraving of Queen Victoria. ["Postal Imposters" in [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/forgery/002035-400-e.html Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery] , a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada]

In 1897 the American Bank Note Company secured the contract to print stamps for Canada, which lasted until 1923. The company's first job was to print a series for the Diamond Jubilee celebrating the 60th year of Queen Victoria and the 30th year of confederation, the first commemorative stamps of Canada. The design was a side-by-side of the Chalon vignette of the young Victoria and the likeness photographed by Alexander Bassano in 1887. The series included 16 denominations ranging from ½¢ to five dollars, a princely sum in those days, and more aimed at collectors than mailers. Only 9,937 of the $4 value were ever sold, and unsurprisingly they are rare and expensive today.

1897 also saw the Maple Leaf Issue, regular stamps with the central design based on a Jubilee portrait for Victoria, with maple leaves in each corner. It was in use for only a few months before being replaced by a modified design that replaced the lower leaves with numerals of value, motivated by the French-speaking population who found it difficult to read the textual denomination on the original design. (The Universal Postal Union would require the use of Arabic numerals in 1907.)

In 1898, a first step towards Imperial Penny Postage happened when a number of Dominions agreed on a uniform rate of 1d (2¢ in Canada). Canada issued an interesting stamp depicting a map of the entire world, with British possessions marked in red, inscribed "XMAS 1898" (the rate took effect on Christmas Day), and "WE HOLD A VASTER EMPIRE THAN HAS BEEN" underneath, a line extracted from "A Song of Empire" composed by Sir Lewis Morris in 1887.The stamp was notable as the first multi-colour stamp of Canada, and also for the tremendous variability of the red highlighting, resulting in amusing geographical incongruities.

Edward VII

Upon the accession of King Edward VII, the basic maple leaf was retained but updated with a portrait of Edward wearing the ermine Robes of State. Canada's first experiments with coil stamps occurred during this period.

George V

King George V was depicted in 1911 as Admiral of the Fleet in a widely-admired design that continued in use until 1928.

1928 saw the "Scroll Issue", so-called because "CANADA" appeared in a scroll across the top. This was the first issue to be bilingual. The pictorials are among the finest stamps ever produced, especially the 50¢ value Bluenose stamp portraying the legendary schooner "Bluenose".

The "Arch Issue" of 1930 was similarly elegant. The last issue for George V, in 1935, was called the "Dated Die Issue" because the year appeared in very small print in the design.

George VI

Because it was so short, no stamps were issued to commemorate the reign of Edward VIII.

The dated die concept was used in 1937 as well, in the stamps issued for newly-crowned King George VI. A group of three stamps in May 1939 marked a royal visit.

Soon after the Commonwealth was plunged into war; the War issue of 1942 highlighted Canada's contributions. While the low values showed the King wearing the uniforms of the different services, the higher values showed Canada's role in growing food and the production of munitions, including a Ram tank, a corvette, and a destroyer.

In 1946 the "Peace issue" showed scenes and economic activities around the country. From the late 1940s on, the issuance of commemoratives became a regular even, with two in 1947, but gradually increasing. The last regular stamps of George VI came out in 1951.

The Elizabethan era

The first definitive issue for Queen Elizabeth II's reign was based on a portrait by Yusuf Karsh, and was issued on a plain background in five values on 1953-05-01.

The Karsh series was replaced in the following year by a new design based on the portrait by Dorothy Wilding that was also used in the United Kingdom. The 5¢ value was issued on April 1 with the introduction of the new domestic first class letter rate. Five more values in this series were introduced on June 10. It was with this series that the post office bean experimenting with fluorescence on stamps, resulting in a number of challenging varieties over the life of this and the next two series.

The Wilding series was replaced by the "Cameo" series, a horizontal design by Ernst Roch. The series began with the 5¢ value on 1962-10-03. The 1¢ and 4¢ values were released on 1963-02-04, and the 2¢ and 3¢ values followed on May 2.

From the 1960s on, Canadian stamp policies have favoured issuing a relatively large number of single commemoratives valued at the prevailing first-class rate. In its commemorative issues Canada has made extensive use of works by well-known artists and until very recently has not used images of living people on its stamps.

Definitive series have tended to be combinations of design types, each applying to a range of values. For instance, the definitives of the late 1980s featured native wildlife for values up to 80 cents, and Canadian architecture for the dollar values, while those of the early 1990s used berries for the lowest values, and fruit trees for the higher values, and continuing with architecture for the highest values.

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In December, 2003 Canada Post issued a new 49 cent definitive stamp bearing the image of the Queen, using a photograph taken by rock star Bryan Adams. A similar redenominated stamp was issued in 2005 as a 50 cent denomination, and a 51 cent denomination in 2006 (see Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada)).

"See also:" List of people on stamps of Canada, People on stamps of Canadian provinces

Footnotes

Sources

* Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
* [http://www.jl.sl.btinternet.co.uk/stampsite/home.html Encyclopaedia of Postal History]
* Stuart Rossiter & John Flower: "The Stamp Atlas"
* Winthrop S. Boggs, "The Postage Stamps and Postal History of Canada" (1945, reprinted 1974)
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/forgery/ Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery] , a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada
* Dwight Robin Harris, "1952-53 Karsh, 1954-62 Wilding, 1962-66 Cameo definitives", 1998

External links

* [http://www.civilisations.ca/cpm/labstamp/lsmen01e.html The Canadian Museum of Civilization - The Image of the Worker on Canadian Postage Stamps]
* [http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/02011703_e.html Library & Archives Canada Postage Stamp Page]
* [http://www.bnaps.org/blinks.htm/ The British North American Philatelic Society]
* [http://www.rpsc.org/ The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC)]
* [http://www.canadianpsgb.org.uk/ The Canadian Philatelic Society of Great Britain]
* [http://www.cfps-web.com/ The Canadian Forces Philatelic Society]