The 74th Annual Exhibition of the North Toronto Stamp Club (NTSC) is returning to Mississauga this weekend in conjunction with the National Postage Stamp and Coin Show, which opens today at 10 a.m.
NTSC Exhibition Committee Chair John Wilson, who’s also the club’s immediate past-president, said the national-level exhibition will feature 60 competitive exhibit frames by NTSC members in addition to several court of honour exhibits that previously won medals at the national level.
“These wouldn’t have been seen in Toronto area,” said Wilson, of the court of honour exhibits.
As for for competitive exhibits, Wilson said an array of philatelic material is expected to be displayed.
“North Toronto has a good reputation as an exhibiting club, and the show serves as a vehicle to show off members’ talents and specialties as well as to promote the hobby to the general public,” he said. “We have topicals, we have postal history, we have traditional, we have social philately, and we have a couple other things we do to encourage beginning exhibitors.”
The biannual National Postage Stamp and Coin Show, presented by Trajan Media, will be open today from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and tomorrow from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission is $3 today and free tomorrow. Parking is also free.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW EXHIBITORS
Wilson, who’s other club roles include NTSC historian and library chair, said one thing the NTSC does to encourage new exhibitors is offer an opportunity to display single pages.
“It helps people understand what it means to bring an exhibit page up,” he said, adding “15 frames is tough” to achieve. “Even an experienced exhibitor who doesn’t do thematics realizes how hard it is to design the page, and to design it effectively with three elements. It’s quite a discipline.”
The other thing the NTSC does to encourage exhibiting is offer the opportunity for one eight-page study to be displayed for the judges’ consideration.
“The study will say, ‘I’m interested in doing this,’ and the judges will look at it and offer suggestions,” said Wilson. “It’s not a full frame but an idea in progress.”
Wilson, who’s also a nationally accredited philatelic judge, said exhibiting is as contagious as it is beneficial to one’s hobby.
“Exhibiting is a real bug. It really helps you look at your collection and tell its story, but also you realize what you need to complete the collection and discover items or aspects you didn’t really know were there. You may not notice a difference until you really study an issue.”
ONE-FRAME CHALLENGE
As part of the upcoming exhibition, the NTSC has issued a “one-frame challenge” to all Greater Toronto Area clubs, which are invited to submit three single-frame exhibits for a little competition.
“The award is a sculpture of a stamp collector in metal, which is given and can be held by the club for the year,” said Wilson, who added the award was given to the Greater Toronto Area Philatelic Alliance (GTAPA) by noted philatelist Garfield Portch.
“It wasn’t given out last year because there weren’t enough clubs to do it, but this year we believe there will be.”
Each individual club can decide how their three single frames will be represented.
“In the case of North Toronto, we would normally give these opportunities to the three best frames from the previous year of exhibiting.”
For more information about the biannual National Postage Stamp and Coin Show, to be held March 25-26 as well as Oct. 28-29, visit stampandcoinshow.com.
For more information about the NTSC Exhibition, visit sites.google.com/site/northtorontostampclub/exhibits.