On today’s date in 1934, Canada’s Post Office Department (now Canada Post) issued a two-cent commemorative stamp marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of New Brunswick.
One of just three Canadian commemoratives issued that year, it was printed by the British American Bank Note Company with a print run of 5,050,000 stamps. Its release coincided with celebrations for the sesquicentennial of the province that was partitioned in 1784 from what was then the British colony of Nova Scotia.
The design of the stamp (Scott #210) features the great seal of New Brunswick with a ship “sailing up a river, on the borders of which is a new settlement with lofty pines on each side, destined to Naval purposes,” according to Douglas and Mary Patrick’s 1964 book Canada’s Postage Stamps.
New Brunswick’s 200th anniversary is celebrated on a 32-cent stamp issued by Canada Post in 1984.
The Latin inscription around the seal – “SIGILL PROVINCIÆ NOV BRUNS” – means “Seal of the Province of New Brunswick.”
The motto beneath the seal, “SPEM REDUXIT,” translates to “it brings back hope.”
Half a century later, on June 18, 1984, Canada Post (as it was known after becoming a Crown corporation three years earlier) issued a 32-cent stamp marking New Brunswick’s bicentennial.