Happy Valentine’s Day, stamp lovers!
Did you know Canada Post offers special Valentine’s Day postmarks from four post offices in Québec, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland & Labrador? Each year, love letters and cards from around the world arrive in Love, Sask., Saint-Valentin, Qué., and Cupids and Heart’s Content, both in Newfoundland & Labrador. There, the postmasters use special pictorial postmarks to cancel the mail.
Collectors hoping to obtain one – or all – of the special cancels were asked to send an addressed card (with postage affixed) inside a larger envelope (also with proper postage) to one of the post offices at least six days in advance. After the postmaster affixes the postmark, the addressed cards are mailed to their destinations.
Click here to read CSN’s 2015 story about Ottawa art students’ Valentine’s Day covers, including one with a postmark from Love.
Each of the Focus program’s 18 students produced two Valentine’s Day covers—one sent to the high school so the students could add it to their portfolio and another sent to a significant other.
LOVE, SASK.
The post office in Love – a small village of about 50 people – has been serving the community since 1935.
In 1984, the Love postmaster used the post office’s first Valentine’s Day cancel. Today, the postmaster is Connie Black-Sturby.
SAINT-VALENTIN, QUÉ.
Saint-Valentin, a municipality in southern Quebec with a population of fewer than 500 people, began using its special cancel in 1994.
Each year since then, the town’s little post office processes thousands of pieces of mail destined for local, provincial, national and international delivery. The current postmaster is Liliane Baribeau.
CUPIDS, N.L.
In Cupids – a town of 743 people on Conception Bay – the local post office handles all mail coming to and from what is Canada’s oldest continuously settled British colony.
Since 2010, the town’s postmaster has been Donna Gibson.
The four post offices have been issuing Valentine’s Day postmarks (past issues shown) for several decades.
HEART’S CONTENT, N.L.
Heart’s Content, a town of about 400 people, has offered a Valentine’s Day cancel since 2003.
Since then, thousands of people sent letters through the small post office managed by postmaster Joy Parrott.
U.S. POSTMARKS
The U.S. Postal Service also offers pictorial postmarks with a Valentine’s Day theme from post offices in Romeo, Mich., Bliss, N.Y., and Loveland, Colo.