Volume 37#01

May 8 – May 21, 2012

Lot 1 in Eastern Auctions' June 19 Camellia Collections sale is the original seven-page 1851 contract for the production of Canada's first postage stamps. Signed by Provincial Postmaster General James Morris and representatives of the New York engraving firm Rawdon, Wright, Hatch and Edson, the historic document established the terms for printing the Province of Canada's first stamp issue, including the iconic three-pence Beaver.

Arbour, Fox among 4 honoured for making a difference

Four more living Canadians have been honoured on stamps, this time honouring “difference-makers,” to be issued May 22. The stamps depict Rick Hansen, Michael J. Fox, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, and Louise Arbour. Hansen, who became famous for his Man in Motion World Tour, later established the Rick Hansen Foundation. Fox has committed his life to campaigning for increased research into Parkinson’s disease. Watts-Cloutier is a champion of aboriginal and human rights. Arbour was an International Criminal Tribunals prosecutor for war crimes that took place in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Continue reading →

Features

Kimmerly honoured at Orapex show

Page 7

Regulars

Are you buying or selling?

Page 19

Check out the shows in your area

Page 23

Editorial

Expertising a needed and growing service

The expertising service is on the front line of the war against those people who alter stamps, often seeking windfall profits as a result of some of this tampering. I’m not talking about someone who soaks a stamp to clean off grime, or even may use an eraser to eliminate a tiny pencil mark. There are people out there who intentionally alter the colour of a stamp, or remove a cancellation, or even change the back of a stamp to a different sort of paper. The problem is, even experts can make a mistake. For that reason most services are prepared to explain the reasons behind their decision, and even agree to reconsider when a reasonable case is presented. But one big advantage of having a stamp expertised is that it can be bought and sold with a fair amount of confidence that it is the genuine item.

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By Bret Evans