Ingo Nessel, the past president of the Philatelic Specialists Society of Canada (PSSC), is set to uncover some intriguing aspects of modern philately as a guest speaker at the next virtual North Toronto Stamp Club (NTSC) meeting.
On April 8 at 7 p.m., Nessel will explore the 50-cent Parliament booklets issued by Canada from 1985-89, looking at the “attractively designed series of engraved definitive booklet stamps as a fun, yet, complex area of study,” according to the NTSC website.
“Of interest are the cardboard booklet covers showing architectural details from our parliament buildings, papers and tagging varieties, printing errors and freaks, and some challenging modern postal history.”
Nessel is also the secretary-treasurer of Toronto’s Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation.
SOLD THROUGH VENDING MACHINES
According to Robin Harris, the editor of the Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps, both the Parliament booklet and coil stamps “share a similar design and they are all engraved, single-colour stamps,” he wrote on his website, adminware.ca.
The designs depict the rear of the Parliament buildings (34 cents, 36 cents, 37 cents and 38 cents), the West Block (two cents, six-cent henna brown) and the East Block (one cent, five cents, six-cent purple).
The booklet stamps were issued through vending machines for 50 cents a booklet. Four booklets, each containing one first-class letter-rate stamp (then 34 cents, 36 cents, 37 cents or 38 cents) plus additional values to make the total face value 50 cents, were sold, Harris writes.
To attend the virtual seminar, email NTSC membership chair Klaus Hintz at ntsc.membership@gmail.com.