Squared circle postmarks are booming with collectors, offering a vast field of study, rising values and fresh discoveries. Originating in Britain in 1879 as an improvement on duplex handstamps, they took hold in Canada in the 1890s and span dozens of towns, multiple stamp issues and a spectrum of hammer rarities and coloured strikes.
A new 680-page handbook from the Squared Circle Study Group (affiliated with BNAPS) is fuelling interest with deep rarity data and illustrations. Specialists highlight the 1898 imperial penny post “map” issue as a hotbed, where obscure town strikes can sell for surprising sums when demand flares.
Collectors across the country share different approaches: Nova Scotia’s Paul Grimm focuses regionally and has exhibited medal-winning material; market watcher Bill Radcliffe notes surging prices for select strikes; Alberta’s Eldon Godfrey describes accumulations that “grow in the cupboard”; and Ottawa’s Paul Sneyd has pursued time-mark calendars for decades.
Read the full feature by Jesse Robitaille in the latest issue of Canadian Stamp News, Volume 40, Number 11 — out today. To get the complete story and future coverage, be sure to subscribe to CSN. Click here to subscribe now.