[press release]
Stamp marks 100th anniversary of Armistice of 1918
Our soldiers’ immense sacrifice had a profound impact on Canada
OTTAWA, Oct. 24, 2018 /CNW/ – Canada Post unveiled a stamp today that celebrates the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War, a conflict that irrevocably changed Canada and its status on the world stage.
Canadian soldiers stood fast at Ypres, stormed the Regina Trench, climbed the heights of Vimy Ridge, captured Passchendaele and, on November 11, 1918, entered Mons. The immense 
sacrifice of our soldiers earned the country widespread recognition and had a profound impact on Canada.
The stamp depicts a dove suspended above barbed wire and includes the image of a poppy, a powerful symbol of remembrance and the principal emblem of The Royal Canadian Legion. The imagery symbolizes struggle, peace and remembrance and honours those who made the supreme sacrifice in defence of freedom and democracy.
The stamp was unveiled at the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre, which has a responsibility to provide care for veterans. The stamp is cancelled in Ottawa, home of the National War Memorial, which appears on the back of the Official First Day Cover. 
At the unveiling event, Thomas D. Irvine, Dominion President of The Royal Canadian Legion, introduced the Legion’s Bells of Peace Initiative in partnership with Veterans Affairs Canada. At the setting of the sun on November 11, the Parliament Hill carillon and bells at Legion branches and spiritual centres across the country will ring 100 times to mark the sacrifices of our veterans and the joy that peace brought at the end of the war. Youth will 
also be engaged to research locations and place flags on the graves of Canadian Veterans of the Great War.
Canada’s war effort was remarkable, but victory came at a terrible price. Of the more than 650,000 Canadians who served with the Allies, more than 66,000 were killed and 172,000 wounded.
After more than four years of horrific trench warfare, fighting came to an abrupt end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. The armistice signed earlier that morning in a railway car near Compiègne, France, silenced the guns on the Western front and brought relief to the world that had never before seen such a conflict.
The stamp, which comes in a booklet of 10 is available on canadapost.ca and at postal outlets across Canada. 
From Details magazine:
After more than four years of bitter struggle, the fighting in the First World War came to an end at “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. This stamp celebrates the silencing of the guns and commemorates those who fought and died for peace. Of the more than 650,000 Canadians who served with the Allies, over 66,000 were killed and 172,000 wounded.
Designers Larry Burke and Anna Stredulinsky, of Halifax’s Burke & Burke, placed the dove – a universal symbol of peace – at the centre of the stamp. The bird hovering over barbed wire in a devastated landscape serves as a poignant metaphor for the return of peace to a war-torn world.
“To us, the armistice was less about the moment of its signing than the lasting peace it brought,” explains Burke, adding that photos of the celebrations in 1918 were selected for the booklet, pane and Official First Day Cover to convey the relief, joy and hope that Canadians felt when the fighting stopped.
After the war, Armistice Day was observed on a Monday in early November until 1931, when a campaign led by the Canadian Legion resulted in a fixed date of November 11 and a new name: Remembrance Day. Every year on this day – when the clock strikes eleven – Canadians observe two minutes of silence in honour of the brave individuals who have served Canada in times of war, military conflict and peace. This year, on the 100th anniversary of the First Word War armistice, we once again reflect on their sacrifices and renew our solemn promise never to forget.
The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) is pleased to announce that Robin Harris FRPSC has been appointed to the role of editor of The Canadian Philatelist, its flagship publication. Founded in 1950, The Canadian Philatelist is the official journal of The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada. Members receive six issues yearly as part of their membership. Each issue of The Canadian Philatelist contains compelling philatelic articles, business and news of The RPSC, philatelic news, auction and events calendars, meeting notices and Society reports.
This message is basically to put the latest news on the VSC home page. You can find the completely story, as it unfolded, 
Washington Stamp Exchange was incorporated in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, when Leo and Sam August pooled their meager assets to start a business selling first day covers and stamps to collectors. Their first location in Newark, New Jersey at the corner of Washington and Market Street, became their inspiration to name their business Washington Stamp Exchange.
d to their introduction of ArtCraft Engraved first day covers in 1939. [The first ArtCraft cachet is shown on the right.]
At left, company owners Michael August, son of one of the August Brothers, and Tim Devaney, son-in-law of the other, celebrated ArtCraft’s 75th anniversary at Americover 2014, the annual show and convention of the American First Day Cover Society, held that year in Somerset, NJ.
Starting with this announcement and continuing until it is sold out, everything remaining in stock – ArtCraft First Day Covers, White Ace Albums and supplies – will be offered at steeply discounted prices. Much of what is available can be found on the company’s website 
Typography
The Mijn groentetuin (My vegetable garden) stamps were developed by De Vormforensen in Arnhem, comprised of Anne-Marie Geurink and Annelou van Griensven. In their design the vegetable garden is represented so that the various vegetable cultivation stages are clearly visible. Pride in one’s garden must also be emphasised. “That’s why it’s my vegetable garden and not the vegetable garden”, says Van Griensven. She tells how nothing is staged or neatly raked-over during the photography session. “We want to see the beauty of things the way they are. At most we placed a leaf somewhere else so as to better showcase the potato, for example.
The vegetables were selected based on what the developers thought would be pretty to show. The colours also had to go together. Geurink: “We opted for a mix of oak leaf lettuce as the base vegetable, the hipper sweet potato, the unknown turnip greens, the increasingly popular fennel, the almost surreal eggplant and the good old radish.”
The U.S. plans to pull out of an international postal treaty, because it allows China to ship packages to the U.S. at discounted rates. That, according to the Administration, costs the U.S. Postal Service about $170 million a year.
ostal Service,” Jay Timmons, the president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement. “This outdated arrangement contributes significantly to the flood of counterfeit goods and dangerous drugs that enter the country from China.”
The release of the Canada Post Community Foundation’s fundraising semi-postal stamp signals the start of Canada Post’s annual fundraising campaign. Your dollar donation for a booklet of 10 stamps and 10 cents for the Official First Day Cover goes directly to support Canadian children and youth, through the funding of programs for breakfast, anti-bullying, special education, camps for children fighting illness, early literacy and other programs.
like the Liberty Series of 1954. Another group will focus on Back of the Book issues of one sort or another, or go the thematic route.
using the post for illegal or immoral purposes, or attempting to fool collectors into buying altered stamps and covers, or outright forgeries.
More importantly, we did an exhibit showing all of what we know to exist and have in “our” collection. See the title page on the right and also reproduced at the bottom of this page for clarity. While it began as two frames, it is now on the verge of a sixth, and the exhibit is shown at the APS Winter and Summer shows each year.
describing a 20¢ Flag Over Supreme Court counterfeit that was used on mailed advertisements for pornography. We don’t have one, and indeed none of us have ever seen a genuine example!
So, where ‘in the olden days’ a postal employee might identify a counterfeit and call in the Inspectors, current counterfeits are well enough done that postal staff can not easily tell the difference between the fakes and genuine stamps without a magnifier.
This level of audacity is equaled if not exceeded by what have come to be called the “stamp doctors” who alter genuine U.S. stamps to make them into more expensive versions (making coils from imperf stamps, adding “Kans.” Or “Nebr.” Overprints, for example) and repair flawed stamps to make them more desirable (and thus more expensive). Examples of this practice might include reperfing to replace damaged perforations, adding perfs to straight edges, filling in pin holes, replacing hinged gum, and much, much more.
Putting together a collection of faked, altered and repaired stamps is a challenge because no dealer specializes in such material, but almost every dealer will have some examples and they mostly sell for pennies on the catalogue-value dollar. The collector who accumulates and studies such material is bound to learn a great deal about the properties of such material, but will also have a leg up in being able to make good judgments about genuine and unaltered stamps.
should be warned that the art of forging, altering and repairing has made great strides in recent years, and the only reliable ways to avoid such material are by acquiring personal knowledge, and knowing how to use the services of a reputable expertizing organization.
OTTAWA, Oct 10, 2018 – A legendary climber of the Rocky Mountains’ sheer crags pauses in a majestic pose on Canada Post’s newest large-format, high-value definitive stamp. Valued at $4, the stamp is part of an ongoing Canadian wildlife series.
The stamps are available in a pane of four (souvenir sheet) (shown at right). Additional collectibles include an Official First Day Cover (OFDC) cancelled in Jasper, AB (shown above); a limited edition uncut press sheet with nine panes of four stamps signed by master engraver Jorge Peral (shown below); a framed and numbered lithographic print signed by illustrator Rodrigo Peral; and a framed enlargement of the stamp image, plus the actual stamp.
