[press release]
The December Stamps 2016 PostNL will send a card as possible for everyone in the Christmas and New Year period to family, friends and relations at a cheap rate. The December special rate of € 0.65 per stamp this year is valid from November 14, 2016 until January 6, 2017
Issued November 14, 2016 
About the design:
A sheet of 2016 December stamps contains two pages with ten stamps each and the extra December stamp. The ten illustrations on the stamps look like festive miniature stories. Each illustration refers to the festive month of December: a sleigh full of presents, a skate on wintery ice, a crystal snow globe with a snowman, squirrels collecting acorns, Christmas cookies, a Christmas tree in a cargo bicycle, mulled wine and ornaments, 
champagne glasses, a woman wearing a knit cap and scarf on a cold, wintery night and a record player with cheery Christmas music. Each stamp features gradient rich, warm colours. The atmosphere on the stamps is enriched with crystal shapes each with a different function – from fireworks to snowflakes, from champagne bubbles to even the shiny reflections on the ornaments and the single on the record player. There is a certain, unique logic to each of the colours. For example, the squirrels are set in a green environment, the skate is on blue ice and the drawbridge is shown against the red evening afterglow. The background colour on the extra December stamp was taken from the same palette as the other stamps. The image is a picture of five hands spread out to make a star. This image symbolises unity and connecting people and goes nicely with the thought of using this stamp to send a card to a special person. The font used for the typography is the modern, round, friendly and modest Brauer by Philippe Desarzens of Elektrokosmos from 1999/2006, an updated version of Pierre Miedinger’s font of the same name from 1974.
Technical Specifications:
Stamp size: 25.3 x 20.8 mm
Perforation: 14½ : 14½
Paper: normal with phosphor tagging
Gum: synthetic
Printing: offset
Circulation:
PostNL: 4,860,000 sheetlets
Trekpleister: 130,000 sheetlets
Kruidvat: 500,000 sheetlets
Printing house: Joh. Enschedé Security Print, Haarlem
Print colors stamp: yellow, magenta, cyan and black
About the designer:
Edgar Smaling and Carlo Elias of Smel have designed stamps for PostNL before. The last ones were the 2014 December stamps. “This new assignment was a complete surprise,” Carlo says, “and of course again a great honour. PostNL asked us to build on the style we developed in 2014, but not to copy it completely. Which was a good thing, as that wouldn’t do our style justice. We also had other concepts to deal with. Ten different illustrations instead of twenty. A horizontal format instead of a vertical one. And the extra 21st stamp to surprise a special person with a Christmas greeting.” For the illustrations, Smel looked for modern subjects. Edgar: “Of course we have the classics like Christmas trees, ornaments, bells and snowflakes. But it also features contemporary images. The modern cargo bicycle used to transport children for example, with the Christmas tree in it. The comeback of the record player with the renewed interest in vinyl. The mulled wine with star anise. And the German Lebkuchen, fast gaining popularity in our country as Christmas cookies. We focused on the same principles in the selection of each subject: recognition, sharing, warmth and cosiness.” “We also revised our illustration style”, Carlo explains. “We went for a two-dimensional approach with a stronger focus on the larger picture than on finer lines. No 3D, no classic perspective, but we did create depth through a clever use of colour and layers. Look at the Magere Brug (“Skinny Bridge”) stamp. Positioning the skate on the foreground and blurring the colour of the bridge automatically creates distance. This sheetlet contains lots of dynamic images. The snow globe is tilted, because it will only snow once you shake it. The sleigh is also tilted up 
somewhat, a logical direction that refers to pulling the rope. The cargo bicycle is riding into the stamp, the woman is rushing along the canal houses, the champagne glasses are moving towards each other and the record on the record table is spinning. That movement is counter-balanced by the calm of the illustrations on the stamps with the mulled wine and the squirrels. That was how we brought balance to all of it. There is a similar balance in our choice of location – half of the stories are set outside and the other half is inside.” As is often the case in Smel’s work, these illustrations again contain subtle details. Edgar: “There are many different ways to depict the arm of the record player. The art is in leaving things out while still maintaining recognisability. The details are an essential part of the illustrations. Take the nostalgic triangle on the single or the mirrored squirrels, for example. Or look at the cinnamon stick in the mulled wine, next to the star anise. You can even see the lemon peel floating in the glass. The shape of the star anise is blown up in the background. It’s barely visible, but it’s there. We applied the same technique for the windmills on the back of the stamp sheetlet.” Carlo calls it “a challenge to find the right balance between what most people like and what we think is a good design. What we make is usually pert and unique. So for example, giving an unaesthetic subject like Lebkuchen its own aesthetic was quite the challenge. With all the necessary details. All stamps were designed as miniature stories on a miniature scale, but I dare say the design would have the same strength and effect if it were blown up to poster size.” About the designers The 2016 December stamp sheet was designed by Edgar Smaling and Carlo Elias, founders of Smel. Both designers studied between 1993 and 1997 at the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost in Breda. Smel, founded in 2001, consists of an energetic team of dedicated, multidisciplinary creative professionals, working for clients in government, fashion, design, art, photography and architecture. They design strategic corporate identities, magazines, books, house styles and websites. In doing so, they aim for airy shape concepts subtly connecting quality and the power of imagination. Smel provided the designs for the 2009 Summer stamps, the 125 Years of Carré stamps in 2012 and the December stamps in 2014.
Issue Date: November 11, 2016
usually work hard to build up large fat reserves before they bed down, and subsist on this during their sleep. They might wake up at intervals to defecate or top up on food. Few British mammals hibernate during the winter – only the dormouse, hedgehog and the bat species.
British snakes also hibernate through the winter months. The grass snake is the UK’s largest snake, growing to 150cm in length and identifiable by its yellow or cream band behind the head and its delicate body markings. They live in a wide range of wetland habitats but also venture into gardens. Grass Snakes eat as much as possible before they go into hibernation to store up enough fat in their bodies to live off during their long winter sleep.
Number of stamps:Four
As overprinted by Post & Go machine: Brown long-eared ba
Royal Mail has issued Christmas stamps since 1966 and is therefore celebrating fifty years of Special Stamps this year.
Design: The Chase
The fourth stamp depicts the Virgin and Child, which was painted around 1460 by a highly esteemed painter from Florence, Italy, known only as the Master of the Castello Nativity. This rare painting uses gold and tempera, a pigment common until the advent of oil paint, whose many layers create intense colours. Virgin and Child is part of a generous donation of paintings made by Michal and Renata Hornstein to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
TORONTO – On the eve of the World Cup of Hockey 2016 semi-finals, and less than three weeks before the start of the 2016-17 NHL® Season, Canada Post today unveiled the fourth issue in its five-year NHL stamp series.
The six legends hail from five provinces. As a group, they played in more than 8,300 NHL games and scored more than 3,800 goals and more than 5,700 assists – more than a point per game (regular season and playoffs). Between them, they have won 18 Stanley Cup® Championships.
Phil Esposito
Guy Lafleur
Darryl Sittler
Mark Messier
Steve Yzerman 
Sidney Crosby
Available in a mixed booklet of six, containing all of this year’s lineup, the stamps measure 40 mm x 32 mm with simulated perforations, and are printed by Lowe-Martin on Tullis Russell paper with seven-colour lithography. The booklet front features a tightly cropped action shot of Lafleur and Sittler. Oversized-rate hockey-card-size souvenir sheets are available in a pack of six, as well. Each includes a chance to win: one in 40 packs has a signed and authenticated souvenir sheet. Related products: A gummed mini-pane collectors’ item featuring all six players. The mini-pane features embossed, foiled logos of the team each player was best known for. The Official First Day Covers – one for each player – will be cancelled in the birthplaces of the player: Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. (Esposito); Thurso, Que. (Lafleur); Kitchener, Ont. (Sittler); Edmonton, Alta. (Messier); Cranbrook, B.C. (Yzerman); and Cole Harbour, N.S. (Crosby). Limited edition signed and numbered framed prints are available for each player.
Here are the fronts and backs of the hockey-card-size souvenir sheets for each player: 
And the mini-pane for the issue: 
OTTAWA, SEPT. 8, 2016 /CNW/ – Don’t give up the ghosts – another fright-filled adventure is yours to enjoy in Canada Post’s latest collection of five Haunted Canada stamps. [The stamps were issued September 8th. —VSC]
The Bell Island Hag – Bell Island, N.L. The spirit, it is said, dwells in the marshes near Dobbin’s Garden and appears to a lone person, overpowering him or her with her stench. As she covers her victim with her cowl, she always hisses the same words: “No one came to help me when I died in that swamp. No one will help you. Now taste what I tasted and smell what I smelled as my life was taken from me.” The victim is found hours later, unconscious and reeking of death.
The Dungarvon Whooper – Renous, N.B. Lumberjacks returned from work one day to discover their young cook dead and his money belt missing – apparently the work of the camp boss. The cook was quickly buried as a snowstorm blew in, and in the night, terrifying whoops and wails issued from his shallow grave. The lumberjacks fled in terror, never to return. To this day, Miramichi residents claim to hear the cook’s mournful cries, despite the efforts of a priest to quiet the grave years after the suspected murder.
The Lady in White – Montmorency Falls, Que. Hidden in the roar of Montmorency Falls are the cries of La Dame blanche (the Lady in White) calling out for her lost love. It was at the falls that Mathilde Robin’s fiancé, Louis Tessier, had courted her. Little did the betrothed couple know that Louis was soon to perish in battle during the Seven Years’ War. Overwhelmed with grief at the news of this death, Mathilde donned her wedding gown and tossed herself into the raging cataract.
The Phantom Bell Ringers of the Kirk of St. James – Charlottetown In the early morning of October 7, 1853, a sea captain was mystified to hear what sounded like the clanging of a ship’s bell coming from the town centre. He made his way to the Kirk of St. James, where he and the church keeper spied four women, one peering down from the belfry. The two men pursued the women up to the tower but found nothing except the bell, still vibrating. Later that day, the Fairy Queen mail steamer sank in stormy seas, with seven lives lost, including four women – three were members of the congregation of the Kirk of St. James.
The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre – Toronto Staff and patrons have witnessed all manner of apparitions and otherworldly events in the restored theatre centre. A woman dressed in Edwardian dress has reportedly appeared in the lobby, while the hand-operated elevators have been seen stopping of their own accord at various floors. And be careful where you sit – the seats in the Winter Garden Theatre have flipped down and back up, as if unseen audience members had sat down and got up again. Or so they say.
The stamps measure 32 mm x 32 mm and are available in booklets of 10. They were designed by Lionel Gadoury and printed by Colour Innovations in five colours with a holographic foil. The issue also includes a souvenir sheet of five stamps measuring 127 mm x 73 mm, an Official First Day Cover (above) cancelled in Renous, N.B., and an uncut press sheet (below) measuring 650 mm x 480 mm. There are also five postage-paid postcards (available individually or as a set of five) and a Haunted Canada gift set of coin and stamps. 
Issue date: July 12, 2016
Hatched by designer Kosta Tsetsekas and illustrator Keith Martin, these stamps are the first in a three-year series celebrating Canada’s avian citizens. Our first flock includes five official birds: the Atlantic puffin (Newfoundland and Labrabor), the great horned owl (Alberta), the common raven (Yukon), the rock ptarmigan (Nunavut) and the sharp-tailed grouse (Saskatchewan).
subjects. He explains that, “You ultimately have to understand the physicality of these creatures.”
Forced to pick a favourite, Martin chose the puffin. “When it’s flying, it’s like a missile,” he says, “but when it lands, it always looks like it’s doing it for the first time. I wanted to reflect that quirkiness in my illustration.”
each bird in the 15-stamp series,” he smiles. “So, naturally, we’re eager to see them take flight.”
OTTAWA, May 26, 2016 /CNW/ – The mystery about the prehistoric creatures depicted in Canada Post’s exciting new Dinos of Canada stamp series is whether they are the hunters or the hunted.
The series, unveiled today, depicts five beasts from Canada’s geological past as reflections in the eyes of their prey or the predators stalking them. They are vividly illustrated by Sergey Krasovskiy, one of the world’s top paleo-artists.
Acrotholus audeti
Comox Valley elasmosaur
Cypretherium coarctatum
Canada’s first dinosaur, paleontologists later came to realize it was a mammal-like reptile. Its fearsome jaws were filled with serrated teeth and it likely used a sail on its back for display. It lived in what is now Prince Edward Island about 270 million years ago in, when it was hot and dry and located near the Equator.
Troodon inequalis
Six stamps feature iconic album covers: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; Atom Heart Mother;The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals and The Endless River.
A further four stamps within a miniature sheet celebrate the live performances of the band. Arguably the most visually literate band of all time, as well as being one of the most successful, their live appearances were renowned. They were among the first groups to make extensive use of light shows and projection of films for their appearances, increasing in ambition over the decades.
Pink Floyd were formed when the founding trio of bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright were augmented by original guitarist Syd Barrett. In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band shortly before Barrett’s departure.
THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (EMI Columbia, 1967)
Harvest, 1970)
With sales in excess of 40 million copies worldwide, The Dark Side Of The Moon remains in the Billboard chart in America over 40 years after its release, and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-charting album. Created by Hipgnosis, with graphics by George Hardie of NTA, the prism device is a classic.
WISH YOU WERE HERE (EMI Harvest, 1975)
ANIMALS (EMI Harvest, 1977)
THE ENDLESS RIVER (Parlophone Warner, 2014)
While their studio work has always been important, Pink Floyd have been defined by their live performances. Their early shows in 1966 at London’s UFO Club married the use of pioneering liquid light effects that matched the psychedelic quality of the music itself.
1st Class – The Dark Side of the Moon Tour, 1973.
£1.52 The Division Bell Tour, 1994.
