King of Canadian Stamp Shows

The St. Catharines Standard reports "the king of Canadian stamp gatherings," the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada's annual convention is being held June 12 to 14 in St. Catharines,Ontario.

The event includes 13 seminars, dozens of stamp dealers, a Stamp Camp for children, youths and adult leaders according to reporter Don Fraser.

Fraser quotes Stuart Keeley,chairman of the show committee as saying, "This is a huge deal; it's our big national show. It's an amazing event, where you interact with collectors and get ideas from all over the place."

Keeley, 63, a retired marketer, is president of the 65-member St. Catharines Stamp Club. He started collecting stamps at age 15. Although he stopped collecting in university, "he's back in the game" writes Fraser.

Bret Evans, managing editor of Canadian Stamp News is also quoted in the piece. He sees a bright future for the hobby.

"[Stamp collectors] are often aging boomers," he said, "And we're seeing a lot of people who now have the available time and money, who are going back to what they were exposed to as a kid. It is giving the hobby new life."

Shown above, Stuart Keeley looks at an $8 Canadian grizzly bear stamp from his collection.

According to a write-up by Tony Borwn that appears on the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada's Website, "The stamp contains several unique features. The traditional 'Postage/Postes' has been replaced with extremely small lettering that, without a magnifying glass, could be mistaken for two black lines in the upper right corner of the stamp. These lines, which are meant to discourage counterfeiting, are actually the word 'MAILPOSTE' repeated 14 times (seven per row). Small coloured images of bears were used to form the sky and grass, which 'hides' the 1997 copyright date under the bear's front paw, and the number '8' has been worked into the design of the bear's right hind leg as an anti-counterfeiting device."

To read the entire article, click here.

To visit the show's Web site, click here.