• 2026 Eastern Ontario Spri...
  Forum: Upcoming Events
  Last Post: Barb
  19-02-2026, 09:23 AM
  » Replies: 4
  » Views: 136
• Happy New Lunar Year the ...
  Forum: Canada
  Last Post: Barb
  18-02-2026, 11:08 AM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 151
• Gifts available for the F...
  Forum: Participate & Claim a Gift!
  Last Post: Carmen
  18-02-2026, 07:45 AM
  » Replies: 4
  » Views: 165
• Tuberculosis Awareness
  Forum: Worldwide -- anything else that doesn't fit
  Last Post: Carmen
  18-02-2026, 07:41 AM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 96
• An Airmail Packet from Lo...
  Forum: Stamps / covers discussion
  Last Post: Janet MacD
  17-02-2026, 04:30 PM
  » Replies: 6
  » Views: 247
• Scott 3 Nova Scotia
  Forum: For Sale
  Last Post: Carmen
  17-02-2026, 07:17 AM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 103
• Scott 279A on cover
  Forum: For Sale
  Last Post: Carmen
  17-02-2026, 07:06 AM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 101
• Tariffs are gone
  Forum: KSC Lounge
  Last Post: Carmen
  17-02-2026, 06:57 AM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 107
• An Invitation! Join the C...
  Forum: Participate & Claim a Gift!
  Last Post: Webmaster
  17-02-2026, 01:18 AM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 239
• Philate-buddy
  Forum: KSC Lounge
  Last Post: Carmen
  15-02-2026, 07:24 AM
  » Replies: 5
  » Views: 318

• Forum posts:645
• Forum threads:282
• Members:23
• Latest member:rosco_1957

The Kingston Stamp Club is delighted to announce the 2026 Eastern Ontario Spring Stamp Festival, taking place on Saturday, April 18, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Crossroads United Church, 690 Sir John A. MacDonald Boulevard, Kingston, Ontario. The venue is wheelchair accessible and offers ample free parking for all attendees.

This year’s festival will feature several local stamp dealers and 20 plus tables presenting an extensive range of definitive and commemorative postage stamps, revenue, Cinderella, and topical stamps, postal stationery including postcards, envelopes with postmarks, and first day covers. As well as, catalogues, collecting supplies and a youth table offering complimentary stamps. The event provides experienced philatelists, postal historians, and newcomers to the hobby with an excellent opportunity to enhance or begin their collections while exploring the ways in which stamps reflect history, culture, art, and nature in miniature form.

Hope to see you there!

or contact Club President, Bob Gardner at 613‑389‑9587, or bandjgardner@cogeco.ca

This thread starts with our last club meeting. Lloyd takes home bags of stock books from Roy to puruse at home. He noticed something in one book that he thought I would like:

I don’t have a huge collection of these stamps yet, and it is always exciting to find an intact sheet! These are my first from South Africa, and Roy made them highly affordable.

Then Tony gave me a bag of slogan cancels, because he remembers me talking about them. It was a lovely selection that included these:




And then I was gifted a cover for Valentines, with this lovely fellow on the back:

   

That is Adam Beck. His daughter suffered from tuberculosis and he and his wife invested considerable time into fundraising to build the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium, which opened in London, Ontario in 1910. In 1949 it was renamed the Beck Memorial Sanatorium. 

Christmas seals were and are used to raise funds for charity, but they are not semi-postal stamps, which also raise funds for charity. The difference is the issuer - semi-postals are issued by the post office for use as postage and Christmas seals are not. Christmas seals are called Cinderella stamps. I don’t know if this Google explanation is accurate, but I do like it very much. “They are called “Cinderellas” because they are the “stepchildren” of philately - beautiful and similar to postage stamps, but not allowed to “attend the ball” (i.e., not listed in standard postage catalogues like Scott).”

The first Christmas seal appeared in Denmark in 1904, suggested by a postman. They were issued in the US in 1907 and Canada in 1908. The original Christmas seals were used to raise funds to build special hospitals for patients with tuberculosis. At the time, only the wealthy could afford treatment, but a disproportionate number of working class people were ill. In Canada, 61 hospitals had been built by 1938. After streptomycin was discovered in 1944 and provided free of charge across Canada, treatment changed. The last Canadian sanitorium closed in the 1970s. 

You can read more about the history of Christmas seals in Canada at www.lung.ca .

The definitive reference for Cinderella stamps in Canada is The Field Guide to the Cinderella Stamps of Canada by Ronald G. Lafrenière, Bird Bear Press. The author passed away before completing the third edition, but his widow has promised the work will be finished. The third and final edition is expected to be published this year.

And if you’d like to know the difference between Sanitorium and Sanitarium - because historically, there is a difference - ask Google.

To celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year I share this beautiful Year of the Horse stamp with you!

Issued January 3, 2002, Scott #1934


Scott #1933

Of special interest please see the detail below:


Scott #1934i
(from https://postagestampguide.com/canada/stamps/17376)

See the thread at the top of this Forum for what's going on!

These are the participation gifts available leading up to the meeting for February 26. 

Make your post, reply or comment in the proper forum and then come here and "Reply" to this post, say where you posted and claim one of the following gifts for delivery at the club on February 26, 2026. Webmaster (Roy) will put it aside with your name on it. Pick it up at the club. If you miss the meeting, so sorry, gift goes back into the pool. (We want you at the meetings too!)

More than one of each of these is available, but supplies of each are limited. Webmaster may not get to posting "This Gift is gone" in time, so it is possible you may be asked to pick an alternate.

#1
   
Ireland Complete Booklet 

#2
   
Canada Youth Exhibition souvenir sheet FDC

#3

US 1978 CAPEX souvenir sheet - animals

#4

Rhodesia Trade Conference FDC

#5

1981 BNAPS Convention Souvenir Cover

#6

Bermuda Map Maximum Card

Roy

There are no longer Tariffs on Philatelic Materials and Revenue stamps and documents Being sent to The U.S. We still have to use the app Zonos Prepay. After you send picture it comes back Zero Tariffs.Thanks to the APS.

Scott 279A on cover with APS cert Registered as only one to date to be registered very fine condition  asking $25,000. email me if interested in making an offer.

1851 Dark Blue Scott #3 Og very fine small thins balanced margines. Cv $3000 for OG. Email me if interested for a great deal.

Two of Roy’s 50 cent covers with great slogans and an opportunity to learn a little Canadian manufacturing history:

First, the slogans

Stamped Envelopes Save Time And Money - a great endorsement of postal stationery. This slogan is S-1285 in the Coutts database. My example is neither the earliest recorded date (ERD) used for Walkerville, ON nor the latest recorded date (LRD).

Post Your Mail When Ready And Ensure Early Handling - This is P-0565 and within the recorded date range.

Next, the sender

Studebaker Automobiles in Walkerville, Ontario manufactured cars from about 1910 to 1936 for use in Canada and other British Empire markets. They used parts shipped from the main plant in Indiana. The factory was closed in 1936, after the Canadian government introduced duty on parts not sourced from Commonwealth countries. This sounds like a bad decision, but in fact encouraged a great deal of investment in Canada by the US auto companies.

Finally, the recipient 

Motor Wheel Corporation in Lansing, Michigan was founded in 1920. At one time they were responsible for the wheels on one- third of the cars in the US. They are still in business, but are now known for brake drums and brake adjusters for use on heavy duty trucks. Their headquarters is in Tennessee.

Sources

Thank you to Google for the crash course in automotive history.

The Coutts Slogan Cancel reference is a printed book that was transformed into an online database, which is free for members of the Postal History Society of Canada (PHSC). A digital membership costs just $15 per year and provides hours and hours of entertainment! I am hoping to find slogans that are earlier or later than recorded dates. How cool would that be?

www.postalhistorycanada.net

This may be why it takes Hugh so long to get his work done! Motley the former feral cat is asserting his rights to rule our colony …

   

This is a wonderful piece of mail for so many reasons! It has Machins, a customs declaration, a customs acceptance stamp, and advertising with product samples. Even better, it is an artifact that connects international trade from Victorian England to present day, and illustrates industrial mechanization in the textile industry. This was an envelope stuffed with history! And although I would like to keep the contents intact, I doubt I will be able to resist my urge to incorporate them in a quilted or collaged fibre art project!

The business, Metro Textiles Corner in London, England was founded in 1968 and is still operating. They serve retail and wholesale customers, and they specialize in selling to west Africa. One of the manufacturers they represent is Vlisco, a Dutch company founded in 1846. Vlisco specializes in wax-based batiks, and acknowledges that their company history reflects “complex historical and cultural connections.” That is an understatement. 

In 1846 the company was called van Vlissingen & Co. The Dutch were colonizing Indonesia and van Vlissingen discovered traditional “wax resist” hand blocked textile design methods that dated back to the 11th century. He noted that the fabrics were used for women’s traditional dress but were not affordable to the masses. He developed the “Dutch wax” process to mechanize manufacturing. The Indonesians considered his fabrics to be poor quality and didn’t buy them. But - riflemen from Ghana, who were part of the Dutch colonial army in Indonesia, took home large quantities of the bright, colorful fabrics. Then, between late Victorian and Edwardian times, the missionaries arrived in Ghana and told women to cover themselves, increasing demand for inexpensive textiles. By the time this package of samples was mailed, Vlisco was manufacturing “wax fabric” in Africa and China was producing cheap knockoffs of Vlisco’s fabric. China has captured about 90% of the wax fabric market. Vlisco’s products now represent high quality. Traditional African fabrics have been pushed into the background.

Now, 180 years after their founding, Vlisco specializes in creating fabric for the west and Central African market, and Metro Textiles Corner sells their fabric to Africans in England and around the world. 



Thank you, Roy, for the wonderful history lesson!