Canada Post honours Black History Month

• Canada Post issues Black History Month stamps

Celebrate Black History Month with this booklet of 10 PermanentTM domestic rate stamps honouring the communities of Willow Grove, New Brunswick, and Amber Valley, Alberta. These two communities settled in the

19th and early 20th centuries by Black Americans seeking to es-cape racism and build a better life.

The residents of Willow

Grove and Amber Valley faced the challenges of poor farming land and harsh weather conditions. They also faced con-tinued prejudice and discrimination, including from local and federal governments. Despite the hostility of their environments, these communities grew, and their descendants have enriched Canadian society and culture.

Willow Grove was founded in 1817 by a group of Black refugees from the War of 1812 (most formerly enslaved in the United States).

Facing difficulties farming on inhospitable land, the residents of Willow Grove tried to support themselves temporarily in Saint John, only to be met with racist restrictions. Still the community grew, and later featured a post office, general store, and the Willow Grove Baptist Church. Today, the church is gone, but it’s restored burial grounds and a miniature replica of the church mark the history of Willow Grove.

• The Lethbridge Philatelic Society meets on the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.. (except July and August). Meetings are held in Christ Trinity Lutheran Church 416 – 12 Street South Lethbridge.

Last year I made up my mind to stop buying and collecting mint stamps from Canada and Germany. It’s not that I quit collecting or don’t like stamps any more, but it has become they cater to collectors making busi-ness for the post office corporations. Stamps are no longer used on parcels. Stamps are no longer used in business. Stamps are no longer sold for letters, unless you request them.

If you mail more than a letter in Germany you are not allowed to post them with stamps. Letters are encouraged to be marked with an internet code or self-printed label.

If you mail a parcel at the local postal outlet, you get a label for postage paid, unless you request stamps. The clerk will most likely say, “We don’t put stamps on parcels any more.” Then when you try placing the amount in stamps, there are no high values to make up the amount.

• For collectors, Canada Post brought out Hockey Collector Cards, which most postal clerks were unaware that they were actually $2.50 and $1.80 stamps each. There has been a yearly bunch of stamps, except 2020, where there was no postal significance in the issues other to sell to collectors. It started in 2000 with the “Millennium Book” which Canada Post issued and consequently brought out 17 blocks of four different stamps at the counter to make the stamps legitimate.

• 2021 presents another year, where the Chinese New Year starts over, but instead of creating new stamps, Canada Post has renumbered the old international stamps from the last 12 years to “P” stamps for domestic use, issuing booklets of 12 and a souvenir sheet with the 12.

The stamps for international are the images that were “P” stamps, but are now $2.71 as souvenir sheet, printed on a Press Sheet of 12 for $32 +.

I hate to say but where can you stick a press sheet on a parcel or letter to mail it?

• How many stamps do you have to sell? Do you want to sell them individual or in lots? Do you want them on a sheet or in a bag? How you do it or want to do it depends on the types, catalogue value and condition.

Selling on the internet is easy, but can be troublesome with todays mail service, when the shipment does not arrive on time. Usually prices tend to be low unless they are sought after or unique.

Placing stamps in approval books is very time consuming and unless they are of value, a waste of time. Most stamps, realistically are only worth from pennies to a nickel. Most collectors have so many of one or another. Bagging them for an auction or sale is the fastest and easiest, but also the less profitable.