Every stamp is a work of art

Most people look at stamps every day as a means of getting a letter or bill to a destination. Does anyone pay attention to the millions of beavers that are on letters every day? Did you notice the change in the images from the gophers, or the flowers?

Each year, Canada Post issues new stamps. Some are definitive and a lot are commemoratives. Definitive are the everyday general mail type stamps to handle the bulk of the mail. The artistically creative stamps are usually the commemoratives, which depict historical events and have significances in our country’s history. These are special stamps and usually are celebrated with issues of souvenir sheets. Although these issues are stamps and valued as postage, Canada Post usually does not anticipate them for use in mailing, because they are too precious, by most people, to be allowed through the mail in case of damage. The 100th anniversary of the Toronto Maple Leafs, printed on a jersey like fabric with the felt maple leaf, is one of these. It would also be too big for most letters and then, who would spend $5 to mail a letter that only requires 85 cents.

Do you ever really look at what is on the stamp? I was given stamps from an envelope from the United Emirates. The person never looked at the stamps until I pointed out the pictures and what they were. Without a magnifying glass, stamps are tiny and vanish on the letter. We only see a dark blot that usually is obliterated by the cancel.

Each stamp is a work of delicate art by the engraver, working from a photograph, painting or artistic design, and each stamp is a creation of detail that can be magnified to a factor of 100 to reveal the extreme detail and sometimes hidden dates and descriptions. Look at the stamp you paste on that envelope. It is a precious piece of art that took many hours to create and perfect to allow them to be printed. The process is just as meticulous as printing money and often comes from the same printers.

There have been hundreds of stamps depicting Canada’s great artists and their work in art and photography. Imagine, you just handled a stamp of a painting that just sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Look at the stamps and what they tell you.