Collector’s Corner: Queen’s early history on stamps

By Dennis Vickery on September 24, 2022.

It seemed appropriate to honour the late Queen Elizabeth II with a brief history of two of our nations earliest stamps to feature Her Majesty.

A one-cent stamp was issued by the Dominion of Canada on May 15, 1939. This stamp was part of a three-stamp set issued to Commemorate the Royal Visit in 1939. Featured on the stamp was a young Princess Elizabeth along with her younger sister, Princess Margaret.

This issue was the first to have combined two separate engraved plates, one for the frame and a separate one to print the black of the heads. Thus each stamp has a combination plate number. The one-cent stamp was based on photographs by Marcus Adams.

The Dominion of Newfoundland featured a very young Princess Elizabeth holding a Teddy Bear on a six-cent stamp from an even earlier date. In 1932 this stamp was issued as part of a series of 17 Definitives, some 17 years prior to Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada.

This series of stamps was engraved on watermarked paper and printed by Perkins Bacon.

Needless to say Queen Elizabeth II was featured on numerous more Canadian stamps as both a Princess and later as Queen.

To learn more about the stamps of Queen Elizabeth II and many other topics please visit the Medicine Hat Coin and Stamp Club. Our meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at 7:30 p.m. at Victory Lutheran Church.

Saturday is the date of our Coin and Stamp Show at the Cypress Centre Auditorium from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year we will be featuring a Charity Sales table with all sale proceeds going to a local charity.

Collector’s Corner is contributed by the Medicine Hat Coin & stamp Club. For questions or comments on how to join our club, or about coin or stamp collection email medhatcsc@live.com

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