What Is a First Day Cover the Third Level
A Collection of First Day Covers
Kerry Barrow, Collection's Cataloguer, Curatorial Services
The House of Commons Heritage Collection is a diverse assortment of objects and artefacts crafted in a variety of materials, including wood, upholstery, canvas, paint, metals and paper. One large group of artefacts that has recently joined the Collection are the 756 First Day Covers that were collected and created by the House of Commons Postal Services from June 1967 to April 1994.
First Day Covers – What are they?
This is the oldest First Day Cover in the House of Commons Collection.
First Day Covers are envelopes affixed with a stamp or stamps on the first day that they are made available for sale to the public. On the first day of issue, the envelope is stamped with a postmark and cancellation indicating the date and location that the envelope was received into the postal service. On occasion, the postmark and cancellation are joined and form one continuous design: the postmark is the circular mark; the cancellation is the horizontal bars that are applied directly onto the stamp.
First Day Covers and stamps have always been collectible items for those who practice philately. Over the years, First Day Covers became more elaborate with the addition of a cachet. The cachet is usually a coloured printing that is related to the stamp and is placed on the left side of the envelope. Individual post offices could create their own cachets and versions of First Day Covers. In 1967, the centenary of Canadian Confederation, the House of Commons Postal Services began its standardized practice. In 1971, Canada Post started issuing its own Official First Day Covers with standardized cachets. As these Official First Day Covers became more readily available to collectors, and more desirable, local production by smaller independent merchants drastically decreased and virtually ceased, but the House of Commons has continued the practice of issuing its own specialized First Day Covers.
House of Commons First Day Covers
First day of issue: .
This is the last time the words
Ottawa, Canadaappeared in the cancellation and
House of Commons / Chambre des Communesin the postmark.
What makes the House of Commons First Day Covers unique and collectible is that the cachet used is representative of the House of Commons and the postmark and cancellation are from the location of the House of Commons. The cachet is comprised of an embossed gold foil stamp of the Coat of Arms of Canada beneath which are found the words House of Commons / Chambre des Communes
, followed by an embossed gold foil stamp rendering the House of Commons Mace and bearing the words First Day of Issue / Premier jour d'émission.
In addition, to the left of the postmark is a green rubber-stamp impression of the Centre Block. For the First Day Covers issued in 1967, the official Centennial symbol was added to the bottom right corner of the envelope.
From this date onwards, the words
House of Commons / Chambre des Communesappears in the cancellation and
Ottawa, Canadaappears in the postmark.
Beginning in March 1984, the postmark and cancellation exchanged their wording. The postmark now contained the words Ottawa
and Canada
, whereas the cancellation now contained the words House of Commons / Chambre des Communes
. The specifics of this philatelic collection, along with the environment and history in which it was created, make it distinctive and exceptional.
The collection is not quite complete, however, as the first year of collecting was not consistent. Everyday stamps called definitives
were not always obtained by the House of Commons. Out of the 862 stamps that were issued from 1967 to 1994, 106 are absent from the collection.
Stamp Subject Matter
First day of issue: .
The majority of the stamps in the collection were of a limited run and were designed to commemorate a particular event or subject matter. These are known as commemoratives
. Many of these commemorative stamps are part of a series or a set comprised of a number of different designs following a common theme. Others are stand-alone. The two most prevalent subject matters covered in the collection are Christmas and the Olympic Games.
Each year, Canada Post would issue various Christmas themed stamps, ranging from Christmas trees through the ages to Nativity scenes and children's toys.
The years leading up to Olympic Games would see a flurry of stamps depicting Olympic sporting events, locations, emblems and symbols.
Other series commemorate notable Canadians and their achievements, and various modes of transportation, such as cars, locomotives, airplanes and ships.
The collection also includes stamps depicting Canada's flora and fauna, the provinces and territories, world events, anniversaries, lighthouses, military forts across Canada, the Maple Leaf, the Parliament Buildings, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as well as First Nations and Inuit art and artefacts.
First day of issue: .
Today
In early 1994, the House of Commons Postal Services ceased the program of collecting and issuing First Day Covers. The collection, that had been amassed over 27 years, was given into the custody of Curatorial Services for safekeeping and is now part of the Heritage Collection.
What Is a First Day Cover the Third Level
Source: https://www.ourcommons.ca/About/HistoryArtsArchitecture/collection_profiles/CP_First_Day_Covers-e.htm
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