Sunday, December 9, 2012

Sunday Stamps - 100

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Sunday Stamps, I chose this most appropriate 100th Anniversary of the letter carrier delivery service in Canada.

This set was designed by Stephen Mennie in 1974 to honour all the busy postal workers of Canada Post. First up is the Postmaster, then the mail courier, mail handler, mail clerk, letter carrier, and the rural mail courier.

Of course letter delivery was going on long before 1874,
here is [an edited] blurb provided by the website
Canada's first "postmen" - unofficial of course - were the Indian runners who carried messages between neighbouring tribes using wampum beads. The official runner of the Iroquois tribe, for example, carried a string of white wampum beads if the message was of peace, prosperity or goodwill, and blue beads for war, disaster or death. During the days of the fur trade, voyageurs, coureurs de bois and Indian couriers carried mail and messages to the few fur factors, government officials and missionaries in outlying areas. The first official letter carrier in Canada, appointed in 1705, was a Portuguese Canadian, Pedro da Silva, commissioned to carry the Governor's despatches between Québec, Trois-Rivières and Montréal. Da Silva bolstered his salary by carrying private letters at a fee which he based on the distance travelled; he charged ten cents to convey a letter from Québec to Montréal. Before a postal system was available, anyone in New France who wished to send mail to Europe arranged with friends in Québec to take their letters to the captain of an outgoing ship. Friends would also pick up incoming letters and arrange for their delivery by da Silva or some other hired person. In 1851, the provinces took over from the United Kingdom full responsibility for administering the postal service. In that same year, the first Canadian stamps for prepayment of postage were issued. These included the famous red "three penny beaver" designed by Sir Sandford Fleming. With Confederation in 1867 the Canada Post Office was formed and took over the responsibilities of the provinces in postal matters. Uniform postal rates were established and the practice of prepayment of mail was enforced with fines being charged for mail that was not prepaid. At that time, letter carrier delivery service was available in certain large cities. For this service, however, in addition to the postage paid by the sender, the recipient had to pay to the letter carrier upon delivery a charge of two cents on each letter and one cent on each newspaper. In 1874, free letter carrier delivery service was introduced by the Canada Post Office in Montréal and in Toronto, Québec, Ottawa and Hamilton the following year.

My father was a mail carrier for many years and this was his set that we found amongst his things after he died.

14 comments:

  1. I very much like this series. I wonder if the USPS ever did this? I'll have to check.

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  2. There's something sweet about that set. I used to live near a place called "The Rock" - it was originally a rock where the mail was dropped.

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  3. Lovely stamps. I truly enjoyed reading some of the history of the post office in Canada.

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  4. these are so realistically done! great set of stamps! and great way to mark the 100 Sunday Stamps post!

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  5. My favorite stamp themes are the ones that deal with postal services.

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  6. what a beautiful set of stamps. Thank you for posting,another reminder why i'm so thankful that i had a chance to lived in Canada.


    My Sunday Stamp: Mickey Mouse

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  7. This set reminds me of the hard work behind the scenes, adn behind the pennies (OK quite a few) one pays for each stamp. The postage is not expensive, looked at this way.
    thank yo for joining in!

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  8. A fine set of stamps; thank you for the history behind Canadiab stamps. The information we get about other countries postage is one of the features I like about Sunday Stamps.

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  9. These are great stamps- something about 70s stamps, I always love 'the feel' if them. Slightly muted and matte colours, great designs. And what a lovely little memento of your father. Very special stamps to share this week.

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  10. I like how they follow the journey of a letter, the delivery in the countryside is very evocative. Interesting to see the vans are a different colour to the cars, all ours are the same (red).

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  11. How interesting!

    I was a post deliverer at Christmas time when I was a student. Ever since then, I've appreciated the service.

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  12. This is a great series, and with the pace of technology it isn't long before the series is a good depiction of social history

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  13. A very appropriate sheet for this celebration of 100th Sunday stamp!

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  14. Oh I love them! Very retro. :) I was a sorter too, when I was a student. I learnt a lot of geography. :)

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