2019-04-17 Wed

Canada Post released a new set of five self-adhesive stamps called Sweet Canada on 17th April. They feature five traditional desserts and are also shaped like them. All five nondenominated stamps feature the letter “P” inside a maple leaf to denote that they are permanent stamps.

Two pie-shaped stamps depict Saskatoon berry pie and Quebec’s sugar pie, respectively. A skillet-shaped stamp shows blueberry grunt which is made by dropping biscuit dough on boiling berries. The dessert is named so because a grunting sound is produced when the blueberries bubble and steam under the dough. British Columbia’s Nanaimo bar is featured on a hexagonal stamp, and a butter tart of Ontario is featured inside an irregular circle.

A booklet of 10 with two of each stamp and a souvenir sheet with all five stamps are also available. The booklet pane and the souvenir sheet are designed like recipe cards with splashes of maple syrup and other ingredients. The recipe box on the booklet-cover features recipe cards for sugar pie, butter tart and Nanaimo bar.

Roy White and Liz Wurzinger of Subplot Design Inc. from Vancouver designed the stamps while Mary Ellen Johnson illustrated them. They baked the five desserts, photographed them and created oil paintings. Subplot designed a recipe card design for the souvenir sheet.

The stamps were printed by Canadian Bank Note using six-colour lithography. 200,000 booklets of 10 and 80,000 souvenir sheets of five were produced. The size of every stamp is different. The first-day cover contains the souvenir sheet and first-day cancels from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Visit philamart to view and purchase variety of stamps from all over the world.

Image Courtesy: Canada Post