Mystery Canada Post Souvenir Portfolio?

I received this as part of a box lot a year ago and as I don't collect Canada I tucked it away in a box of covers. Today I happened to unearth the thing and I was wondering if anyone on the board could tell me anything about it. I've attached some scans. The booklet includes 10 pages of mounted stamps from the 70s, each preceded with a glassine sheet with some related information printed on it.. Is there a particular name for this sort of portfolio? For what reason would someone receive this sort of thing? Are they rare at all?







-P.Bear

I can't claim first-hand knowledge of this particular example, but it looks similar to UPU Congress presentation books that Canada has issued in the past - perhaps it was for some similar type of Congress, such as the Congress of the Postal Union of the Americas and Spain. Each delegate at the these Congresses would receive copies of these presentation books as gifts. Some of the old ones are pretty expensive, mostly because of the high catalogue value of the stamps inside. So far I've been able to add the 1930, 1933 and 1939 UPU presentation books to my collection - I've conveniently forgotten how much I paid for them, though ...

Ryan

Thanks Ryan,

I also have a UPU Congress pamphlet from the same lot dated 1974 although its not nearly as substantial as the booklet that I posted -- printed on embossed cardboard and consisting of only an embossed jacket, a single glassine insert and a piece of paper, of the same quality of the jacket, with two stamps mounted in a similar fashion as to the pictures that I've previously posted.

I'm still hopeful that someone out there can provide me with more information on this particular example.

-P. Bear

There are MANY similar products from Canada Post for various presentation purposes. There is no real record of what was produced, when, and for whom. UPU (especially in 1974, its 100th anniversary) is a great guess for this more lavish presentation pack.

I have many less elaborate presentation items, all related to my main collecting interests: Canadian Christmas and Canadian Elizabethan Definitives.

I love this kind of stuff!

You might want to check with Andrew Chung. He is a leading authority on this kind of Canada Post ephemera. If you don't know him, send me an email through the SCF system and I'll connect you.

Petermac,

Thanks - if you could connect me to Andrew I would appreciate it and will post any followup details here in this thread.

-P.Bear

Canada Post issued/used a number of these type of presentation books. I have 4 different ones (various stamp issues in the pages, but covers and intros are all the same)One is hand dated in Oslo Norway in Sept 13-17, 1976 but the dates and names that signed it do not come up on google. I dont believe they were used at any of the 'congresses' as the presentation books were specific to the congress, and I have copies or pictures of most of these.

Regarding the single card - it sounds like you are discussing the stamp launch promotion cards. During this time a single card with the issue was given to those in attendence at the offical launch. I believe the cards with the embossed coat of arms started in 1969, with stamp 4909 and ended in 1976 with the 700-03. These are uncommonly available on ebay for a couple of bucks.

Hope this helps,

Matt

I have a copy of Canada's 1939 edition, from the UPU convention in Buenos Aires. The CV of the stamps is pushing $450.

The neat thing about it is that the copy I have was a gift from the Postmaster-General of the day to a friend of his, and a letter from the PMG to the friend is included in the book along with a hand-written note.

I've always been curious about the value of it, but I think I'll keep it. It's nice to read that they're "pretty expensive", though.