Picture Postage, The Next Generation (2012): The Arrival

My first design of the new style Canada Post Picture postage stamps has arrived, less then two weeks after ordering.

I chose a photograph that I took of Point Atkinson lighthouse in West Vancouver.

I am quite pleased with the results, especially the resolution of the text I added to the stamp. It is quite a bit better than the previous Picture Postage version, which was printed by CBN. This new version is printed by Lowe-Martin.

Complete sheet:


Single with control number:


Corner inscription:


A very interesting aspect of this sheet is that there is a constant variety! All five stamps on the bottom row have the top part of the text cut off at the top, so that the top bar of the E in West and Vancouver is missing. All the other stamps are fine.



It appears that the stamps, including the Canada text and the "P" (for Permanent) were printed in one pass, while on the previous style, the borders were printed separately, and the centers were added as ordered by customers.

Very nice, BC

Sorry to hear about


Are you going to return them for a replacement?

Whoa that's pretty cool!

One of my two orders (using the 50% off coupon) finally arrived today. The stamps were ordered in the morning of the first day (?) of on-line availability (Nov 24). Took Lowe-Martin over two weeks to print and ship the order (#44008). Very poor service, in my opinion.

This first order consisted of a pane of 25 with the Christmas frame, and the booklet of 12 with a different frame (same central image in both):



(Received an e-mail today that the second order has just shipped, nearly 3 weeks after being ordered, #44012. This order includes two more frames, but with a summer view of the Homestead, in a different denomination and including the pane of 50).

Please excuse my ignorance here. Are these valid postage stamps or just labels?

If these are actually stamps you can design yourself and use for postage, it's a great innovation.

Its valid postage

Thanks Irishjack, I'm off to the Canada Post website to get details.

Very nice stamp, Studystamps! Now if you compare your stamp with the mint example in the Collectors Pack, you will notice that they are different; the personal stamps appear to be printed COMPLETELY by laserjet in one pass, while the Collectors Pack stamps were done perhaps by lithography.

I forgot to mention, my Picture Postage order arrived in an envelope with two $1.05 ginger bread Christmas stamps, UNCANCELLED. That was disappointing, considering the previous versions printed by CBN were always sent using Picture Postage stamps on the envelopes, with a special pictorial cancel. There were also sent post free then, but now we have to pay $2.95.

My first order arrived by Xpresspost (although I did *not* ask for that service), in the plain white cardboard envelope seen from a typical Canada Post order. No stamps.

Received my second order of the new Picture Postage(tm) today (took over 3 weeks! Very poor service, in my opinion).

I find the quality, particularly of the 'Canada' and value tablet, to be poor. The die cut singles from the Collector's Pack are very high quality ... they obviously were printed by lithography compared to 'something else' for the personalized Picture Postage(tm).

Here are two more themes and a different denomination:

I received the FDC's, and they are high quality too (well no image, but a rectangle of gray dots).

There are two covers, blocks of 6 different designs on each, and they are se-tennant, meaning they came from a special printing. I am quite sure the die cutting does not go through the stamps, and if soaked off the cover the block would remain intact.

BeeSee:

Not counting the value tablet location, did you notice that five of the twelve themes are different between the portrait and landscape mode?

(two are easy to see, but three others have a different rotation of one of the small figures)

They have their own website https://www.picturepostage.ca/

Another variety in printing on the new Canada new 2012 Picture Postage stamps, I noticed on pictures on ebay dot ca from seller journey0077, has some of the single row of dots missing along the edge of a stamp.



edit: typo, changed.

I have not ordered any stamps made yet myself but on ebay I have noticed that some stamps have a shift in the whole design moved sideways or up or down by a noticable distance.

Has anyone noticed if this is a constant across all of the stamps on a sheet or booklet or on some designs or some printings?