Canada 2014 - Empress Of Ireland Stamps

Canada 2014 - Empress of Ireland stamps.

Issued today, May 29, 2014, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking in the St. Lawrence River, Canada of the passenger ship, the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Empress of Ireland, enroute from Quebec City, Quebec, Canada to Liverpool, England.

Printer: Lowe Martin

Issued in a sheet of 16 P-rate (85c domestic-rate) stamps with four labels in the vertical center, a self-adhesive booklet of ten P (85c) stamps, a souvenir sheet of one $2.50 international-rate stamp, four First day Covers with corner stamps from the sheet and a FDC of the souvenir sheet.

Also issued is a press sheet of 12 souvenir sheets with a very nice picture of the ship below the sheets.

Below is a scan of a lower-left corner stamp from the sheet. In the marginal selvedge a map of the St. Lawrence River around the area of Rimouski, Quebec, surrounds the stamps, as well as a buoy.

Wikipedia link for the RMS Empress of Ireland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Em...s_of_Ireland

A scan of the Details booklet from Canada Post for the 16-stamp sheet.
Canada Post free Details Magazine: http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/per...ications.jsf

NEW : Note that on the real sheet (this is a pic in a magazine) the perfs extend to the edges in places (I tore mine apart to create covers and forget already) and that perfs around the labels do exist. There are no perfs across the center map.

The neat New thing from Canada Post on this sheet is the possibility of have a Triptych 'stamp-label-stamp' combination, either Used or Mint.

The bottom label with a stamp on either side (a triptych):


And a vertical grouping of stamps and in-between non-vertically-perforated large label from the center:
(I think this is Not a triptych combo, exactly speaking, but a gutter combo thing? My ignorance in collecting these type of things is showing! )


To show an example from another country's stamps, I show a triplet stamp-label-stamp triptych from St Pierre and Miquelon:

Some personal first day covers with triptyvhs on to come in the mails.
I will post when received.

Colour dots (traffic lights) in the lower-right sheet corner, showing a C for Tullis Russel Coatings paper.



Usually on Canada sheet stamps now-a-days the colour dots are in the shape of something relating to the stamps' subject matter. I don't know what the bars represent though.

Here is a post card that was posted from a passenger arriving from the Impress of Ireland, posted in Quebec City

. . . we saw four icebergs . . .have had a very rough voyage and was sea sick. Could not get up for 2 days. . . .

Makes you think about how world wide travel was in those days in 1909. Five years before her tragedy.

Very nice card. Thank you for sharing and showing.

From ebay seller cynicwonder http://www.ebay.ca/usr/cynicwonder , a full new sheet, showing where the perfs occur.

While the inclusion of all the names of the perished in UV lists on the uncut press sheet selvedge is bound to be very impressive, I can't imagine very many people being able to enjoy this feature. Sadly, in my collection, it will end up sealed in its tube. Even if framed and hung (which is a lot to ask of a stamp collector) a hand-held UV lamp and a darkened room would have to be readily available whenever presenting the issue to admirers.

From my purchase, the plastic pouch which the sheet of 16 stamps is sold in.

It has a peel and stick back lower opening. I accidentally stuck this to a stamp while figuring things out there, but the peel-and-stick glue let go from the stamp immediately with no damage.

Perhaps long term sticking would be another thing?



The special offer at the bottom on the inserted card:

Great information on this issue which is very interesting indeed! Thank you for sharing, Puzzler.

Nice stamps...I also picked up the 50 cent coin of this event from the RCM to get the best of both worlds..

Puzzler, can you show close ups of the 2 post cards from the pack?

I do not have the pack, but just the 16-stamp sheet. The card-material insert used as a stiffener behind the stamps has two sides with advertisements and the 15% offer of them.

The postcards seem to be part of the $99 pack, or perhaps shown as picture in the included book? I don't know. I can do a better scan of those areas of the card that show the postcards if you wish.

Hi guys...just picked up this sheet below at the post office...And ordered an uncut sheet..Apparently there are only 5000 un cut sheets made...wow...Also got the coin from RCM to...nice.

I got myself one of the pack. Quite well done. The sheet stamp has 2 special overprints on it, and the postcards are reproductions. I'll post some of it when I have a few minutes.