A Small Start Can Build a Grand Collection
by John Burnett (ENA1)
Originally published in Linns Stamp News
When I first thought about exhibiting Canadian stamps, I really didn't have a place to start, an area I could put forth as a meaningful study.
I decided to think and start small. I started to look for my special area. I soon found a nice little group of stamps called the Small Queens.
Here was an area circumscribed by only eight stamps, ten if you counted the high value stamps, the 20˘ and 50˘ called the Widows Weeds of 1893.
How could I go wrong? Surely, I reasoned, I could stretch a study of these stamps out to fill four sixteen page frames, if that is, I found all the various varieties.
That was in 1975. Today, at 32 pages per album I have ten albums full of small queen material.
An example of one of my small queen covers is shown in figure 1.
Figure 1 - November 20, 1896 Halifax square circle ties this 3˘small queen to a handsome Summer Carnival advertising cover.
The moral to this tale is one that most other long-term specialist collectors and exhibitors will recognize. The truth is that in my initial ignorance of the subject, I didn't realize how big my small queen study could become.
I started small. However as time passed and my education progressed, I recognized that my small study required that I accumulate a great number of small queen items, in order to allow me to do a thorough job.
I'm still accumulating, studying and continuing to learn. It amazes me how after more than 30 years, how much I still don't know about the small queens.
Years later I decided to branch out and study some postmarks, a field that had always interested me.
I couldn't see the point of trying to get into the squared circles or railway post office markings. These had already been the subjects of large philatelic studies, collections and exhibits, and were well documented in some pretty good catalogues.
To avoid such a crowded and complicated field I chose Canada's duplex hand-stamps. One such duplex cancellation from Moncton, New Brunswick is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2 - Moncton, New Brunswick duplex cancel ties a 1˘ post card impression, post cards often have very good postmark impressions because of the softness of the card.
Here, I thought was a nice small compact area ripe for study. That was in 1983. Shortly after Bob Lee's book Duplex Cancels of Canada, was published and he identified more than 6,000 collectible Canadian duplex cancels. Some of these cancellations were in continuous use for more than twenty years. There have been a couple of revisions to Lee's book and a new study all together which now identifies more than 10,000 collectible cancels.
Since choosing again to "start small" with duplex cancels I have been able to accumulate more than 3,000 copies of them. I haven't even scratched the surface on this most enjoyable area of BNA philately.
Recently I have started to study the issues of King George VI. This area of study includes the issue of 1937-38, commonly called the Mufti issue (Mufti meaning civilian dress, as that is how the King is pictured) and the WWII issue of 1939-45. In that seven year span there are probably 25 different areas of study that could each be developed into a collection or exhibit.
If you are looking for an area to collect or exhibit, my advice is to embrace the same credo at the beginning as I did: Think Small.
Don't fall into the trap of believing that all the fun has been had, that there's no place for you to start a specialized collection that can make a contribution. It's not true.
Take 20th century Canadian stamps. A number of sets and series with reasonable price tags have yet to have their stories told, and could serve as the basis for a wonderful collection.
Among these are Canada's 1927 60th Anniversary of Confederation set (141-145), the 1932 King George V medallion definitives (195-201).
Another set with real possibilities is Canada's 1935 George V Silver Jubilee issue (211-16).
I can personally attest to the 1939 Royal Visit material. From these three stamps I was able to put together a modest four frame exhibit.
If Canadian postmarks are of an interest to you there's plenty of scope to start small here as well, only 54 different strikes of the four ring numeral cancels are known, and only 60 different strikes of the two ring numeral are known. Most of these cancels exist on Canada's classic stamps and they can get a little pricey.
There are enough flag cancels out there to have supplied enough information to write a book. One of my good friends within BNAPS has won a gold medal with his flag cancel exhibit.
Sometimes you just have to start somewhere and see where it leads, if you're still confused try opening a Canadian catalog, let it fall open and collect what's on that page, see if it doesn't grow from something small into a grand collection.
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