• Introduction
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    • Canada’s Art and Artists on Canadian Stamps
    • My Favourite ... Cartier, 1534-1934
    • Collect Canada’s 1953–57 Wildlife Stamps
    • A Ship from History
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  • Adult
    • Introduction
    • A Small Start Can Build a Grand Collection
    • Canada's prime Ministers series of 1951-1955
    • The Admiral Stamps of Canada
    • An Introduction to Canadian Machined Slogan Cancels
    • Topical Collecting
• Experienced Collectors
  • Stamp Collectors
    • Introduction
    • Grenfell on Stamps of Newfoundland and Canada
    • Bluenose is Still Considered Canada’s Finest Stamp
    • The Open (or Shut) Case for Booklet Collecting
    • 1946 Stamps Show Canada’s Return to Peace
    • Issues of WWII: King, Country, and Conflict
    • The 1932 Medallions are Modern Classics
    • Canadian Stamps Marked Montreal Olympics
  • Postal Historians
    • Introduction
    • Canada’s ½¢ Small Queen had Multiple Uses
    • Covers Commemorated the Royal Visit of 1939
    • Some 19^th Century Mail That Took it on the Chin
    • Markings on Canadian Naval Mail of WWII
    • Crashes, Fires, and War Interrupted the Mail
    • Paquebot Covers: Mailed on the High Seas
• Exhibitors
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  • Getting Started in Philatelic Exhibiting
  • Use resources to help solve puzzling covers
• The Press
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    • Introduction
    • Stamp Society Supports Youth Philately
  • Society publications
    • Introduction
    • Stamp Society Supports Youth Philately

1946 Stamps Show Canada’s Return to Peace
by John Burnett (ESC4)
Originally published in Linns Stamp News

Sometimes I am asked by collectors “what can I collect today?” One of my stock answers is “collect the issues of King George VI”.  The philatelic hobby is just starting to recognize these stamps as very collectible. The issues of King George VI span World War Two and the peace that followed.

The issue we will look at in this article are the stamps that were issued by Canada to commemorate peace.

After the war the lower value definitive stamps which showed King George VI in various military uniforms that were issued in 1942 did not change. These stamps would remain in use until 1949.

What did change at the end of the war, were the commemorative sized pictorial stamps that made up the denominations 8¢ to $1.

Even though these stamps are different from those issued for the war effort, they carry significant similarities.

In format, printer, engraving style, monochrome execution, and overall appearance, the two series are much alike, although the stamps in the two issues depict what amount to two completely different worlds, one caught up in a grim global war, and a second world victorious and at peace. Figure 1 shows the complete set of these stamps, Scott 268 – 73.

In the WWII series the 8¢ stamp had been a small, rust colored, definitive stamp which showed a farm scene (256) the message this stamp sent to Canadians, Canada’s allies and even to the Axis powers was that Canada was capable of supplying the food demands of the free world.

The 8¢ stamp of the peace issue (268) shown at top left in figure 1 and nearby enlarged also shows a rural scene. Two Canadian farmers, perhaps just back from the war and now quiet literally ‘behind the plow”, enjoying the tranquility of farm life.

The design of the 8 ¢ is described in some sources as “Canadian farm Scene” – an unintentionally accurate description, given that it is actually a pastiche made up of parts of four different photographs.

According to the 1968text, Canada’s Postage Stamps by Douglas and Mary Patrick, “the farm house is from a photograph from eastern Ontario, the silo from Central Ontario, the barn from a farm in Western Ontario, and the ploughmen and horses from Quebec” (where the eight sheep wandered in is anybody’s guess!)

Figure 2, an enlargement of the 8¢ stamp seems to reveal it’s creation as a montage: the farm buildings on the left do not seem to be on the same visual plane as the farm house on the right (which almost gives the appearance of falling backwards). Never the less the message of the new 8¢ Peace stamp is similar to its predecessor, “Canada is now producing food stuff, not only for Canadians but also for a war ravaged world.

The next value in the Peace issue is shown in the middle of the top row in figure 1. The 10¢ stamp depicts the Great Bear Lake (269). A body of water larger than the state of Maryland in the United States, and located in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Specifically the site shown is where rich deposits of pitchblende from which uranium and radium are derived. This 10¢ design may thus be said to represent Canada’s almost limitless natural mineral resources and their enormous scientific potential.

Canada’s WWII issue had a 13¢ Ram Tank, replaced in 1943 with a 14¢ Ram Tank stamp to pay a new rate of 10¢ registration and 4¢ first class postage.

The corresponding stamp of the Peace issue is shown in the upper right corner of figure 1 is a 14¢ stamp picturing a hydro electric plant on Quebec’s St. Maurice River (270). The stamp represents the peaceful use of Canada’s cheap, clean electricity derived from such installations to develop Canadian industry.

The bottom left stamp in figure 1 is the 20¢ value from the Peace issue (271). It shows a Caterpillar type tractor towing a combined reaper and thrasher (or combine for short) across a Canadian prairie wheat field that seems to extend to the horizon.

The message of this stamp is twofold. Whereas the wartime issue showed the construction of a ship of war (260), its successor shows how Canada has turned its industrial strength to manufacture tools to modernize agriculture.

In addition the boundless vista of wheat, Canada’s chief contribution to the world’s food supplies, the renewable wealth of Canada’s Prairie Provinces.

The middle stamp on the bottom row of figure 1 is the 50¢ lumbering stamp (272), it shows two lumberjacks from British Columbia cutting down two trees, using two modern heavy power saws.

Forestry, a vital industry on Canada’s east coast, since the 17^th century, would in the post war era, allow the country to furnish material to rebuild cities and houses of the world devastated by the war. This stamp is a far cry from the war effort issue which showed a Howitzer ready to ship off to war.

Ships at sea are featured on the $1 stamp of both the war effort and the peace issue. The wartime issue showed one of Canada’s famous Tribal class destroyers. This ship whose main job was to defend the transatlantic convoys carrying material to war torn Europe from the U Boats that plagued the Atlantic Ocean.

The $1 stamp that followed in 1946, at bottom right in figure 1 (273) shows what one catalogue manufacturer  identifies as the train ferry Abequett, which regularly shuttled between Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick  and Borden, Prince Edward Island carrying products, produce, and people in the peaceful pursuit of their lives. Less prominently, the right foreground of the $1 Ferry stamp shows a small fishing vessel; represent what many consider Canada’s oldest and still one of considerable importance.

All these stamps were printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company on two plates (no. 1 and 2) and issued September 16, 1946. All were perforated 12 and delivered to the post office in panes of 50.

The airmail stamps of the war effort showed military training air craft of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Figure 3 shows the Peace issue airmail stamp which depicts a much larger commercial four engine airplane in flight over the Plains of Abraham just southwest of Quebec.

Sixty years after their issue none of the 1946 Peace Issue stamps are very expensive, nor are they particularly hard to find mint or used. They are part of the sizable group of 20^th century Canadian stamps that have been largely ignored by the collecting public, for no particularly compelling reason.

Canada’s 1946 Peace issue is yet another example of another small set that can grow into a neat collection.