2026

The February issue of Dots and Scratches, No. 41, the newsletter of the Re-entries and Constant Plate Varieties Study Group, is online.

Earl Noss, Stephen Hellsten, Denis Lecompte, Vic Willson, and Jim Jung provide images of plate flaws on the 12½¢ Large Queen stamp.

Denis Lecompte illustrated a plate flaw on the 15¢ Large Queen that he was able to plate.

Jim Jung illustrated several flaws on the 3¢ Large Queen.

Moving to the King Edward VII Issue, Simon Taylor-Young shows a copy of the extensive re-entry on the 5¢, position 3L90.

Earl Noss illustrates several re-entries plus an extensive plate scratch on the 3¢ value of the Newfoundland 1928 "Labrador" Publicity Issue.

Part 6 of Michael D. Smith's coverage of plate flaws found on the proofs of the First Cents Issue 5¢ Beaver features another generous helping, with clear, detailed illustrations.

Jim McCormick provides an update on the 1864 Two Cent Decimal "scratch on neck" flaw that he first wrote about in the Jan. 2023 Pence-Cents Era newsletter. The article also appears in the Feb. 2026 Pence-Cents Era Study Group newsletter.

View the newsletter.

The February issue (Vol. 15, No. 1) of the Pence-Cents Era Study Group newsletter is available.

The issue leads with a memorial to Lawrence Pinkney who passed away on 26 December 2025.

Ron Majors describes a mourning cover sent by Prince Albert Edward, while on a four-month tour of Canada and the U.S. in 1860, to Rear Admiral Alexander Milne on the death of his nine-year-old son.

Mike Halhed and Alec Globe shed some light on the 4-ring 48 cancel. What post office was the 4-ring hammer issued to? The authors present compelling arguments that it isn't Thorold, the post office most frequently cited in the philatelic literature. They make an excellent case that it is Toronto.

Michael D. Smith offers part 5 of his detailed survey of plate flaws on the Cents Issue 5¢ Beaver plate proofs. This article was previously published in the November issue (No. 40) of Dots and Scratches, the newsletter of the Re-entries and Constant Plate Varieties Study Group.

Jim André plates several re-entries on the Newfoundland 1897 First Pence Issue 1d and its reprints in 1861 and 1862. This article was previously published in the Sept. 2025 Re-entries and Constant Plate Varieties Study Group newsletter and the Oct.-Dec. 2025 Newfoundland Study Group newsletter.

Jim McCormick provides an update on the 1864 Two Cent Decimal "scratch on neck" flaw that he first wrote about in the Jan. 2023 Pence-Cents Era newsletter. The article also appears in the Feb. 2026 Re-entries and Constant Plate Varieties Study Group newsletter.

View the newsletter.

The BNAPS Virtual Exhibition and Conference (VEC) 2026 featured twelve seminars plus the Judges' Critique of the exhibits. Videos of all the sessions are now available on the website.

Links to the eleven study group sessions are posted in two locations: 1) the page listing all the videos on the website (see link below); and 2) the videos page for each study group. If you want to see all the videos offered by a particular study group, you should visit the videos page for that study group.

Two sessions were not hosted by a study group: 1) the Judges' Critique; and 2) the Gary Steele presentation on Post Office departmental handstamps. Links to these two sessions are on the page listing all the videos.

Access to the videos is restricted to BNAPS members. You will be prompted to log in to view the videos.

Links to all the website videos.

The Admiral Study Group seminar at VEC 2026 on 31 January featured a presentation on Admiral era discoveries and curiosities reported during the past six months. The presenters were Leopold Beaudet and William G. Burden.

The topics include the William G. Burden website devoted to Admiral constant plate varieties, re-entries, plate flaws, early postmarks on Admiral stamps, changes to the Empire rate during the Admiral period, and the Canadian military presence in St. Lucia, British West Indies, during WWI.

A video of the seminar has also been posted. The presentation features material added after the seminar took place.

To view the seminar, click this link and scroll down to "Admiral Study Group presentation at VEC 2026".

Adri Veenstra compiled a list of awards won by BNAPS members for BNA exhibits during the fourth quarter of 2025. The listing covers International shows and Canadian and U.S. National shows. It also covers members' non-exhibit awards.

There is also some commentary on the exhibit awards won in 2025.

View the 2025 awards.

The Palmares for Virtual Exhibition and Conference (VEC) 2026 is available. To view it, go to the Exhibits page.

VEC 2026 Exhibits page

Peter Spencer passed away on 1 November 2025.

Peter began stamp collecting in the 1950s, and joined BNAPS in 1975. He is the author of eleven books published by BNAPS on the plating of Canada’s Queen Victoria Numeral Issue. To research his books, he examined and plated close to 100,000 dated copies of the Numeral stamps.

View the memorial to Peter Spencer.

The Jan.-Feb. (No. 202) issue of Corgi Times, the newsletter of the Elizabethan II Study Group, is on the website.

Jane Sodero collects the 1955 10¢ Kayak stamp. She describes her research at Library and Archives Canada last year where she discovered, to her delight, how the stamp design came about.

Luc Frève discusses a discovery of a different sort, a hitherto unreported major error on the 2007 52¢ Jasper National Park commemorative. He illustrates a cover with an imperf copy of the stamp, and wonders whether any more examples have been found.

View the newsletter.

The role of Circulation Manager for BNA Topics has been held by Brad Fallon. Given his increasing work and family commitments, he can no longer continue in this role. We cannot thank Brad enough for stepping into the role on short notice and his outstanding service for three years.

The Circulation Manager role has changed over the years. A major task was managing the inventory of paper back issues and providing such issues as requested. With the shift to electronic publication and the availability of journal back issues in the Horace Harrison Online Library, there have been few requests for such issues and none over the past two years, as Brad has noted in his annual reports. This has reduced, indeed largely eliminated, a major role of the Circulation Manager: the need to manage and store a large inventory of back issues.

As BNAPS Secretary Chris Ellis is involved in other circulation matters including address changes, investigating the reasons for returned copies and sending replacements, and sending issues to new members, he has agreed to take on the Circulation Manager role. We thank Chris for assuming this added responsibility.

List of BNAPS officers, directors, and officials

The January issue of BNAPS Newfoundland Study Group News is available.

Bob Parsons illustrates a mysterious Newfoundland postal stationery 1¢ postcard. It was franked with a 5¢ stamp and mailed to Toronto in 1885. A 5¢ stamp? Why?

Earl Noss illustrates two stamps with extra markings. The first one is from a violet plate proof pair of the 1932 2¢ definitive depicting KG V. The stamp has three markings. Are they constant? The second stamp is the 12¢ Mt. Moriah definitive from the 1923 Pictorial Issue. It has several markings in the bottom border. Earl has a second copy so the markings must be constant.

View the January news bulletin (scroll down to "Study Group News" near the bottom of the page)

The January issue (Vol. 19, No. 1) of The Pilot's Log, the newsletter of the Air Mail Study Group, is online.

The issue features a memorial to Gordon Mallett who passed away in September 2025. It provides a brief biography, reviews his book, No Englishmen Need Apply, and lists significant contributions he made to the study of early Canadian airmail.

The newsletter also notes several forthcoming stamp shows: BNAPS Virtual Exhibition and Conference (VEC) on 31 January, ORAPEX on 2-3 May, and BNAPEX on 18-20 September.

View the newsletter

The registration page for the Virtual Exhibition and Conference (VEC) 2026 is posted.

BNAPS members, you are registered automatically when you log on the website. You do not have to go through the VEC registration process.

Non-members, you can view the exhibits and attend the study group seminars; however, you must register to do so. Registration is free. You will be prompted to register and log in when you access the exhibits or the seminar Zoom links. Alternatively, you can register immediately by going to the VEC Registration page.

VEC Registration

All the exhibits and the Zoom links for all the seminars for the Virtual Exhibition and Conference (VEC) 2026 are posted.

To view the exhibits, go to the Exhibits page and click on the "Exhibits List" button. The exhibits will remain online until 20 February.

To view the Zoom links to the 31 January seminars, go to the Seminars page and click the "Seminar Zoom links" button.

The exhibits and seminars are restricted to registered viewers. BNAPS members are registered automatically when they log on the website. Non-members who haven't registered will be prompted to register and log in when they access the exhibits or the seminar Zoom links.

VEC 2026 home page

The Jan.-Mar. 2026 issue of the Newfoundland Study Group newsletter, No. 202, is online.

Jack Brandt and Paul Guilfoyle filed reports on several Newfoundland RPO cancels in the RPO Study Group newsletter. The reports are reproduced in the Newfoundland Study Group newsletter for the benefit of members who don't belong to the RPO Study Group.

Pursuant to his article in the previous newsletter, Malcolm Back delves further into the watermark varieties found on the 1931 15¢ airmail stamp issued in 1933 with the Land & Sea Post overprint.

Steve Bonowski describes why he chose to collect Newfoundland stamps.

Klaus Wehlt contributes three articles on diverse subjects:

1. An 1862 stampless cover from Harbour Grace to Newbury Port, Mass. USA
2. Two Christmas telegram forms from the Anglo-American Telegraph Company
3. A cover franked with the 1932 6¢ Princess Elizabeth stamp from the First Resources issue. A difficult stamp to find on cover.

Blair Ashford illustrates a 1919 letter of introduction for Captain Alcock that he found on eBay.

Richard Judge documents the results of his research on the inks used to print the 1897 Royal Family issue using X-Ray Fluorescence spectroscopy, Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Infrared spectroscopy and Resolved Laser Induced Emission (Emission) spectroscopy.

View the newsletter.

21 newsletters from five study groups were posted recently. The year of publication, study group, and number of issues are listed below:

► 2020 Canadian Military Mail - 5 issues
► 2020 Large and Small Queens - 5 issues
► 2023 Postal Stationery - 3 issues
► 2024 Railway Post Office - 4 issues
► 2020 Revenue - 4 issues

The Canadian Military Mail, Large and Small Queens, and Revenue study groups request a delay of five years between publication of their newsletters and posting on the website. The Postal Stationery Study Group requests a delay of two years and the Railway Post Office Study Group requests a delay of one year +.

Several study groups have no delay period. Their newsletters were posted immediately upon publication in 2025. The study groups include:

► Air Mail - 2 issues
► British Columbia Postal History - 4 issues
► Fancy Cancel and Miscellaneous Markings - 1 issue
► Map Stamp - 2 issues
► Newfoundland - 4 issues (newsletter); 9 issues (news bulletin)
► Pence-Cents Era - 4 issues
► Perfin - 3 issues
► Re-entries and Constant Plate Varieties - 4 issues
► Squared Circle Cancels - 6 issues

Last year, the Elizabethan II Study Group decided to post its newsletters on the BNAPS website. The newsletters were posted in July 2025. The Study Group also decided to do away with the five-year delay between publication and posting. All 201 issues of the newsletter are now on the website, including the six published in 2025.

These newsletters are an invaluable resource, especially for those collecting the subjects covered by the study groups. Consider joining the study groups catering to your collecting interests and contributing to their newsletters.

View the list of study groups and their newsletters

Canada Post introduced illustrated indicia for permit mail in 2006. 2014 saw an explosion in the number of illustrated permits as bulk mailers adopted the concept, and with the explosion came increased collector interest in the stamp-like colourful indicia.

Earle Covert compiled a list of these illustrated permits for many years. When he passed away in 2025, Cindy Esau volunteered to keep the listing current by adding to it newly reported permits and publishing periodic updates. Her first update, in December 2025, has 896 bulk mailers and 4,987 illustrated permits.

View the listing of illustrated permits

Congratulations to the nine BNAPS members who became Emeritus members on 1 January 2026, having been with BNAPS for the past 40 consecutive years.

View the list of Emeritus members