Canada Post offers Roses stamps and postal cards April 23

On April 23, Canada Post will issue nondenominated (85¢) Roses permanent stamps with two different designs, in a self-adhesive booklet of 10, a self-adhesive coil of 50 and a souvenir sheet of two.

The booklets include 10 small round nonpostal envelope seals featuring the two flower designs.

The two designs will alternate in the vertical-format (attached top-to-bottom) coil roll.

The souvenir sheet is perforated and has moisture-activated adhesive. The souvenir sheet selvage features a photograph of a bouquet of roses different from the flowers shown on the stamps.

A set of two nondenominated ($2.50) international rate postal cards with the Roses stamp designs will be issued as well.

The stamps were designed by Isabelle Toussaint of Design graphique using her own photographs taken at the Montreal Botanical Garden. Canada Post describes the two roses as “velvety red hybrid tea rose, ‘Konrad Henkel,’ and ‘Maid of Honour,’ a creamy white hybrid tea with warm gold undertones.”

Each set in Canada Post’s Spring Flowers series has been issued both in a self-adhesive booklet and in a perforated souvenir sheet.

The first set from 2002 consists of 48¢ Tulips stamps in four designs (Scott 1946-1947). These were followed by the 2005 50¢ Daffodils (Scott 2091-2093), the 2007 52¢ Lilacs (2206-2208), the 2008 52¢ Peonies (2260-2262), and the 2009 54¢ Rhododendrons (2318-2320).

Since 2010, the Spring Flowers issues have been created as nondenominated permanent stamps: the 2010 (57¢) African Violets (2376-2378), the 2011 (59¢) Sunflowers (2440-2444), the 2012 (61¢) Daylilies (2526-2530), and the 2013 (63¢) Magnolias (2621-2625).

The new Roses stamps were printed by Lowe-Martin. The booklets, coils and souvenir sheets were printed by six-color offset lithography on Tullis Russell paper, with general tagging on all four sides.

The booklet stamps have serpentine die cuts on all four sides. The coil stamps have horizontal serpentine die cuts and vertical die-cut straight edges. The souvenir sheet is perforated about gauge 13.

Printing quantities for the issue are 14 million booklet stamps, 12.5 million coil stamps and 155,000 souvenir sheets.

The booklet of 10 stamps is Canada Post item 413930111, the coil of 50 is item 403930117, and the souvenir sheet is item 403930145.

Canada Post will service 11,500 official first-day covers franked with both of the booklet stamps. The FDC will bear a pictorial rose postmark from Montreal, Quebec. The booklet stamps FDC is Canada Post item 413930131.

Canada Post products are available at www.canadapost.ca/shop. Stamps and FDCs will be available by mail order from the National Philatelic Centre, Canada Post Corp., 75 St. Ninian St., Antigonish, NS B2G 2R8, Canada; or by telephone from the United States and Canada at 800-565-4362, and from other countries at 902-863-6550.

Canada’s stamps and stamp products are also available from many new-issue stamp dealers, and from Canada Post’s agent in the United States: Interpost, Box 420, Hewlett, NY 11557.