Communities on Canadian Black History pair

Canada Post continues its tradition of celebrating Black History Month, but this year with a slightly different twist.

Instead of featuring individuals, the new stamps recognize two prominent communities: Hogan’s Alley in Victoria, British Columbia; and Africville in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The two new 63¢ stamps will be issued Jan. 30 in separate booklets of 10.

Both stamps are being produced in small quantities of only 200,000 each, probably because the stamps are not denominated at the permanent rate.

New Canadian postage rates to take effect in March will increase the letter rate to 85¢.

The print quantity is 2 million fewer than the 2.2 million produced of last year’s Black History stamps that carried the permanent designation.

The designs of the new 63¢ self-adhesive stamps are shown nearby as Canada Post publicity images.

The stamps were designed by Karen Smith Design using illustrations created by Janice Kun of i2i Art Inc.

Canada Post describes Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley as a “vibrant destination for food and jazz” until it was removed in the 1960s for a construction project.

Although not mentioned by Canada Post in the technical details, the photography credits for the Hogan’s Alley stamp references a license with Authentic Hendrix LLC for use of a photograph of Nora Hendrix, the grandmother of musician Jimi Hendrix, whose roots can be traced to that community.

Also pictured on the stamp is another Hogan’s Alley resident, Fielding William Spotts Jr.

Africville in Halifax was dismantled in the 1960s when a bridge being built forced a relocation.

Canada Post said in its January-February Details magazine, “The Africville stamp features a photograph of seven young girls, all members of the community, set against an illustrated background of the neighborhood’s hills and homes.”

These two stamps constitute Canada Post’s sixth Black History issue since the series began in 2009. Previous stamps in the series are the Rosemary Brown stamp and Abraham Doras Shadd stamps issued in 2009 (Scott 2315-2316), the 2010 Able Seaman William Hall stamp (2369), the 2011 Carrie Best and Fergie Jenkins stamps (2433-2434), the John Ware and Viola Desmond stamps issued in 2012 (2520-2521), and the Oliver Jones and Joe Fortes stamps issued in 2013 (2619-2620).

The Hogan’s Alley and Africville stamps were printed by Lowe-Martin using five-color offset lithography on Tullis Russell Paper, with general tagging on all four sides. The self-adhesive stamps have serpentine die-cuts.

The booklet of 10 Hogan’s Alley stamps is Canada Post item 413923111. The booklet of 10 Africville stamps is item 413922111.

Canada Post will service 11,500 official first-day covers for each stamp. The Hogan’s Alley cover (item 413923131) will bear a Vancouver, British Columbia, postmark. The Africville cover (item 413922131) will have a Halifax, Nova Scotia, postmark.

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 Post products are available at www.canadapost.ca/shop.

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.