Mummified cat, dinosaur on Royal Ontario Museum issue

Canada Post honored the centennial of the Royal Ontario Museum April 14 with two new commemorative permanent-rate stamps issued in a booklet of 10, a souvenir sheet of two, and three international-rate picture postal cards.

The museum, located at 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, houses more than 6 million artifacts, covering a wide range of topics in natural sciences and world civilizations.

The museum has undergone many renovations and reorganizations since it was first opened to the public March 19, 1914. In June 2007, an extension, known as the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, was opened.

A pale image of part of the museum building extends across both stamps, with different artifacts from the museum shown in the foreground of each design.

The stamp at left includes a Shiva Nataraja sculpture, a mummified cat and a bison. The stamp at right pictures the skeleton of a dinosaur (Parasaurolophus walkeri) and a Luohan statue.

The souvenir sheet shows additional artifacts in the selvage.

The stamps were designed by Gerald Querubin of Entro, and Doreen Querubin served as the art director.

The nondenominated (85¢)stamps and souvenir sheet were printed by Lowe-Martin.

The stamps were printed by five-color offset lithography on Tullis Russell paper, with general tagging on all four sides.

The self-adhesive booklet stamps have serpentine die cuts on all four sides. The souvenir sheet is perforated about gauge 13 and has moisture-activated adhesive.

Printing quantities for the issue are 3 million booklet stamps and 150,000 souvenir sheets.

The booklet of 10 stamps is Canada Post item 413928111, and the souvenir sheet is item 403928145.

The two picture postal cards that match the stamp designs are items 262388 and 262389. A picture postal card with the museum on the picture side is item 262390.

Canada Post will service 12,000 official first-day covers for the souvenir sheet. The FDC will bear a postmark from Toronto, Ontario. The souvenir sheet FDC is Canada Post item 403928144.

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.