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Red bergamot blossom - Monarda didyma

Flowers

Stamp Info

Name Value
Date of Issue December 19, 2005
Year 2005
Quantity Continuous Printing
Denomination
51¢
Perforation or Dimension Simulated perforation on top and bottom = Dentelure simulée (bords supérieur et inférieur)
Series Flowers
Series Time Span 2004 - 2010
Printer Lowe-Martin Company Inc..
Postal Administration Canada

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Stamp Price Values

Condition Name Avg Value
M-NH-VF
Mint - Never Hinged - Very Fine Only available to paid users
U-VF
Used - Very Fine Only available to paid users
* Notes about these prices:
  • They are not based on catalogue values but on current dealer and auction listings. The reason for this is that catalogues tend to over-value stamps.
  • They are average prices. The actual value of your stamp may be slightly above or below the listed value, depending on the overall condition of your stamp. Use these prices as a guide to determine the approximate value of your stamps.

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Layouts

Coil of 100 stamps

Quantity Produced - Continuous printing
Current Purchase Price: Only available to paid users
Original Purchase Price: $51.00
Perforation: simulated perforation on top and bottom
Dimension: 24 mm x 20 mm (horizontal)
Printing Process: Lithography in 5 colours
Gum Type: Pressure sensitive
Tagging: General, 4 sides
Paper: Tullis Russell Coatings
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Official First Day Cover

Quantity Produced - Continuous printing
Current Purchase Price: Only available to paid users
Original Purchase Price: $4.94
Cancellation Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Dimension: 24 mm x 20 mm (horizontal)
Printing Process: Lithography in 5 colours
Gum Type: Pressure sensitive
Tagging: General, 4 sides
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About Stamp

No matter what the season, there's always an occasion to send flowers. That's the thinking behind Canada Post's bold and bright definitives featuring flowers in bloom. The subject was first introduced last year in a set of three stamps, and it proved so popular that the flowers have returned for the 2006 postal rate change, now with even more lush spring blossoms.

This year's stamp set offers four definitives alive with vibrant colour tones. "It was important to choose four wildflowers with very different colours and forms, so each stamp would be distinctive," says Sophie Lafortune, who designed the stamps with Monique Dufour. For consistency, they chose blossoms in the same colour tones as last year for each stamp rate. As a result, the new domestic rate (51¢) stamp portrays the unique red bergamot blossom (Monarda didyma), rather than the more familiar fuschia variety. The U.S. rate (89¢) features the sunny yellow lady's slipper (Cypripedium calceolus), and the international rate ($1.49) blazes with the Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia).

Added to the set this year is a fourth stamp for oversized domestic mail ($1.05), featuring the fanciful form and pastel tones of the pink fairy slipper (Calypso bulbosa).

These flowers are not all native to Canada, but each can be found growing wild in parts of the country. For this reason the design team knew it would be impossible to locate specimens to photograph. "These aren't cultivated flowers, so to find them we would have had to send designers trekking through woodlands all across the country during the blooming season," says Danielle Trottier, Manager of Stamp Design and Production at Canada Post. "Photography just wasn't an option this year."

Faced with this limitation, Lafortune and Dufour made a virtue of necessity by calling upon Montréal artist Sigmond Pifko to paint original illustrations for the stamp images. The design called for two views of each blossom, in order to show the unique colours and markings of each blossom from different angles, including one in close focus. "We needed very realistic portraits, presented in a botanical style," says Lafortune. "Pifko did a wonderful job."

His floral portraits are pretty enough to frame, but as Trottier notes, this stamp design is so effective because the frame actually disappears. "Normally white borders around a stamp pull the eye in, but here they work to make the image look bigger. On the white background these bright flowers appear borderless, so they seem to jump right out of the stamp frame. They'll bring a spring freshness and liveliness to a white envelope any time of the year."

Creators

Designed by Monique Dufour. Designed by Sophie Lafortune.

Similar Stamps

Reference

Canada Post Corporation. Canada's Stamp Details, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2006, p. 8-9.

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