Postage stamps and postal history of Canada

The letter in part reads as follows: "Pleasing your Honourable Grace to heare of your servant John Rut with all his company here in good health thanks be to God."

The conclusion of the letter reads:[3]...the third day of August we entered into a good harbour called St. John and there we found Eleuen Saile of Normans and one Brittaine and two Portugal barks all a fishing and so we are ready to depart towards Cap de Bras that is 25 leagues as shortly as we have fished and so along the Coast until we may meete with our fellowe and so with all diligence that lyes in me toward parts to that Ilands that we are command at our departing and thus Jesu save and keepe you Honourable Grace and all your Honourable Reuer.

In the Haven of St. John the third day of August written in hast 1527, by your servant John Rut to his uttermost of his power.The earliest reference to a postal service is of couriers in 1705, namely the "first courier" Pedro da Silva, carrying the Governor's dispatches by boat, along with (for a fee) private letters.

A regular postal system was proposed in 1721, but would have been too expensive at the time, and was not created until 1734, when a road existed between Montreal and Quebec.

The Postmasters General of the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin and William Foxcroft surveyed a route between New York and Quebec, and contracted Quebec-Montreal mail to a Hugh Finlay, who provided a weekly service at 8d per letter.

The service was quite successful, the Quebec-Montreal route increasing to twice a week, and eventually branching out to include Skenesborough.

The American Revolutionary War disrupted mail to New York, and also showed the weakness in not having an all-British route to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Upper Canada had its own semi-monthly route through Kingston, Niagara, Detroit, and as far as Michilimackinac on Lake Huron.

As is typical of the period, the postal service introduced ever-more-complicated systems of rates for mail, depending on destination and distance.

[5] It was the first official postage stamp anywhere to picture an animal, though an unofficial postmaster's provisional from St. Louis, Missouri, showed two bears in 1845.

In April 1851, the rate for inland letters to Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island was 3d per ½ oz.

In 1858 the first perforated stamps were issued in ½d, 3d, and 6d values, depicting Queen Victoria, a beaver and HRH Prince Albert.

Today, since forged versions of Prince Edward Island stamps are harder to find than the original, the forgeries are more valuable.

Library and Archives Canada holds a forged, lithographed version of a stamp from 1870 that features an engraving of Queen Victoria.

The design was a side-by-side of the Chalon vignette of the young Victoria and the likeness photographed by Alexander Bassano in 1887.

The series included 16 denominations ranging from ½¢ to five dollars, a princely sum in those days, and more aimed at collectors than mailers.

In 1898, a first step towards Imperial Penny Postage happened when a number of Dominions agreed on a uniform rate of 1d (2¢ in Canada).

Canada issued an interesting stamp depicting a map of the entire world, with British possessions marked in red, inscribed "XMAS 1898" (the rate took effect on Christmas Day), and "WE HOLD A VASTER EMPIRE THAN HAS BEEN" underneath, a line extracted from "A Song of Empire" composed by Sir Lewis Morris in 1887.

In addition, a commemorative stamp of Quebec's Tercentenary was issued in 1908 featuring Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

The Karsh series was replaced in the following year by a new design based on the portrait by Dorothy Wilding that was also used in the United Kingdom.

From the 1960s on, Canadian stamp policies have favoured issuing a relatively large number of single commemoratives valued at the prevailing first-class rate.

In its commemorative issues Canada has made extensive use of works by well-known artists and until very recently has not used images of living people on its stamps.

In December 2003, Canada Post issued a new 49¢ definitive stamp bearing the image of Queen Elizabeth II using a photograph taken by rock star Bryan Adams.

The definitive stamp features a portrait of His Majesty King Charles III, then The Prince of Wales, by photographer Alan Shawcross.