This site is about Canadian postal First Day Cover collecting. The emphasis is on the collecting and cataloguing of Canadian First Day covers.

What a collector wants is a complete catalogue of all covers, detailing everything known from origins, to production including such things as quantities produced and current pricing. This does not exist and quite frankly, if it did there would not be as much interest in the hobby. What the hobbyist wants is a way to find out what is known and to add to the body of knowledge.

The purpose of this site is to present a single source for information about Canadian First Day Covers. This covers quite a bit of ground so it has been organized as follows.

You can follow what's new in Blogs in which members can post their own information about up-coming and recent events such as stamp shows, auctions or acquisitions. I will be using the admin blog to post information about changes to this site, although teasers should show up below.

Covers provides information about Canadian First Day Covers. This collection of articles, catalogues and links deal with covers and cachets and their makers and history.

Collecting contains the material regarding collecting and collections without reference to particular covers. This is the place we provide links to retailers, auctions sites and member offers.

Gallery has pictures of covers and images related to covers. Each member is provided with their own sub-album in the Members album, while more collaborative and organized collections are provided in their own albums. Weekly updates are provided in a list of Gallery Updates.

Discussion is your chance to ask a question. Or to answer one.

About Us tells you more about the site and the people behind it. If you are interested in getting involved, this is where you can find out about how you can help.

There is no requirement to register if you wish to browse. We welcome your comments and suggestions on any of the material presented.

The April to June 2022 issue #50 of First Impressions is now available

This comprises an index of the articles and notes that appeared in Issues 1 through 49 of First Impressions. It is intended to provide a useful entry point for those of you who are seeking specific information about the many and varied topics that have appeared in the newsletter since the first issue in January, 2009.

The January to March 2022 issue #49 of First Impressions is now available

Three major articles in this issue include Gary Dickinson’s review of the early FDCs produced by the American companies ArtCraft and Fleetwood for Canadian stamp issues. Both started by re-using cachets developed for U.S. stamps before starting to produce FDCs solely intended for Canadian issues. Bob Vogel continues his series of articles about commercial FDCs, this time focusing on those produced by Sherman Laboratories.

The October to December 2021 issue #48 of First Impressions is now available

Three quite diverse topics are presented in the three articles in this issue. Bob Vogel’s series on commercial FDCs continues with the products of Sterling Offices, and John van der Ven reports on the covers produced by William Long of Nova Scotia.

The July to September 2021 issue #47 of First Impressions is now available

Our frequent contributor Jan Pieter (John) van der Ven has been busy over the last few months overseeing the sale of his vast collection of first day covers, but he has also been hard at work preparing much of his collection as articles for publication in First Impressions.

The April to June 2021 issue #46 of First Impressions is now available

There is lots of interesting material in this issue, covering a wide span of time from the 1940s through the early part of the 21st century.

The January to March 2021 issue #45 of First Impressions is now available

There are two contributions from John van der Ven in this issue. The first reviews an unexpectedly large number of Fidelity General Utility cachets that heretofore have not been gathered in one place. His other presence is with a mis-printed Ken Boll cachet for Cachet Craft. In case you haven’t seen it yet, the second part of John’s FDC collection is up for sale by Sparks Auctions via the Stamp Auction Network. It includes his FDCs from 1960 onwards.

The October to December 2020 issue #44 of First Impressions is now available

There is an abundance of useful material in this issue, leading off with the first article in Bob Vogel’s new series about commercial FDCs published for Atlas Chemical. John van der Ven also deals with a commercial producer, Royal Trust. A Sparks Auctions ad for John’s pre-1960s covers expands on the ad which appeared in our last issue. For those of you who are well-healed, there is an exciting lot of more than 400 hand-painted cachets that would be a delight to acquire.

The July to September 2020 issue #43 of First Impressions is now available

In this issue, Donald LeBlanc reviews a beautiful set of cachets made by Catherine Schnurr for the 1939 Royal Visit issue as a prelude to a book currently in press. The BNAPS announcement of the book follows Donald’s article.

The April to June 2020 issue #42 of First Impressions is now available

This issue contains two short articles about a singular commercial FDC and a cachet for the St. Lawrence Seaway joint issue of 1959. There is a lengthier overview of the cachets produced for the unwanted and unloved Karsh definitive issue of 1953, and reviews of two new BNAPS publications dealing with collecting and cataloguing Canadian FDCs. Member Michael Pierce writes: 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of 1970 Christmas issue that were designed by Canadian school children.

The January to March 2020 issue #41 of First Impressions is now available

For this issue, thanks to John van der Ven as always for bringing us informative articles on some unique covers as well as the detective work that went into them. Bob Vogel has tamed up with Andrew Chung on a new project to complement the Catalog of Official First Day Covers and needs our assistance. Michael Pierce sent along an interesting collection and describes his sleuthing efforts as well. Finally, we have an announcement for two new BNAPS Books by Gary Dickinson.

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