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• Booklets
• Greeting Booklets Checklist Table
• Leigh-Mardon versus Ashton-Potter
• Stickers
• Stamps and Stickers Checklist
• Identifying Individual Stamps and Stickers
• Errors
• Miscellaneous

January 1994 saw the release by Canada Post of a new-style self-adhesive stamp that offered a number of firsts in Canadian philately:

• The design and format of the stamps was such that there are no squared “corners” — the edges are curved.
• The stamps were designed in a such a way that the public was able to “build” their own stamp. Seven different special occasion stickers were supplied that fit nicely onto the stamp image resulting in the possibility of 7 different stamps (in fact, the number is limitless, as we will see).
• As was customary with all previous Canadian self-adhesive stamps, the 43¢ Greeting booklet stamps were sold for a small premium over face value. However, all 45¢ booklets were sold at their face value.

This article will touch upon the various booklets that have been issued, the numerous stickers that have appeared, how to identify the individual stamps and stickers, and finally a look at the inevitable errors that have occurred.

Booklets

This design of booklet has been aptly called “Greeting” by Canada Post due to their design. Two different stamp designs were provided: a “left” and “right” facing image.

The first Greeting booklet to appear had a face value of 43¢, the first-class rate in effect at the time. A year and half later, with the rate increase of 2¢, to 45¢, a second Greeting booklet was issued. To date, there have been five separate releases of Greeting booklets. The table below lists the five booklets that have been issued.

Illustrated below are the front covers of the booklets that have been issued. The cover of the most recent booklet to be issued (Aug 15/97) is identical in design to the booklet issued Sep 1/95 (however, as the chart indicates, the paper used for each of these booklets is different).

The back cover of each booklet provided instructions on the use of the stamps. (BK183 also included a brief history of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto).

Greeting Booklets

	Issued	Bklt Style	Ptr	Paper	Colour	Background (hidden date)	Stamp, Sticker Size	Flrsc	Stickers		Cat #
									Different	Flrsc
43¢	28 Jan 1994	1	LM	J	grey	special occasions (© 1994)	56x30, 19	HB	7	HB	1507/08 BK166
45¢	1 Sep 1995	2	AP	J	gold	provinces (© 1995)	51½x28, 17	HB	4		1568/69 ?BK182
	15 Sep 1995	3	AP	C				dull	4: chiropracty		BK183
	15 Jan 1996	1	LM	F		special occasions (© 1994)	56x30, 19	HB	7		1600/01 BK190
	15 Aug 1997	3	AP	C		provinces (© 1995)	51½x28, 17	dull	7		BK200

Leigh-Mardon versus Ashton-Potter

There are two subtle differences in the designs of the stamps employed by the two printers: background and copyright notice. Of course, the size of the stamps from the two printers is different.

The Leigh-Mardon printings have special occasion words in the background of the design and a copyright notice of 1994; the Ashton-Potter printings have the names of the Canadian provinces in the background and a 1995 copyright notice.

Stickers

A unique feature of each booklet is the inclusion of round “stickers” that could be selected by the mailer and fitted into the white space of the stamp. It is the sticker that gives the stamp its name of “Greeting”. The booklets supplied either 4 or 7 different sticker designs.

Since May 1994, five different special occasion “cards” have been sold/distributed separately from the booklets. One of these was a promotional “give-away” while the other four could be purchased for a nominal amount.

The table below summarizes the various official stickers that have been issued, and their source.

Issued	Source	Printer	Paper	Sticker Size	Flrsc	Designs
28 Jan 1994	BK166	LM	J	19mm	HB	7: heart, bride/groom, cake, balloons, roses, pen, baby rattle
9 May 1994	1 card with 50 stickers			18½	HF	1: Wedding (bride/groom) sold for $1.95
1 Sep 1995	BK182	AP	J	17	HB	4: pen, heart, bride/groom, leaf
15 Sep 1995	BK183	AP	C		HB	4: chiropracty: 2 hands, logo, plaque, D.D. Palmer
15 Jan 1996	BK190	LM	F	19	HB	7: heart, bride/groom, cake, balloons, roses, pen, baby rattle
Feb 1996	1 card with 10 stickers			18	HF	1: St. Valentine’s Day (heart) promotional item
8 Jun 1996				17	Flrsc	1: Hamilton promotional item, sold for 20¢ (spelling error exists, see picture below)
Dec 1996	1 card with 15 stickers			17	HB	1: Christmas (Santa Claus) sold for 50¢ [see note 3]
Feb 1997				17	HF	1: St. Valentine’s Day (cupid) sold for 50¢
15 Aug 1997	BK200	AP	C	17	HB	4: pen, heart, bride/groom, leaf

1. Special thanks to Mirko Zatka (Calgary) for the loan of a couple of the sticker-only items that I had heard of but not seen.
2. Special thanks to Norman le Breton (Regina) for the loan of the Hamilton error.
3. The Dec. 1996 Santa Claus sticker card was “re-used” as a promotional item in Nov. 1997. It was given away free with the purchase of a Greeting booklet).

Two of the five booklets contained seven different stickers (illustrated below left). Two other booklets contained only four different stickers.

The fifth booklet, issued to commemorate the Chiropractic profession, contained four different stickers (illustrated below right); however, these were not “Greeting” oriented.

The circular stickers, like the stamps, are die-cut. The actual sticker image is larger than the removed sticker, except one — a sticker in the Chiropractic booklet is a logo on a white background and did not require a surrounding border.

As shown in the previous table, there are also five sticker-only items, producing three new sticker designs and two new sizes of sticker (heart and wedding).

Actual Usage of Stamps and Stickers

The design of the Greeting stamps lends themselves to some innovative alternatives. Examples have been seen with hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, etc., etc. Shown at right is an overprint reading "Greetings from Ontario's BEAVER VALLEY" applied to a limited number of entire booklets and sold as a promotional item.

It is up to the general public to choose a sticker to place on the stamp prior to mailing — if they choose a sticker at all. At the same time, there is nothing to say that a different item couldn’t be placed on the stamp! Examples of hand-drawn images and photographs of real people have been seen.

Listed below are the stickers and a checklist of the various combinations of sticker/stamp usage that would be most likely to occur. The 86 black circles (⚫) are the minimum number of sticker/stamp combinations that are needed to have a complete collection — good luck!

Any of the other blank spots could exist if a sticker was used on a stamp from a different booklet.

Sticker Checklist

Sticker	Sticker Diameter			43¢ Stamp (grey, large)		45¢ Stamp (gold, large, HB)		45¢ Stamp (gold, small, HB)		45¢ Stamp (gold, small, dull)
	19mm	18mm	17mm	“Right”	“Left”	“Right”	“Left”	“Right”	“Left”	“Right”	“Left”
Heart	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
		x				⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Bride & Groom	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
		x(18½)		⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Cake	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Balloons	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Roses	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Pen	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Baby rattle	x			⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Maple Leaf			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Chiro: 2 hands			x							⚫	⚫
Chiro: Logo			x							⚫	⚫
Chiro: Plaque			x							⚫	⚫
Chiro: Palmer			x							⚫	⚫
Hamilton			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Cupid			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
Santa Claus			x					⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫
no sticker				⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫	⚫

Identifying Individual Stamps and Stickers

The five booklets and four special occasion cards have resulted in the potential of 10 different stamps and 30 stickers. Can all 40 items be identified as being different? Four different 45¢ denominated self-adhesive Greeting booklets have been issued. Can an individual stamp be identified? Both questions are important for the collectors of single mint or used stamps.

As noted in the tables listed earlier, there are differences in the printer, paper, colour, background in the design, paper fluorescence, and size of design.

Stamps

It is possible to easily identify eight of the ten possible stamps, using the following flow diagram:

1. What is the denomination: 43¢ or 45¢? There was only one printing of the 43¢ value (BK166).
   
   For the 45¢ values:
2. What is the size/background? All of the smaller stamps have the provincial names in the background; all of the larger stamps have special occasion words in the background. There was only one printing of the larger size (BK190).
   
   For the smaller 45¢ values:
3. What is the fluorescence of the stamp? There was only one printing on HB paper (BK182).
   
   For the smaller, dull, 45¢ values:
4. Two booklets have appeared: a Chiropractic in 1995 (BK183) and a Greetings in 1997 (BK200). Although not a guarantee, the sticker used with the stamp could indicate which printing the stamp came from. Is there any other way?

Errors

Errors are inevitable. To date, four major errors have been found on these booklets.

Greeting Booklets — Errors

	Issued	Printer	Paper	Colour	Stamp, Sticker Size	Catalogue #	Error(s)
43¢	28 Jan 1994	LM	J	grey	56x30, 19	1507/08 BK166	Die cutting missing
45¢	1 Sep 1995	AP	J	gold	51½x28, 17	1568/69 BK182
	15 Sep 1995	AP	C			BK183
	15 Jan 1996	LM	F		56x30, 19	1600/01 BK190	Die cutting missing Printed on gum side; no gum on stamps if removed from booklet, the gum remains on the backing; 10 booklets recorded. Die cutting shifted diagonally; top normal, bottom 5 mm to right on stamps and labels.
	15 Aug 1997	AP	C		51½x28, 17	BK200

Bottom of Leigh-Mardon booklet with the die cut shifted diagonally to the right.
The die cutting is overlaid in black to show where it occurs in the illustration.
Courtesy Saskatoon Stamp Centre.

Miscellaneous

Here is an item sold by Canada Post to promote Singapore ’95 and CAPEX ’96. There are self-adhesive stickers on the inside: five rectangular-shaped for Singapore ’95 and five round for CAPEX ’96.

These were not considered a part of the self-adhesive greeting booklets series. However, I suppose that the round CAPEX ’96 sticker would “work” with the booklet stamps.

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Additional notes

In a catalogue dated 27 September 2010, Saskatoon Stamp Centre offered a proof sheet of the card with the Hamilton promotional stickers. There are six cards on the proof, each card containing ten stickers. The description of the lot, # 165, reads:

1601a PROOF * HAMILTON 1846-1996 Stickers for Greeting Stamps. Double sided PROOF SHEET of FRONT & BACK for 6 "LABEL" booklets as produced by "STiRLiNG PRiNT-ALL" of Hamilton. Designed by Ron Wilkie. 271x213mm. ONLY we've seen.

The lot was priced at $395.

Proof of six cards with Hamilton promotional stickers. The illustration shows the bottom half of the front of the proof (with three of the six cards) overlaying the top half of the back with the stickers.
Courtesy Saskatoon Stamp Centre.