BNAPS Map Stamp Study Group

Newsletter

Newsletter Editors
First Series

From To Editor
1982 1990 Whitney. L. Bradley

Second Series

From To Editor
2000 2000 Bill Pekonen
2001 2004 John T. Anders
2005 2008 Orville F. Osborne

Third Series

From To Editor
2021 Scott Robinson, editor; Rick Friesen, co-editor

Viewing the newsletters

The issues are in PDF format. File sizes vary from 1.4 to 14.1 MB. When you click on an issue number, it will be displayed in a new window. Closing the window returns you to this page.

How to search the newsletters

Here are two ways of searching the newsletters:

1. Index to the newsletters - First series
An index to the 21 issues in the first series, all edited by Whitney Bradley, along with a brief history of the Study Group was published in the last issue of the newsletter in the second series, No. 26 (Spring/Fall 2008).

2. Google search - all three series of newsletters
To constrain the search results to just the three series of newsletters, paste the text: site:bnaps.org/studygroups/Map/newsletters in the Google search box followed by the phrase you wish to search for. In the image reproduced below, the search phrase is "muddy".

Example of newsletter search using Google

Newsletters - First series

1982 No 1      
1983 No 2 No 3 No 4
1984 No 5 No 6 No 7

1985 No 8 No 9 No 10
1986 No 11 No 12 No 13
1987 No 14 No 15 No 16
1988 No 17 No 18
1989 No 19 No 20

1990 No 21

Newsletters - Second series
The 1898 Christmas Map Stamp Newsletter

For the first three issues, the name of the newsletter was The 1898 Christmas Stamp Newsletter

2000 No 1 No 2 No 3  
2001 No 4 No 5 No 6 No 7
2002 No 8 No 9 No 10
2003 No 11 No 12 No 13 No 14
2004 No 15 No 16 No 17 No 18

2005 No 19 No 20 No 21 No 22
2006 No 23 No 24
2007 No 25
2008 No 26

The following issues were mis-numbered:

  1. Vol. 3, No. 3, whole no. 10, Oct.-Dec. 2002, was mis-numbered Vol. 3, No. 4.
  2. Vol. VI, No. 4, whole no. 22, Winter 2005-2006, was mis-numbered 23.
  3. Vol. VII, No. 1, whole no. 23, Summer 2006, was mis-numbered Vol. VII, No. 2, whole no. 26.
  4. Vol. VII, No. 2, whole no. 24, Winter 2006, was mis-numbered Vol. VII, No. 3.
  5. Vol. IX, No. 1, whole no. 26, Spring/Fall 2008, was mis-numbered Vol. XI, No. 1.

Newsletters - Third series
Xmas 1898 Map Stamp Report

2021 Vol 1 No 1 Vol 1 No 2 Vol 1 No 3 Vol 1 No 4
2022 Vol 2 No 1 Vol 2 No 2 Vol 2 No 3
2023 Vol 3 No 1
2024 Vol 4 No 1

2025 Vol 5 No 1
Other resources

Censuses of postmarks on the Map stamp

Click on the title. PDF files will be displayed in a new window. Closing the window returns you to this page.

Rick Friesen has compiled three censuses of postmarks on the Map stamp:

  • Railway Post Office (RPO) postmarks
  • Barred circle postmarks
  • Squared Circle postmarks

MONT & TOR GT RY RPO cancel on Map Stamp

Railway Post Office (RPO) Postmarks of Canada on the 1898 Canadian 2¢ Imperial Penny Postage Issue (The ‘Map Stamp’): A Cover Census and a Roster of Off-Cover Cancellations (5.5 MB PDF)
Rick Friesen

About 250 Map stamp covers postmarked with RPO hammer strikes are listed. The listing for each cover includes an illustration (if an image is available), RPO cancel identification, origin (if known), destination, and provenance. The census also updates the 1987 Lew Ludlow roster of RPO cancellations on off-cover Map stamps.


Montreal Barred Circle cancel

Barred Circle Postmarks of Canada on the 1898 Canadian 2¢ Imperial Penny Postage Issue (The ‘Map Stamp’): A Cover Census (1.8 MB PDF)
Rick Friesen

This is a census of Map stamp covers with Barred Circle postmarks, often referred to as precursors of Squared Circle postmarks. The hammers, introduced in 1892, were issued to nine towns in Canada (Halifax, Hamilton, London, Montreal, Ottawa, St. John, Seaforth, Toronto, and Winnipeg) and St. John’s, Newfoundland. The census currently documents 72 covers with Montreal strikes and one with a St. John’s, Newfoundland, strike.


Brockville Squared Circle cancel on Map stamp

► NEW 2025-10-13 ◄
Census of Squared Circle Postmarks of Canada on the 1898 Canadian 2¢ Imperial Penny Postage Issue (The ‘Map Stamp’)
2nd edition, 2025
Rick Friesen

This publication provides a census of Squared Circle postmarks on the Canadian 2¢ Imperial Penny Postage Issue of 1898, the “Map stamp”, including strikes on off-cover Map stamps as well as covers franked with the Map stamp. This second edition of the census was published in 2025. The first edition consisted of separate publications for on-cover and off-cover Map stamps. The two publications were posted on the BNAPS website in 2020.

For off-cover Map stamps, the census lists strikes from 197 different hammers. For 88 of them, there are less than ten off-cover Map stamp strikes. For on-cover Map stamps, the census lists 1,272 covers (113 more than in the 2020 census) from 164 hammers.


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This page was last modified on 2025-10-14