Unitrade Specialized Catalogue of Canadian Stamps 1994

Desmond Maley is the music librarian at the J.W. Tate Library,
Huntington College, Laurentian University.

The preparation of a stamp catalogue represents a tremendous challenge
for editors. Catalogue design and readability, ease of use, level of
detail, appeal to general and specialized collectors, and realistic
pricing of the stamps are among the many factors to be considered.

Fortunately, the editorial associates of Unitrade Press (consisting of
leading philatelists and stamp dealers) have delivered a quality product
at an affordable price. This annual catalogue, which utilizes the
copyright-protected Scott numbering system that is the industry standard
in North America, is indispensable for any collector of Canadian stamps.

Profusely illustrated, the catalogue lists prices for Canadian stamps
from 1851 to 1993 as well as for those issued in British North America,
including British Columbia and Vancouver Island, New Brunswick,
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The
“back-of-the-book” sections include air mails, complete booklets,
postage dues, registrations, officials, seals, reply coupons, and postal
stationery. Prices are quoted for mint and used stamps according to
clearly defined criteria for very good, fine, and very fine. There are
also helpful introductions to philatelic terms, condition grading,
pricing, paper types, printing processes, and cancellations.

In response to collector demand to integrate all the different
varieties of the stamp in the same place with the illustration, the
editors have opted to replace color with black-and-white illustrations.
The high cost of moving the color illustrations had made it impossible
to insert new listings. The formerly separate sections on plate numbers
and inscription blocks, booklet panes and singles, and plate proofs have
now been integrated, making the catalogue easier to use.

But the most striking feature of all is the continuing expansion in the
catalogue’s size. Canada Post Corporation has issued some 280 new
stamps in the past five years, a quantity that almost equals the number
of definitive and commemorative stamps issued in the country’s first
100 years. The intent, of course, is to force philatelists to buy more
stamps and thus to generate more revenue for the corporation. But it’s
also a sad commentary on a once-proud philatelic tradition that has
become debased by the profit motive.