This year’s Richpex 2016, Western Canada’s biggest stamp show and auction, is being held at the Executive Suites Hotel and Conference Center in Burnaby. It started March 18 and goes through March 20.
Organizer Luciano Bassetto told CTV News that despite a decline in people mailing letters today, there is still a “healthy interest” in collecting stamps, postcards, and other postage memorabilia. “It gives you energy,” he said about his hobby. “It gives you a good vision to wake up to in the morning, at least for a lot of people.”
Bassetto talked about his passion for stamps, a passion shared by many stamp collectors around the world. The hobby not only helps to increase a collector’s knowledge but, he says, “Stamps tell you about the economy of a country, the politics — basically, the way a country is run, you can tell by looking at its stamps.”
There are an estimated 200,000 stamp collectors across Canada, and while a good turnout is expected, the majority of transactions will take place online. And there are some real treasures to be found at this year’s show, besides the over 1,200 wholesale lots from dozens of countries and over 100,000 postal history covers, postcards, and documents covering a variety of areas.
Some of the countries represented in the show include Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Falklands, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Russia, and many more, as well as 1,500 single lots in the $20-$10,000 price range. So there is sure to be something for every collector.
One of the special gems to be found in this year’s show is a letter sent from well-known Canadian author Pauline Johnson’s mother to her father in 1851. The authenticity of the letter has been verified by the Brantford Museum, and this treasure is valued at over $2,000.
Another interesting specimen is an envelope mailed from Vancouver and destined for Mitcham, England in 1906. Ron Leith believes Canadian customs in Montreal diverted the piece of mail to check on its contents. Hmmm, I wonder what the contents contained?
However, customs officials must have decided the contents were safe to send along to their destination because the envelope was resealed with three official stamps and sent on its way. By the way, this is the only known envelope with three official stamps. A previous envelope with two official stamps went for $12,000.
Stamp collecting is a wonderful hobby, and one this writer became interested in while in the fourth grade, many years ago. With stamps, you can travel the world, go back in history or just enjoy the beauty of the artwork.
