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Welcome to the website of the PHSC

Here's what's new!

February 2024

• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.
• Don't forget that Under the Covers is happening once a month. Join us for the zoom meeting! You can view previous presentations here.

January 2024

• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.

December 2023

• A new issue of the PHSC Journal is available. Navigate to the Journal page and click on the cover image to view the pdf.

November 2023

• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.
• Don't forget that Under the Covers has started up again for this season. You can view previous presentations here.

August 2023

• Volume 180 of the PHSC Journal is now available.
• Congratulations to Doug Murray, member #159, who recently became the latest Fellow of the PHSC, "in appreciation of his services to the Society as President, and for his contributions as a writer and a newsletter editor to the advancement of postal history. ". All of our PHSC Fellows can be found at the Fellows page.
• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.

July 2023

• A new page commemorating our PHSC Fellows is now available.

June 2023

• The Annual General Meeting will be held by Zoom at 7pm EST on June 19. See recent emails for the Zoom link. Following the meeting, there will be a special edition of Under the Covers.
• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.

May 2023

Under the Covers, our popular postal history zoom seminars, will be taking a hiatus over the summer. We'll return to action in September. In the meantime, take a look at our archived videos in case you missed any of this past year's offerings. The archive page has been updated to be much less bandwidth intensive.

March 2023

• The server company that hosts the PHSC website has recently mandated an upgrade in the basic software that runs this and many other sites on the internet. The webmaster recently implemented this change (to 'PHP 8.1'); if you encounter any unusual problems with the website (such as in the login or logout process) please let Rob Leigh know. The more detail you can provide, the better. But if you can figure out how to clear the cache in your browser, now would be a good time to do that, as it may resolve any problems you may encounter.
• Please join us for planned events at the upcoming Edmonton Stamp Show, the weekend of March 25-26. Prior to the show on Friday, we (attendance limited) will visit the Royal Alberta Museum, and later enjoy a pizza supper/gathering. During the show, the PHSC will host presentations by Kevin O'Reilly, Hal Kellett and Bob Stock. For more information or to reserve a spot, contact Bob Stock. Additional events will be available at ORAPEX in Ottawa in May.
• The December 2022 issue of the PHSC Journal is available. Navigate to the Journal page and click on the cover image to view the pdf.
• A new issue of the newsletter of the Alberta Postal History Study Group has been posted.

February 2023

• The latest Under the Covers presentation featured short talks in a show and tell format by various members. If you missed it, or just want to see it again, follow the link to see a recording.

January 2023

• Volume 179 of the PHSC Journal is now available.
• The latest Under the Covers presentation featured a talk by David Schurman on Montreal Transcript Business Reply Covers. If you missed it, or just want to see it again, follow the link to see a recording.

December 2022

• This month's Under the Covers presentation featured a talk by Bob Toombs on Canada and the Netherlands in WWII. If you missed it, follow the link to see a recording.

November 2022

• This month's Under the Covers presentation featured a talk by Gray Scrimgeour on Japanese Internment Mail. If you missed it, follow the link to see a recording. The next event is coming December 13.

October 2022

Under the Covers is a new initiative of the PHSC that is being organized by Bruce Pollock and Jason Broersma. This is a series of presentations on a variety of topics in postal history via Zoom. The inaugural event included a talk on Northern Ontario postal history by Gus Knierim. If you missed it, follow the link to see a recording. The next event is coming soon and will be announced by email.

August 2022

• Volume 178 of the PHSC Journal is now available.

July 2022

• Issue 111 of the Northerner newsletter is now available.

May 2022

• Issue 25 of the Alberta study group newsletter is now available.

December 2021

• Issue 110 of the Northerner newsletter is now available.

October 2021

• A CDS database for Nipissing district in Ontario has recently been added. See Gus' report of new postmark items here.

September 2021

• Volume 177 of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. This issue features many examples of your favorite covers and is an enjoyable read.

• The cds database for Prince Edward County has been posted recently and awaits your new reports. A number of cds databases are on the website and urgently require your new reports. Without your participation these databases are meaningless. Thank you for your help.
• For many years, Bob Smith has faithfully worked on the Ontario broken circle listings, recording new finds in the database, and reporting on new items in the Journal. These tasks have been passed on to other keen members in recent months. We've decided to keep up the task of highlighting new finds, and we will record them here on the website. Gus Knierim has graciously offered to organize this for us. So here goes with the first entry in what we expect will be a monthly report.

March 2021

• Volume 176 of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. The feature article is by Gene Labiuk on HMCS Port Colborne. See also articles by Gray Scrimgeour, Morris Beattie and Cimon Morin.

January 2021

• Two new books by Gray Scrimgeour have been made available in the Library section of the website. Take a look!

December 2020

• Two issues of the PHSC Journal are now available for viewing. As always, any issue may be retrieved at the Journal page. Issue 175 is featured there, and issue 174 may be accessed from the righthand sidebar's pulldown menu of recent issues.

November 2020

• Things are slow in 2020, but new reports do come in from time to time. Bob Thorne has sent in a new Universal machine discovery. In 1910 and 1912, the Canada post office was using International machines across Canada, but tested Universal machines at several large post offices. Rentals of these machines started later in 1912 and their use continued through the decade. A Universal machine was rented for use at Montreal from January 15 1913, but until now, the earliest report was July 21. Bob's discovery is dated April 14 and bears a previously unseen dater hub reading MONTREAL CANADA (instead of the later used MONTREAL QUEBEC). Check out the details of these machines at the early Universal machine page.

May 2020

• Kenora and Rainy River districts have been added to the CDS database. Thanks to Gus Knierim.
• The latest issue of the Alberta study group newsletter is now available.
• Recent issues of the Northerner have been posted on the Northern Study Group page.
• The post office database for the Counties of Lincoln and Welland have had a major rewrite and the first real revision since they were posted a number of years ago. Take a look. They are current to May 5, 2020.

January 2020

• An interesting rate and distance chart dating from 1790 has recently been discovered by Bill Longley. It covers the few post offices that then were in operation in the provinces of Quebec (later LC+UC), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It is reproduced on our early rates page. You can also see it discussed by Bill in the latest issue of the Journal.

November 2019

• The November 2019 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available.

July 2019

• The complete schedule for the upcoming PHSC Symposium is now available. See all the information on the Symposium webpages.
• The June 2019 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available.

June 2019

• The latest issue of the Alberta study group newsletter is now available.

May 2019

The PHSC is hosting a breakfast at the Royal! This event will take place Sunday morning, June 23, 2019 at 8am at the Hilton Mississauga, and $25 tickets may be purchased by contacting the president. The breakfast will feature a talk by Rob Leigh on the early postal history of Upper Canada, featuring the Western District. See the RPSC website for more information about the talk and all the details of the show.
• Plans are well under way for PHSC Symposium 2019! Join us for the premier postal history event of the year. We will be visiting the SS Keewatin, Ste. Marie among the Hurons and Dundurn Castle and will be enjoying a number of postal history presentations by fellow members. The bourse and exhibition will take place on the Saturday and Sunday, and Saturday evening we will have our Awards Banquet. We are pleased to announce that the Juno Award winning blues musician Harrison Kennedy will be there at the banquet to entertain. Registration information is available on the Symposium webpage. You can't miss this year's Symposium! tellin_final_booklet

April 2019

• The March 2019 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. We think you'll find a great deal of interest in this extended issue.
• A new publication prepared by Gray Scrimgeour is now available at the Research webpages. This is a study of the correspondence of Andy Morod, a trapper and prospector in te Nootka Sound region of British Columbia.

February 2019

• Registration forms and Exhibit application forms are now available for Symposium 2019. Have a look at the Symposium webpages. More information will appear periodically.

January 2019

• The latest issue of the Alberta study group newsletter is now available.

December 2018

• The latest issue of the PHSC Journal is now available on-line. See the Journal page. Happy holidays to all.
• A second printing of A Guide to Canadian Military Postal History 1636‒1970 by Lt. Col. Roland H. Webb, edited by Robert Toombs, Gray Scrimgeour and Brian Plain has recently been done. The cost of this bound limited edition is C$79.69 plus shipping. For more information, contact Gus Knierim. As previously noted, a downloadable electronic version, in colour, is available free of charge to PHSC members. For complete information about this publication, please consult the dedicated webpage.

October 2018

• Some new items have been recently added to our databases. These include CDS postmarks of Oxford and Dufferin counties in Ontario and a post office database updates for Bruce, Dufferin and Timiskaming.

March 2018

• The latest issue of the PHSC Journal is now available on-line. See the Journal page. The print version will be sent when available.
• The Research/references section has been recently updated with a number of Canada Post Office publications. These are available for members to download.

February 2018

• Planning for PHSC Symposium 2018 is now well underway. See the Symposium page for all the information. Registration forms and exhibit applications are now available!
• The post office databases for the County of Durham, County of Lennox & Addington, and for the District of Thunder Bay have been updated to February 2018, and amended. It includes all franchises, sub offices, and post offices.
• The post office database for the County of Durham and for the District of Thunder Bay has been updated and amended. It includes all franchises, sub offices, and of course, post offices.

January 2018

Did you know? We have a large variety of Canada Post Office publications available for members to download. See the Research/references section.
• Brought up-to-date (2018-01-02) are Dundas, Lanark and Oxford Counties in the post office database. We endeavour to include all addresses and where possible franchise holders in the listings. Exact dates are included where known.

December 2017

• The Lambton County post office database has been upgraded and brought up-to-date (2017-12-11). All non-accounting and accounting periods have been established with actual dates where known. All franchises are current with addresses and owners where known. For more details go and explore the database.

September 2017

• The dates for PHSC Symposium 2018 have been set! Join us on July 19-22, 2018 at the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel. See the Symposium website for more information as it develops.

Shown at right is an example of the new PHSC medal given to winning exhibitors at the Symposium. For more images, see the Symposium website.

You want one of these, don't you? Consider exhibiting at PHSC Symposium 2018!

August 2017

• The latest issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

July 2017

• Were you there? The inaugural PHSC Symposium has now passed, and what a wonderful event it was! We will soon have lots to look at and remember from the Symposium 2017 on the website. For now, the Palmares from the exhibition is available.
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• Data for circular date stamps (CDS) for Norfolk County, Ontario are now available. Check out the CDS database. Many other counties (and provinces) are needed. This is one of the databases that we are building from the ground up, piece by piece. Scans of the proof strikes for any county or province are available if you are interested in helping out.

March 2017

• The latest issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

January 2017

• Announcing the PHSC Symposium, a new initiative for the PHSC. All of the details may be found at the Symposium website. We will update the site as further information becomes available.

December 2016

• What a milestone! The 100th issue of The Northerner is now available in the Study Groups area.

November 2016

• The Spring 2016 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

August 2016

• The Winter 2015-16 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

April 2016

• This year's Annual General Meeting will be held April 30 at ORAPEX 2016 in Ottawa. A presentation "Small Queen Postal History" will be presented by Guillaume Vadeboncoeur.
• The Summer-Fall 2015 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

January 2016

• The PHSC will be sharing a table with the RPSC and BNAPS at the World Stamp Expo in New York in May. If you will be attending the show, we need you to help the society by manning the booth for a short time. For more information, contact St√©phane.

December 2015

• The Spring 2015 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. Please pay special attention to the requests for your participation in the Society included in this issue.
New Study Group For Alberta Postal History: Dale Speirs has set up a new study group for those interested in Alberta postal history. This group is open to interested members of the PHSC without charge --- there are no membership dues or organizational structure. The first two issues of the Journal of Alberta Postal History have been posted in the Study Groups section. No print version will be produced but members who want a hard copy can download the pdfs and print them. The JAPH will concentrate on the history of postal operations in Alberta.

May 2015

Did you know? Many public domain postal publications (such as Postal Guides and Reports of the Postmaster General) are available on our Postal History Reference Materials page
• The Annual General Meeting was held May 2 at ORAPEX. After a short discussion of business led by president St√©phane Cloutier, we were entertained by Gray Scrimgeour on the topic of Canada's Trans-Pacific Steamship Mail. His powerpoint slides from this talk serve as a nice introduction to the trans-Pacific steamship sailing tables that you may find by exploring the Research area.
• At the annual breakfast of the Philatelic Specialists Society of Canada held at ORAPEX on May 3, Gray spoke on the topic of the mail and express services between Victoria and San Francisco. His powerpoint slides are presented here for your enjoyment.
• The Winter 2014-15 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

January 2015

• The Fall 2014 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. Please pay special attention to the requests for your participation in the Society included in this issue.
• The PHSC will soon be publishing a new 555 page book on military postal history. This work, A Guide to Canadian Military Postal History 1636-1970, originally written by Lt. Col. Roland H. Webb in the years leading up to December 1970, has recently been rescued from Library and Archives Canada by Robert Toombs, Gray Scrimgeour and Brian Plain. For a limited time, we will offer pre-orders for a black and white print edition of the book. For complete information, please see the dedicated webpage or click on the advertising at right.

November 2014

• The Summer 2014 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. Please pay special attention to the requests for your participation in the Society included in this issue.

August 2014

There is a major new addition to the Early Markings database! A list of the early postmarks of Québec has been developed by Ferd Bélanger. As a result, there are nearly 6900 new entries in the database! Check out the Postmarks/Early Markings area. Note that an Introduction to the early postmarks of Canada (including an explanation of terms and shortforms) is available at the top of the righthand sidebar once you've made your way to the Early Markings page. As usual, the database is fully searchable -- you can specify province, county, town (or any sequence of letters found on a postmark) and postmark type.

Please note that this is a brand new database, and we really need reports of dates and missing items. So please take a look and make your reports to Ferd. There is a link for making reports at the bottom of the sidebar on the Early Markings page.

• Back issues of The Bull.MOOSE are now available. This is the newsletter of the MOOSE study group, which studies, for example, the Canadian MOO, MOOD, MOTO, MOON, POCON and RC cancellation types. See the study group page.

June 2014

• The Spring 2014 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page. A report of the Annual General Meeting of the membership held at ORAPEX in May is included in the issue.

March 2014

• The first 2014 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

December 2013

• The Autumn 2013 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

September 2013

• The Summer 2013 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

August 2013

• An archive of modern Canada Post rate tables has been added to the (modern) Rates research area. Thanks to Bob Smith for providing scans of these documents.

• The PHSC website has once again received a Vermeil award in the 2013 APS Chapter and Affiliates Web Awards.

July 2013

• The Spring 2013 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

• All of the back issues of The Georgian Courier have now been made available at the Grey-Bruce-Dufferin-Simcoe study group site. As well, an index to issues 1-50 is now available on the Archive page. All of these features are accessible by study group members.

• A new webpage containing scanned copies of postal history publications, such as Canada Postal Guides, has been started in the Research area. See the References section. Thanks should go to Gus Knierim for providing many of the initial scans.

• For all you barrel-rollers out there, please note that in addition to the webpage showing the database of barrel postmarks, you can also now get it as a comma-delimited (CSV) file that you can download and import into a spreadsheet program. Use this if you want to carry around the most up-to-date information on barrel postmarks. You can find a link to this CSV file just before the table on the aforementioned webpage. Thanks to Mike Street for the suggestion.

April 2013

• The Winter 2013 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

March 2013

• For those of you using Windows computers, you may encounter problems if you use Internet Explorer 10 with this website. We do not expect this situation to change, and we recommend using instead an internet browser that complies with established web standards, such as Google Chrome, Firefox or Apple's Safari, all of which are available free of charge.

February 2013

• In the Postmarks section, the heading 'Broken Circles' has been changed to 'Early Markings' to more accurately reflect the contents of the database. We would like to point out that there is, in particular, a listing of straight line postmarks from all provinces in this section. Date reports and scans are needed.

January 2013

• The annual general meeting of the PHSC will take place at ORAPEX 2013 in Ottawa on May 4 at 1pm. We will have a presentation given by Michael Powell titled World War II Prisoner of War Camps in Canada. Other details about the show may be found on the ORAPEX website.

• Two publications have recently been added to the website and are available for download. The 1999 PHSC publication Canadian Manuscript Town Postmarks by David Handelman and Jacques Poitras is available on the PHSC Books page of the Research area. Ontario manuscript postmarks also appear in the broken circles database, including many that have been reported since publication of the book. As well, the monograph/exhibit by David Handelman titled Returned from the Dead Letter Office is available on the Articles page of the Research area.

• The postoffices database has recently been updated, specifically the Ontario counties of Elgin, Essex, Kent, and Norfolk, as well as the District of Kenora. It is surprising the number of addresses that were discovered for Windsor Sub Post Offices. Also surprising was that many Windsor Sub Offices were under the charge of the same Sub Postmaster who was an employee of the Post Office Department. This becomes one of the major differences between sub offices and the modern-day equivalent of postal outlets which are a total contract situation.

• During the period 1902-1919, many of the larger post offices in Canada utilized International machines to cancel (some of) their mail. It began to become apparent that these machines were not competitive, in terms of speed and accuracy, with other manufacturer's machines. Consequently, in 1910 trials were begun with machines of the Universal Stamping Company (the company that would later become Pitney-Bowes). Examples of these trial machine cancels are downright rare. We have begun a project that will document all known examples of these trials. Universal machines began to appear in many offices, and we also record all of these usages as well, up to June 1919, at which time most of the International machines were scrapped and new contracts with Universal and other companies were drawn.

• The newsletter of the Northern Canada Study Group is an entertaining read, and is available to all PHSC members. See the study group page for full information. Issue 86 was posted in the last few days.

December 2012

• The Fall 2012 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

September 2012

• We continue the slow process of upgrading our Ontario post office database and are happy to draw attention to the fact that we now can include the Counties of Dundas, Frontenac, Haliburton and Prince Edward, as well as the District of Parry Sound. In all cases we list the periods when a post office operated as non-accounting as well as accounting. Especially for sub-offices and the modern-day equivalent we try to list the host business, the address, as well as "postmaster". To make it more interesting we add photographs of the office where available. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, so counties that have a postal history following will get priority. YOUR contribution of facts, photographs, corrections, and amendments are more than welcome and would definitely speed the process. We have many viewers, but alas very few contributors.

August 2012

• The PHSC website has received a Vermeil award in the 2012 APS Chapter and Affiliates Web Awards. From the Press Release:
The American Philatelic Society is pleased to announce the winners in its first Chapter and Affiliates Web Awards recognizing web site excellence. A total of 16 groups participated in this inaugural competition that was open to all APS chapter clubs, club or federation-run stamp shows and affiliates. Each site was evaluated in a variety of areas, including overall content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality and interactivity.


• The Summer 2012 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. This is the second issue commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the PHSC. See the Journal page.

• The Post office lists for Algoma District, Cochrane District, Timiskaming District, as well as the County of Dufferin have been upgraded with many new anecdotal notes. We now also show, where known, the time periods when an office operated as non-accounting as opposed to the raised status of an accounting office. Generally speaking accounting offices tend to be larger, the exception being summer offices. We also now list the postmaster's name where it is tied to the name of the post office. Postmaster's names are also given where an office was served by just one person. A number of new postal addresses/locations have also been added to the notes section.

June 2012

• Membership renewal forms are now available. Payments can be made by mail or by using Paypal. Links to the appropriate Paypal payment may be found on the renewal page. Please renew promptly.

May 2012

Did you know? The Broken Circles database contains not only broken circle postmarks, but also all early postmarks including double broken circles, straight lines, manuscripts and early CDS. Flexible search tools are available. Should we rename this database?

April 2012

• All issues of the Northerner, the newsletter of the Northern Canada Study Group, are now available to all PHSC members. Lots of interesting information here. See the study group page for full information.

March 2012

• The Spring 2012 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. This is the first of several issues commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the PHSC. See the Journal page.

Maggie Toms, 1910-2012
Maggie Toms, member #66, passed away on March 7, 2012 after a short illness. She had been a member of the PHSC since 1972. Maggie had collected various sorts of Canadian postmarks, as well as the transatlantic mails between Newfoundland and France. In recent times she had collected postcards, her main interest being in the publishers and printers of her cards.

• Scans of the newsletters of the BNAPS Duplex Cancel Study Group are now available to PHSC members. See the Duplex page.

• A new exhibit titled 'Universal Postal Union Conferences in Canada' by Bob Smith is now in the Research:Exhibits area.

February 2012

• The Winter 2012 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

December 2011

• The Fall 2011 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

• Post offices of Assiniboia have been added.

• Forty (40) new covers from one owner's holding have been added to the 1902 Experimental Machine listing, along with scans of each.

• Please join us in celebrating the fourth anniversary of the creation of the PHSC website, December 11, 2007.

• Elgin County aficionados will want to note that there is now a CDS database available. Your reports of new dates are desperately needed.

November 2011

• The districts of Timiskaming and Cochrane, as well as the county of Essex, have recently been added to the emerging CDS database. Check it out and make your reports of dates or missing items!

September 2011

• A short report and exhibit on the 1948 experimental duplex and CDS postmarks supplied by Pitney-Bowes is now available in the Research/Articles area.

• We have restarted work on the development of a database of circular date stamp (CDS) postmarks. Initially, the database will include those items that had proof strikes taken, but of course there are many more CDS postmarks than that in existence. This is where we could really use your help! We will build the database, starting with Ontario, county by county, and add other provinces and territories as they become available. If you have items that are not in the database, please report them. To begin, we have Kent county and Algoma district from Ontario, as well as Assinaboia. See the Postmarks/CDS page.

• The Summer 2011 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

August 2011

• An introduction to the Post Office databases, as well as notes on former and current types of post offices, is now available at the Post Offices area.

Now available: case bound and perfect bound copies of the Steinhart Rates book. Click on the ad for information about the perfect bound edition. The case bound version was a single print run and is no longer available.

July 2011

• Those of you who use the Post Office database regularly may be interested to know that you can now search by (part of a) town name, postal code, moon number or RC number. Any of these may be typed into the search box.

• An archive of the newsletters of the Canadian Meter Study Group is now available in the Study Groups area. Active from 1981-2005, this includes a wealth of material on the subject. Also available is an index for the newsletters and a pdf of the CMSG Catalogue, which predates Ross Irwin's Canadian Meter Postage Stamp Catalogue, 3rd ed., but contains much useful additional information.

• A webpage with useful postal history links has been started. We will enlarge this page over time.

• Users of Internet Explorer will notice that the login has been moved to the top of the sidebar. If the login is not visible, click on the green banner to return to the main page. This has been done to counteract a bug in Microsoft's software.

• An updated Author Guidelines document has been created to simplify the interactions between authors and the Journal editor. See the Author Guidelines page. This link is also available in the Member Utilities section of the main sidebar.

June 2011

• The Spring 2011 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

May 2011

Did you know? You can help out by reporting new items or new dates. At the bottom of the righthand sidebar on each of the database pages is a link "Make Report" that will fill you in on how to do it. No piece of information is inconsequential!

• A new database for barrel postmarks has been created, based on a spreadsheet created by Dave Oberholtzer and Bob Smith. This will be continuously updated as new reports come in. The database can be accessed on the Barrel Rollers study group page.

March 2011

• The Winter 2011 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal page.

February 2011

• A searchable index of articles concerning Canadian machine cancels has been installed in the Postmarks:Machines area. Nearly 400 such articles are indexed at present. The index was prepared by Rob Leigh.

• The HA Harmers Auction catalogue of the 2005 sale of The Allan L. Steinhart Collection of Prestamp and Stampless Covers To, From and Through British North America 1685-1865 is now available at the Allan L Steinhart Memorial Website, courtesy of Harmers. This is an interactive pdf, with links to the sale's website.

• Now available is Steinhart's opus on the rates and routes of British North America and Canada that has been edited and brought to completion by Gray Scrimgeour. This is a major contribution to Canadian postal history, and will be the standard reference on the subject for years to come. Available for download to PHSC members at the Allan L Steinhart Memorial Website.

• A new exhibit titled 'Canadian Registration, 1911-1947' by David Handelman is now in the Research:Exhibits area.

January 2011

• A new exhibit on Parcel Cards by David Handelman is now in the Research:Exhibits area.

Did you know? That arrow icon that is always present on the right side of the page header (beside the Log In/Out link) is used to toggle the sidebar in and out of view. It's especially useful when using and modifying searches of the on-line databases. Try it out! You can find other tips in the How-to area.

• An overhaul of some areas of the website have been completed. You might notice the new buttons "Journal" and "Research" that now appear on the masthead. (Clearing your browser's cache might be necessary.) The Journal button leads directly to the latest issue of the Journal and the interface for searching the index of back issues. The Research area collects together all aspects of postal history research that do not have their own dedicated areas. This now includes the Allan L. Steinhart Memorial Website, as well as webpages dedicated to PHSC publications, our Rates study, our collection of on-line Exhibits and a selection of research articles. We hope that this organization will be easy to use and navigate. Please note that we have updated all of the links on the What's New page to reflect these changes.

• Gray Scrimgeour has recently remastered Steinhart's British North America and Great Britain 1838--1865, a display of transatlantic covers running well over 300 pages. Scans of covers will be upgraded to colour when they are available (check your collections!!). Although we do not expect to release this book in hardcopy, a downloadable pdf is available to (logged-in) PHSC members in the Research:PHSC Books area as well as on the Allan L. Steinhart Memorial Website.

• A page about Perfection machine cancels used in Canada has been created. See the Postmarks:Machines area.

December 2010

• The Fall 2010 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Library.

October 2010

• A major exhibit has been installed in the Research:Exhibits area of our website. This is the incredible collection of early BNA stampless covers of Allan Steinhart that was put together for CAPEX 96. Gray Scrimgeour has carefully resurrected the exhibit for display on our website. See his introduction (pdf; 94kB) for more information.

• The Summer 2010 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal area.

August 2010

• Posted a new exhibit titled "The 1929 Mackenzie River Air Mails" by Kevin O'Reilly in the Research:Exhibits area.

July 2010

Did you know? That arrow icon that is always present on the right side of the page header (beside the Log In/Out link) is used to toggle the sidebar in and out of view. It's especially useful when using and modifying searches of the on-line databases. Try it out! You can find other tips in the How-to area.

• A monograph by David Handelman entitled "Soldiers' Letters to or from Canada 1802-1841" is now available in the Research section.

• The International machine database of the IMCRSC is now available. This can be accessed either by navigating to the IMCRSC Study Group or by looking in the Postmarks section, under Machines. See the main IMCRSC page for instructions on how to access the data. A primer on the International machines is also available there.

June 2010

• The Spring 2010 issue of the PHSC Journal is now available. See the Journal area.

• The first sixty-five back-issues of the Northern Study Group newsletter The Northerner are now available to all PHSC members! There's lots of interesting material here for postmark, postcard, etc. collectors.

May 2010

• Repairing an inadvertent omission, a webpage describing a Saskatchewan Post Cards project is now available from the Northern Study Group.
A Significant Anniversary!
Maggie Toms, PHSC member #66, has been a member of the Society since 1972, the year of its founding as the Postal History Society of Ontario. On May 18, 2010 she will be celebrating her 100th birthday. The Society wishes her well on this memorable occasion.


April 2010

• Posted a new exhibit titled "District of Athabaska" by Gray Scrimgeour in the Research:Exhibits area.

March 2010

• Some minor work on the Coutts slogan database has been completed -- repaired a systematic problem with earliest and latest dates.

• Spring break has offered more time to get things done! The Library section of the website has been overhauled and re-organized. We have introduced a new exhibits project, with the intention of showing exhibits related to Canadian postal history. The first exhibits that have been prepared are "Hamilton Bickerdikes" by Stéphane Cloutier and "Small-town Ontario Post Offices" by Bob Smith.

• The on-line edition of Issue 140 of the PHSC Journal is now available.

• much new work has been done on the Manitoba broken circles.

February 2010

Allan Steinhart's CSN articles, in the Research:Articles area

• the complete database of slogan cancels developed and previously published by Cecil Coutts. Fully searchable and customizable, including early and late dates of use. Find this in the Postmarks:Machines area.

• a new on-line PHSC publication written by Bob Smith on the barrel postmarks of Canada. Find it in the Study Groups/Barrel area.

January 2010

• a new database of the early 2-ring and 4-ring numeral cancels of Canada. Find this in the Postmarks:Numeral area.

December 2009

• a listing of the 1902 Montreal Experimental machines, with a time-line of recorded usage.