Canada issues 32 stamps Oct. 3 to honor NHL teams, stars

Canada Post issued a set of stamps Oct. 3 honoring the seven Canada-based National Hockey League teams, and star defense­men from the original six NHL teams.

The seven team stamps all feature a familiar fixture of professional hockey: the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine.

The new set is the second issue in Canada’s five-year NHL stamp series.

The individual players honored with new permanent-rate stamps are Bobby Orr (representing the Boston Bruins), Harry Howell (New York Rangers), Doug Harvey (Montreal Canadiens), Tim Horton (Toronto Maple Leafs), Red Kelly (Detroit Red Wings), and Pierre Pilote (Chicago Black Hawks).

The stamps each show the player wearing the team jersey and holding a hockey stick, with the player’s jersey number in the background.

These NHL Original Six stamps will be issued in a booklet of six consisting of one stamp for each player, and in a souvenir sheet of six stamps.

These defenders also are being honored with a set of six $2.50 international rate self-adhesive stamps designed to look like sports trading cards with printing on the reverse.

The souvenir sheets are packaged as a set of six within a foil pack that sells for the face value of $15. Canada Post is seeding in a limited number of autographed souvenir sheets by Orr, Kelly, Howell and Pilote in random packages. Collectors have 1-in-50 odds of finding one of the signed souvenir sheets, with 1,000 sheets signed by Orr and 500 each signed by the other three living players.

Seven additional permanent-rate stamps — issued as separate coils of 50 and in a souvenir sheet of seven — pay tribute to Canada’s seven NHL teams. Each design shows a Zamboni emblazoned with team logos and colors.

The seven teams represented on the NHL Zamboni Team Logo stamps are the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets.

The stamps show an overhead illustration of the machine with the team logo appearing on the hood of the Zamboni and on the ice.

The 2014 NHL stamp issue is the second in what Canada Post indicates is a five-year series.

The first series, issued in 2013, depicts team jerseys as worn by players and fans, and team logos on hockey pucks (Scott 2661-2676).

In the 2014 issue, 13 designs were created honoring the six defensemen and seven teams.

The NHL Original Six stamps are sold in a self-adhesive booklet, a perforated and gummed souvenir sheet of six, and six different $2.50 single-stamp self-adhesive souvenir sheets, resulting in 18 different stamps.

The NHL Zamboni Team Logo stamps, in self-adhesive coils and in a souvenir sheet of seven, total 14 major varieties.

All told, the 2014 NHL issue consists of 32 different new stamps.

The NHL Zamboni Team Logo stamp designs are also featured on a set of seven different nondenominated ($2.50) international rate picture postal cards.

The stamps were designed by Avi Dunkelman and Joseph Gault of MIX Design Group, and printed by Lowe-Martin using Tullis Russell paper with tagging on all four sides.

For the NHL Original Six stamps, seven colors were used for the stamps and souvenir sheets. The souvenir sheet of six also includes embossing.

For the NHL Zamboni Team Logo stamps, six-color offset lithography was used to print the stamps and the souvenir sheet.

The NHL Original Six booklet stamps were printed in a quantity of 4.5 million. A total of 180,000 souvenir sheets of six were produced.

A total of 125,000 sets of six $2.50 souvenir sheets were printed.

The NHL Zamboni Team Logo coil stamps were printed in a quantity of 1 million each for the Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa stamps; 1.5 million each for the Vancouver stamps; and 2 million each for the Toronto and Montreal stamps. A total of 200,000 souvenir sheets were produced.

The Canada Post item number for the NHL Original Six booklet of six is 41396211. The souvenir sheet of six is Canada Post item 403962107 and the set of six $2.50 stamp souvenir sheets is item 403962145.

Canada Post item numbers for the NHL Zamboni Team Logo coils of 50 are 403955117 (Montreal), 403956117 (Ottawa), 403957117 (Toronto), 403958117 (Winnipeg), 403959117 (Calgary), 403960117 (Edmonton), and 403961117 (Vancouver).

A set of seven strips of four stamps each is item 403955118. A set of seven strips of 10 stamps each is item 403955119.

The NHL Zamboni Team Logo souvenir sheet is item 403955145.

For the NHL Original Six stamps, different quantities of official FDCs, ranging from 12,000 to 20,000 for each player, will be produced and postmarked in different cities. The item number is 413913131 for a set of all seven.

Canada Post will service 13,000 official first-day covers of the NHL Zamboni Team Logo souvenir sheet of seven. The FDC will bear a Brantford, Ontario, postmark and is Canada Post item 403955144.

Brantford is home to the Canadian headquarters of Frank J. Zamboni and Co.

Stamps and FDCs will be available by mail order from the National Philatelic Centre, Canada Post Corp., 75 St. Ninian St., Antigonish, NS B2G 2R8, Canada; or by telephone from the United States and Canada at 800-565-4362, and from other countries at 902-863-6550.

Canada Post products are available at www.canadapost.ca/shop.

Canada’s stamps and stamp products are also available from many new-issue stamp dealers, and from Canada Post’s agent in the United States: Interpost, Box 420, Hewlett, NY 11557.