Calgary club tops 2019 CSN Cover Contest

After a month of voting, the second annual CSN Cover Contest has come to a close with the Calgary Philatelic Society (CPS) taking top honours in the club category.

One of seven clubs to mail a cover to CSN to mark October’s National Stamp Collecting Month, the CPS was announced as the winner on Nov. 1. The club’s cover, which earned 112 votes, celebrates National Stamp Collecting Month alongside the club’s annual fall show – Caltapex – which is also held in October.

“The CPS is proud and happy to have won the contest,” says CPS member and cover designer Dave Bartlet.

“All hobbies these days often need to promote what they do as there is a lot of competition for the attention of people in the market.”

Inspired by the Calgary Zoo’s ongoing panda exhibit, CPS members decided to frank their cover with a customized Picture Postage stamp. After voting at the club’s monthly meeting this September, members chose one photograph for the stamp while two runners-up were chosen for the cachet.

“We felt the theme of pandas for the show was something that is attractive to all generations, young collectors and older collectors alike,” adds Bartlet.

The cover’s stamp is also cancelled by an “Airways RPO” postmark dated Sept. 23, 2019.

For taking the top spot in the club category, the CPS wins $100 from CSN.

“We were late in the game to create our cover this year since our show was not until the third week of October, but seeing your promotion in the electronic Canadian Stamp News and remembering last year when Kathy Hartley (librarian of the Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library) asked why we didn’t do an entry got me to rush this into production,” adds Bartlet, who aimed to create “a cover that put out the right message for the month in combination with our show.”

“We will be more aware to do something similar next year for the promotion. It is the local clubs that are the grassroots and need to do the footwork for Stamp Collecting Month.”

SECOND PLACE,

CLUB CATEGORY

The second-place prize – worth $50 – was won by the Waterloo Region Stamp Club, whose cover earned 61 votes in the club category.

It’s franked by Canada Post’s 2019 West Montrose Covered Bridge stamp. To the left, the cover depicts an old colour postcard featuring St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on 54 Queen St. N., in nearby Kitchener, Ont.

The club’s logo is also shown at the top of the cover, which includes a Waterloo Post Office postmark dated Sept. 25, 2019.

THIRD PLACE,

CLUB CATEGORY

The third-place prize, which is worth $25, went to the Kelowna and District Stamp Club, whose cover earned 52 votes in the club category.

It includes a new “stamp-on-a-stamp” version of the club’s Ogopogo-themed Picture Postage stamp. The original Ogopogo stamp was franked on the club’s submission in last year’s inaugural CSN Cover Contest, which it won.

On this year’s cover, the stamp is cancelled with a Sept. 17, 2019-dated Ogopogo postmark from Kelowna, B.C.’s Town Centre Post Office. The commemorative cancel, which is also dated Sept. 17, references National Stamp Collecting Month and covers the image of the “stamp-on-a-stamp” version.

The cover’s cachet also includes an image of the 2019 “stamp-on-a-stamp” version alongside the club’s first Ogopogo stamp, which was printed 29 years ago.

TOP INDIVIDUAL COVER

In the individual category, Toronto’s Harvey Shuter won the first-place prize and takes home $50.

Shuter’s cover celebrates National Stamp Collecting Month by encouraging people to not only collect stamps but also join a stamp club – both noble endeavours also endorsed by CSN.

The cover is franked with a customized Picture Postage stamp featuring a local post office. It’s cancelled by a Stamp Collecting Month postmark dated Oct. 1, 2019, while a stylized stamp design is featured to the left of the cachet.

NEXT YEAR

Details for the third annual CSN Cover Contest will be announced in January 2020.

For more information, visit canadianstampnews.com/2019covercontest.

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