Ma per fortuna che almeno a Natale, Pasqua e magari per un
compleanno, c’è ancora chi preferisce spedire per posta i propri auguri con un
bel cartoncino pieno di immagini e colori ed il tocco affettuoso di una firma a
penna.
Per fortuna che per noi nostalgici (e tantissimi
collezionisti!) esistono ancora i francobolli ed il Canada ne stampa di
straordinariamente belli per qualità e soggetti illustrati.
Basta ricordare l’impegno di CANADA POST lo scorso anno di
emettere francobolli celebrativi di luoghi di interesse naturalistico onorati
di essere inclusi fra i siti UNESCO. L’iniziativa, che prevede nei prossimi 4 o
5 anni di completare la serie a comprendere gli altri attuali ed eventuali
futuri siti Unesco, è nata a seguito di numerose richieste da parte dei
canadesi di esaltare e promuovere maggiormente i panorami tipici della nazione.
NAHANNI NATIONAL PARK, Northwest
Territories - GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK, Newfoundland and Labrador -
MIGUASHA NATIONAL PARK, Québec - PARCHI DELLE MONTAGNE ROCCIOSE, Alberta
and British Columbia - JOGGINS FOSSIL CLIFFS, Nova Scotia.
Un’altra emissione
di CANADA POST celebra altri luoghi dei 17 siti UNESCO canadesi.
Tra i 5 francobolli che celebrano luoghi di interesse culturale (che vanno a
ruba tra i collezionisti essendone stato stampati soltanto 1 milione di
esemplari) due sono quelle a tariffa internazionale: uno rappresenta i totem SGANG GWAAY del British Columbia e
l’altro il CANALE RIDEAU di Ottawa. Gli altri 3 sono destinati alle spedizioni
negli Stati Uniti ed illustrano LUNENBURG in Nova Scotia, GRAND-PRÉ in Nova
Scotia, HEAD-SMASHED-IN-BUFFALO-JUMP in Alberta.
www.postescanada.ca :
They’re wild, rugged, breathtakingly beautiful and
a fascinating portal to the past – and not just because Canadians think so.
These treasures of Canada have become UNESCO World Heritage sites and are
celebrated in this multi-year stamp series, which will include both definitive
and commemorative stamps.
Canada’s 17
World Heritage sites are deemed so valuable for their natural riches and
cultural significance that they are recognized internationally. We introduce
the series with five domestic stamps. Travel the rapids and whirlpools of the
South Nahanni River in Nahanni National Park, scale the monumental peaks of the
Canadian Rocky Mountains, and read the history of the Earth in the magma crust
of Gros Morne National Park or in the fossil beds of Joggins Fossil Cliffs and
Miguasha National Park.
During the
gold rush in what was to become Nahanni National Park World Heritage Site
(Northwest Territories), prospectors failed to find their fortune, but
discovered an incredibly varied landscape. Virginia Falls and the twists
of Hell’s Gate were sculptered by the last ice age.
The pristine
ridges and cliffs, bogs and tundra, ocean inlets and lakes of Gros Morne
National Park (Newfoundland and Labrador) might be stunning, but this site’s
World Heritage status was granted due to what’s hidden underground – a perfect
example of plate tectonics, proof the Earth’s continents have joined and
separated repeatedly over the eons. Once-liquid magma that filled the gap
between plates of Earth’s crust remains clearly visible in the cliffs of Gros
Morne’s Western Brook Pond.
Imagine the palm trees! Nearly 400
million years ago, today’s Miguasha National Park (Québec) on the Gaspé
Peninsula was once a tropical estuary. The fossil beds of the Escuminac
Formation, exposed in a seaside cliff provide a rare portrait of Devonian life
– including 21 species of fish fossils that have made Miguasha famous.
Nearly 200
fossil species found in the Joggins Fossil Cliffs reveal the world’s most
complete record of terrestrial life from the Pennsylvanian Period
(the Coal Age), over 300 million years ago. Here we find fossilized
reptiles and amniotes, the first vertebrates to reproduce on land, marking one
of the most significant events in the evolution of life on Earth.
Every year,
more than nine million people visit the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks along the
Alberta-British Columbia border. These include Banff – Canada’s first park
preserve – Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho national parks as well as Mount Robson,
Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks (British Columbia). On her choice
of photograph to depict this iconic landscape, designer Lara Minja admits
that from a climber’s bird’s-eye view, one realizes the vastness of the
surrounding mountain range “and the endless possibilities of discovery.”
Minja points
out that her overall approach included “contrasts and comparisons in scale,
colour, shape, and texture of the environmental elements, both within
individual stamps and across the stamp series.”
For these
reasons, we think this stamp series will invite Canadians to discover more
about the wonders of their homeland and explore these sites as they’re seen
through the eyes of the world.
The new stamps celebrate
five of Canada’s 17 UNESCO sites and are a result of requests by Canadians for
more stamps featuring Canadian landscapes, according to Jim Phillips, director
of stamp services at Canada Post. In the next three to four years, Phillips
says Canada Post will issue commemorative stamps of all the current and future
sites.
In the
current package of five, there are two international-rate stamps: one of totems
from British Columbia’s SGang Gwaay and one of Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. The
remaining three United States-rate stamps feature landscapes in Lunenburg,
N.S., Grand-Pré, N.S. and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Alta. Phillips says
collectors should buy them quickly as less than one million were printed.
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