Reduced Domestic Christmas Letter Rates:
1983 - 1995
This article summarizes the domestic Christmas letter rates and discounts offered by Canada Post from 1983 to 1995, and shows examples of stamps and envelopes required to obtain the reduced rates.

• 1983 : Canada Post, in cooperation with Gift Packaging and Greeting Card Association, introduced a reduced Christmas domestic letter rate on a trial basis in Winnipeg. The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether a postal code could be read by an Optical Code Reader (OCR) and thus speed up the handling of mail. The trial had limited success.

• 1984 : Further OCR trials were held at eight cities.

• 1985 : Canada Post offered a 2 cent discount for Christmas letters franked with a reduced rate Christmas stamp .

• 1986 : Canada Post, with the participation of the Gift Packaging and Greeting Card Association, introduced the "Greet More" program nation-wide.

• 1987 - 1995 : The Greet More program continued from 1987 to 1995.
  

1983 : Winnipeg Stick n Tick program

The Winnipeg Post Office sold precode self-adhesive labels , called Stick "N" Tick labels, to determine the operational effectiveness of precode postage labels and customer attitudes towards a "special" Christmas card mailing rate for greeting cards mailed to Canadian destinations.

The labels were sold in packages of 12 for $3.49 or 25 for $6.88.


Package of 12 Stick "N" Tick labels


The pictorial design of a holly wreath and candle (undenominated) appeared in the right-handcorner of the label with thick three vertical bars to the left of the design for OCR recogniton . A matrix was printed on the label on which the postal code of the addressee was to be "ticked".




Instructions were included with the package of labels:








Canadian Stamp News article describing the Winnipeg trial

Michael Warren, President of the Canada Post Corporation, reported that only 51% of cards mailed in the 1983 Winnipeg trials went through the automated equipment.

Coded Manually


Winnipeg to Burgessville (N0J 2C0)
Stick "N" Tick label paying the 32 cent letter rate


The yellow vertical bars indicate that the letter was coded manually and not by an OCR.

OCR Coding


Winnipeg local correspondence (addressed to R3C 2Z1), December 21, 1983



Pink vertical lines were affixed by the OCR


1984 : Two Piece Stick "N" Tick

In 1984, Canada Post continued to experiment with labels that could be read by its OCR equipment. A two-piece Stick "N" Tick label ( stamp and postal code matrix) was introduced and sealed in packages of 12@$3.39. The undenominated labels were sold at eight post offices : Edmonton, Halifax, Hull, London, Ottawa, Quebec City, Victoria, and Winnipeg.



Two-piece Stick "N" Tick label

Package front

Instructions on back of package

OCR coding


London local mailing to N5W 1Z3, December 18, 1984


Pink vertical lines were affixed by the OCR


Manual Coding


Ottawa to Port Credit, L5G 4B3, December 22, 1984
Stick N Tick label paying the 32 cent letter rate


The yellow vertical bars indicate that the letter was coded manually and not by an OCR.


Commercial Mail

The self-adhesive postal code matrix were affixed to letters that were not greeting cards.


Edmonton to Toronto, December 14, 1984
Manual coding


1985 No Matrix
The Stick "N" Tick labels were not issued in 1985. Instead, the Christmas letter rate was 32 cents, two cents less than 34 cent domestic letter rate.


32 cent Christmas stamp issued to pay the 1985 discounted Christmas card rate.


A cover showing the 32 cent Christmas rate is not shown. However the cover below, franked with a 32 cent stamp, was uprated to pay the letter rate to the U.S.


St. Thomas to Fremont, N.H., November 9, 1985
32 cent domestic Christmas letter discount stamp uprated to 39 cents, the U.S. letter rate


1986 "Greet More" Program

In 1986, Canada Post introduced the "Greet More" program. A five cent reduction of postage was available to users of greeting card envelopes bearing a printed matrix on which the postal code was to be ticked, and franked with the "Greet More" stamp. The "Greet More" program was implemented annually until 1995.


29 cent "Greet More" stamp
Design on the right side of the stamp. Three vertical bars to the left of the design to activate the OCR equipment.


Toronto to Scarborough, December 18, 1986
29 cents discount rate (34 cents letter rate)





Posted After December

After the Christmas letter discount period, the denominated "Greet More" stamps could still be used on letter mail at their face value.



Milton to Welland, January 6, 1987
29 cent Greet More stamp + 5 cent stamp affixed to pay the 34 cent letter rate.


1987

The 1987 "Greet More" rate was 31 cents.


The 1987 Greet More stamp had 4 vertical bars printed to the left of the design.



Pte. Claire to Whitby, December 10, 1987
31 cents discount rate (36 cents letter rate)


1988

The 1988 "Greet More" rate was 32 cents.





Milton to Whitby, December 19, 1988
32 cents discount rate (37 cents letter rate)


1989

The 1989 Greet More rate was 33 cents.





Fort Macleod to Caledon, December 5, 1989
33 cents discount rate (38 cents letter rate)


1990

The 1990 Greet More rate was 34 cents.





Pte. Claire to Whitby, December 1, 1990
34 cents discount rate (39 cents letter rate)


1991

The 1991 Greet More rate was 35 cents.




Ponte Claire local mailing, December 1, 1991
35 cents discount rate (40 cents letter rate)


1992

The 1992 Greet More rate was 37 cents.





Toronto South Central Processing Plant (L4W 1T0) to Ottawa, December 4, 1992


1993





Bowmanville (M4L 3T0) to Oshawa, December 7, 1983
38 cents discount rate (43 cents letter rate)

1994

The Greet More rate was 40 cents. Undenominated stamps were issued.


Undenominated


St. Thomas (N5Y 1B0) to Ingersoll, December 5, 1994
40 cents discount rate (45 cents letter rate)

1995

The "Greet More" program ended in 1995


40 cents


Woodstock (N5Y 1B0) to Stratford, December 11, 1995
40 cents discount rate (45 cents letter rate)

ReferencesStreet, Mike, "1983 Stick 'n Tick Not as Successful as Canada Post Says", Topics Vol. 41, 6, pp. 40-45

"R.I.P. Stick 'n Tick", Topics, 42, 6, p.9

Ward, Kathy, "Greet More" A Report on Canada Post Corporation's 'Greet More' Program in 1986 and 1987", Topics Vol. 45, No.6, pp. 12-17

The 1997 Postal Strike

[This is the third in a series of articles dealing with postal strikes in Canada. The 1968 strike post can be found here. Strikes from 1974 to 1981 are found here.]

Canada's 45,000 postal workers went on strike over wages and work rules on November 19, 1997. Negotiations were unsuccessful and Parliament passed back-to work legislation ending the strike on December 5, 1997. (Click here for more details.)

U.S. Embargo

 Mailed from Florida to Ottawa, November 28, 1997and returned. Instructional handstamp explains why the letter was returned:

Your mail was returned due to the
Canada Post Strike. Your local post office
will refund your postage (PS Form 3533). If
you wish to resend and it's urgent send
item via Express Mail or Global Package Link.

Post-Strike Letters Without Stamps

David Tingley, President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers responded to the back-to-work legislation by inviting the public to mail letters without stamps, promising that postal workers would go ahead and process mail through December. "The public has been inconvenienced by this strike", he said. "This is just a repayment to the public for their patience."

I prepared covers shortly after the strike and mailed them without stamps as Mr. Tingley had suggested. The Optical Code Reader (OCR) read the typed postal code (removed for anonymity) and marked the bottom of the envelope with pink bars representing my postal code:


South Central Letter Processing Plant, December 8, 1997



Tagged selvedge cancelled



Fluorescent horizontal pink bars representing addressee's postal code (partial shown) sprayed on the bottom of the envelope by Optical Code Reader.


My second letter was cancelled on the back side of the envelope:




Optical scanning bars dated December 8 were sprayed on opposite side:


Arrow points to the line of fluorescent scanning bars. Click on letter for a magnified view.

The letters were delivered promptly without additional markings.

1972 Plains Indians

In 1972, Canada Post Office inaugurated its Canadian "Indians" stamp series with the release of four stamps illustrating the Plains Indians. The stamp were issued in se-tenant pairs in two installments, July and October. The Indians series continued annually featuring a different group each year until its completion in 1976.

July 6, 1972 release

The first two stamps in the series included a print, "Buffalo Chase", by George Catlin, an American artist who wandered widely in North America, and a photograph of Plains Indians' artifacts.




October 4, 1972 release
The stamps issued in October featured a thunderbird, the graphic symbol of divinity, and "The Fancy Dancer", the artwork of Gerald Tailfeathers of the Kainai Nation, illustrating the ceremonial costume worn during the Sun Dance.





First Day Covers

Canada Post Office Publicity First Day Covers






Canada Envelope Company






Shering Corporation











Jackson






Overseas Mailers





Canadian Armed Forces






Cominco






Rosecraft






Canada Post Office Official First Day Covers














David Pritchard











Usages

Domestic


Wabush, Labrador to Moncton, July 27, 1972
8 cents domestic letter rate + 50 cents registration fee



Kings Cove, Nfld., to Moncton, July 17, 1972
8 cents domestic letter rate + 50 cents registration fee