Stamp Desk / Name in plain sight
Canada, 1851
A beaver by a waterfall in an oval, with a pen-line cancel.
Illustration of a historical stamp for learning, shown at screen size. Not valid for postage.
How to read it
CANADA around the oval and a beaver.
- 1CANADA
- 2POSTAGE
- 3THREE PENCE
- Inscription
- CANADA POSTAGE · THREE PENCE
- Meaning
- CANADA POSTAGE around a beaver; pence, the British-style money of the time.
- Issued by
- Province of Canada
- Today
- Canada Flag of Canada
- Year
- 1851. Issued 23 April 1851.
- Made by
- Sandford Fleming (design, died 1915)
One fact
The Three-penny Beaver, designed by Sandford Fleming, was the first Canadian postage stamp.
Source and public-domain rule
Creators died more than 70 years ago. Fleming died 1915; the bank-note engraver was an adult in 1851 and is long dead. Copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, counted from 1 January of the year after death. Every named designer and engraver of the stamp died before 1 January 1956; any contributor who was never named counts as anonymous, whose term is 70 years from publication, and the stamp was published before 1956. Legal sources: Directive 2006/116/EC, Art. 1(1) life + 70 years; Art. 1(3) anonymous works 70 years from publication; Art. 7(1) comparison of terms for works from outside the EU; Art. 8 terms run from 1 January, Switzerland, Norway.
Scan: 3p Castor Fleming 1851.jpg on Wikimedia Commons (revision 1288401037), licence templates {{PD-Canada-stamp}} (a public-domain reason different from ours; both are recorded). Downloaded 2026-10-19, sha256 d6e124488ca4…; cropped and cleaned for this site. Facts checked 2026-10-19 against source 1 and source 2. Research record, not legal advice; a human rights review is pending. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
