Nanaimo Bar on Canadian Postage Stamps
Sweet Canada: PermanentTM Domestic stamps – Booklet of 10
Canadian culinary history is featured in a booklet of PermanentTM domestic stamps dishing up the origins of five delicious Canadians desserts and takes you on a tasty trip from coast to coast.
Discover Nanaimo bars, Saskatoon berry pie butter tarts, tarte au sucre (sugar pie) and blueberry grunt.
The odd-shaped stamps are arranged on a fun recipe card background. The back of the booklet also features a recipe box motif.
The coconut, graham cracker-crusted, custard-filled, chocolate delicacy warmly known as the Nanaimo bar is earning a reputation as Canada’s sweetheart after Canada Post announced it would be featured in a new stamp collection. ~Nicole Bogart, CTVNews.ca
The rendering of one of these dessert, the Nanaimo Bar is generating controversy as critics question base-to-filling ratio.
But is it really a Nanaimo bar? Images of the eminently lickable stamp were released Thursday, and while all three layers of the classic dessert are accounted for — the crumbly base, the custard filling, and the chocolate ganache icing — many were quick to point out that the ratio is all wrong. ~ Harrison Mooney- Vancouver Sun
Toronto illustrator Tyler Clark Burke agreed. “Seems like the middle layer is too thick, and the bottom layer is too thin? The top layer is kind of weak too,” she said.
David Reevely, news editor at The Canadian Press’s Ottawa bureau, even suggested the filling looked more like peanut butter than custard — anathema to Nanaimo bar purists.
As evidence, Joyce Hardcastle provided Postmedia a picture of a fresh batch of Nanaimo bars that were chilling in her freezer, atop a tea towel sold in local shops, which also features her famous recipe.

Joyce Hardcastle’s Nanaimo bars, with the correct filling to base ratio. – Courtesy of Julie and Joyce Hardcastle
Yet, Canadians seem to be the most excited by the addition of the Nanaimo bar stamps. News of the stamp has even reached overseas, according to Twitter users.
“Just heard people at the airport in Norway talking about the Nanaimo Bar getting its own postage stamp in Canada,” wrote one Twitter user. “My first thought was, ‘Nanaimo Bars are definitely Canadian, but worthy of a stamp?’ My second thought was, ‘Who still uses stamps?’”
The decadent no-bake bar has become synonymous with its namesake Vancouver Island city. Yet, according to the City of Nanaimo’s website, the treat’s origin is “shrouded in mystery.”
In 2006, the Nanaimo bar was declared Canada’s favourite confection by a reader’s poll in the National Post. The dessert is so popular in its hometown that the city has developed a “Nanaimo Bar Trail” dedicated to the city’s best confectionary selection.
SWEET CANADA POSTAGE STAMPS ISSUE
- ISSUE DATE: April 17, 2019
- STAMP DESIGNER: Roy White, Liz Wurzinger, Subplot Design Inc.
- ILLUSTRATION: Mary Ellen Johnson
- STAMP VALUE: PermanentTM (domestic rate)
- QUANTITY PRODUCTS: 200,000
- DIMENSIONS:
- Sugar Pie: 34.4 mm x 30.5 mm
- Butter tart: 32 mm x 29.4 mm
- Saskatoon Berry Pie: 40.9 mm x 30.9 mm
- Nanaimo Bar: 35.1 mm x 32 mm
- Blueberry Grunt: 43.1 mm x 27.9 mm
A great addition to odd shaped, sugar, food and candy/sweet topical stamp collections!
Janice Dugas | ATA Member
PS: The April 2019 checklist updates have been completed and the dATAbase now has a total 735,445 items. Topical stamps checklists are emailed or mailed to ATA members within 24 hours of order receipt. If you don’t find your topic listed, ATA can customize a checklist for you. Order by email, phone or postal mail. Visit the American Topical Association (ATA) for more information.
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