Description
This visually stunning and award-winning Gates of Chinatown collector folio issued by Canada Post is both a work of art in itself and a high-quality set of collectibles celebrating the ancient and modern traditions of China. While the newest component of the presentation includes a series of beautifully designed collector stamps showing the gates to eight different Canadian Chinese communities, the numismatic highlight of the collection is a set of two different genuine historic "cash" coins. The newest of these two coins dates back about 200 years to the era of the Qing Dynasty, while the older coin dates from the Song Dynasty and is about 1,000 years old.
Following the tradition and shape of these historic coins, the two sets of eight postage stamps are presented in a round collector sheet with a square hole in the middle. One of the sheets includes regular perforated stamps, while the second scarcer sheet unique to this set has not been perforated.
The eight gates of Chinatown featured on the stamps are known as paifang in Mandarin. This type of gate was once used to separate subdivisions in Chinese cities. Eventually, these gates lost that role and remained as monuments. The 16-page full-colour booklet in the centre of this presentation provides a history of the Chinatown gates as well as a historic chronicle of the cash coins which were used in China from ancient times until the early 20th century.
