This Official First Day Cover features the Total Solar Eclipse stamp, which commemorates the total solar eclipse that will occur over parts of Canada on Monday, April 8, 2024.

It is the only time this century that the path of a total solar eclipse will cross parts of North America’s three largest countries – Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Good to know

• Total Solar Eclipse 2024 Official First Day Cover cancelled in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
• The Total Solar Eclipse stamp – issued in advance of the total solar eclipse that will occur on April 8, 2024 – marks the first time that Canada Post has issued a stamp featuring a solar eclipse.
• This total solar eclipse is significant in that it is the only time this century that the path of such an eclipse will cross parts of North America’s three largest countries – Mexico, the United States and Canada.
• Previous Canada Post issues related to astronomy include the International Year of Astronomy (2009), which featured images of the Eagle and Horsehead nebulas, and Astronomy (2018), which featured images of the Milky Way and the Northern Lights and marked the 150th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

About the issue

The main image on the stamp, created through a combination of photography and illustration, shows the sun at the moment of totality during a total solar eclipse.

Set against the backdrop of a darkened sky, the stamp image also features a metallic silver line depicting the path of the eclipse from its entrance point in southwestern Ontario to its exit point in eastern Newfoundland and Labrador.

Across the bottom of the stamp is a photomontage of land formations along the path of the totality, including Niagara Falls, New Brunswick’s Hopewell Rocks and the rocky shores of Newfoundland’s east coast.