June 21, 2001
RON BRIGHAM: WORLD STAMP CHAMPION

The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada (RPSC) is pleased to announce that Canada has won the first World Stamp Championship of the third millennium.

Canada's Ron Brigham of Mississauga, Ontario, won the Grand Prix d'Honneur at BELGICA 2001, the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie's (FIP) World Philatelic Exhibition held in Brussels, Belgium (June 8-15, 2001).

RPSC President, Charles J. G. Verge, FRPSC, who attended the awards dinner where Mr. Brigham's win was announced, said, "Mr. Brigham's achievement is a great boost for Canadian philately."

Mr. Brigham has been collecting since the tender age of 9 and has concentrated on building the best Canadian collection ever put together since the early 1980's. His winning collection, The Pence and Cents of Canada, 1851-1868, is the first of a series of exhibits that Mr. Brigham hopes to complete to reach his goal.

Verge said "the win highlights, at the world level, the collecting of a fascinating country. I applaud the ability and tenacity of Mr. Brigham to put together a complex collection of the first stamps of a country not known recently to have a history of great classic stamp collections."

In addition to this exhibit, Mr. Brigham is forming other 19th and 20th Century Canadian exhibits, including the Large and Small Queens series. The winning Pence and Cents exhibit contains virtually all of the rarities of the issues, and is complemented by outstanding postal history items.

Ron Brigham is the only Canadian to have won the world championship in its 75-year history and only the second Canadian to compete for it. Charles Verge offered the world winner "our most heartfelt congratulations on this outstanding achievement."

Mr. Brigham is a member of The RPSC and one of its major supporters.

Information on membership in The RPSC may be obtained from Andrew Parr, Executive Director, P.O. Box 929, Station Q, Toronto ON M4T 2P1, Canada or through the Internet at www.rpsc.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Michael O. Nowlan 506-357-2698
Carol S. Law 416-979-8874