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J. Lyons is primarily known for their British issues of tea cards. There is a lessor know set issued in Canada prior to 1967. The set is called Canadian Centennial Celebration. This scarce set is represented by 66 cards issued in preperation for the Canadian Centennial Celebrations of 1967. Each card features a color photographic image of some aspect of Canadian Life from coast to coast in 1967. The backs of the cards identify the image featured on the front, with the particular province identified as well, and have advertising for the various Lyons products, written in both French and English. The cards were distributed in different manners for each product. In their Soup Packs there was one card per pack. Their coffee had a two card perforated strip per 1 pound bag. Their tea features 4 sizes of packaging. The 15 bag box had one card in it, the 30 bag box had a perforated strip of 2 cards, the 60 bag box had a perforated strip of 4 cards, and the 120 bag box held a 8 card perforated strip... or maybe it was strips of 4. Their was also an album which you could send away for that was designed to display and collect the cards in. Due to the lower population in Canada than in the US, print runs in Canada were much smaller compared with American Cards. Because of this the majority of all Canadian non sports cards are far scarcer than card issued in the US. What do the cards look like?
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The Senate, Ottawa Hunting Party Here are four cards that represent the 66 card set. They are approximatly 1 11/16" x 2 7/16" for a single card.
Each card gives the province and what the photographed front is about. There's a Variation?
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The Midway, C.N.E. These two cards display the rare variation of a special message printed in red on the back.
They made a smaller bunch with red stamping on the back touting "For your beautiful Canada Centennial
Album send name, address and .25¢ to: THE TEA, P.O. Box 180, Station U, Toronto 18, Ontario." If you collect, you
will attempt to collect both versions. I'll just betcha. This gets me to thinking. I know, dangerous, right? I wonder if
they put this bright red message on the cards because no one was buying the albums. I know the albums are hard to come by
as well. I also bet you are wondering if I show you what the album looks like. Relax, its pictured a little lower on this
web page. You know I gotcha covered.
Do you have a list of the different cards?
Sure, that can be done. Feel free to click the top and sort the list any way you want. If you see a link then there is a
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What does the album look like?
Of course J. Lyons made a cool Canadian Centennial album to hold those 66 cards. But what does it look like? We at least have a peek at the cover and three pages. Many thanks to Terry Gomes for the peek into the album.
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Canada section |
Quebec section | The West section |
According to a writeup from J. Lyons, "The centennial album is 7 1/2" x 9" in size with 32 pages containing text and printed illustrations of historical interest. The illustrations PLUS the colorful set of 66 cards you collect will give you a souvenir book of Canada's Centennial to be proud of."
It is surprising to me how different the cards are from the cover. The cards are all pictures of Canadian life while the cover looks like it could be an album about flags. Of course, if you know anything about Canada, you recognize the flags as the flags of the provinces and territories with the Canadian flag smack dab in the middle. Understanding that makes the album cover make sense. The cards are broken up into the provinces and territories with the last three dedicated to all of Canada. Now that we look inside the album we see that the sections are broken down by the whole thing (Canada), province and territory as well. A consistent theme.
As I was reminded by a fellow collector, the celebration happened in '67 and Lyons planned for all this starting in early '66. There are adverts touting the series starting in early '66. Thanks Bobby Nagy.
A final point of interest is that when you sent in your quarter for the album, you had to indicate (by checking a box) whether you wanted the album in English or French. Sheesh! Sounds like another variation to collect!
About the only other things to talk about collecting are at least one cool magazine ad I have seen and a form that gives a bunch of facts about the series including the cards and the albums. It is full letter size and titled "Save Canada Centennial Picture Cards". At the bottom of the form is a section to cut off and mail in for your albums. On one side it is written in English and on the other it is in French. How convenient is that?
You know what? This is a fun little set to collect with quite a few variations to keep you plenty busy with this hobby of collecting.
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Last modified: December 30, 2021 Send mail to with questions or comments about this web site. |
