Date of issue: June 25, 1998
Printer: Gravure Choquet
Design: Pierre-Yves Pelletier
Canadian Health Professionals
Canada’s health care professionals – including physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, dentists, physical and occupational therapists, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, medical technologists and others – are represented by several organizations that act to maintain and advance standards of medical care. Canada Post decided to pay tribute to the entire group of these individuals and organizations with a commemorative stamp in 1998.
The Stamp
The stamp features the Aesculapian staff, identified as a symbol of healing for over 2000 years. Aesculapius was the Greek God of medicine (pictured on the first-day cover as a sketch on the postmark and as a sculpture). The staff has been interpreted in various ways, including as a representation of the walking stick used by itinerant physicians and as a symbol of the support a physician provides during illness. It is typically coiled by a snake, a symbol of fertility and rebirth. Aesculapius was supposed to have learned the secret of keeping death at bay after observing a serpent bringing another snake back to life with healing herbs. As a result, non-venomous snakes were used in healing rituals in Greek Aesculapian temples.
The combination of the two symbols has been incorporated in a number of Canadian Health Care organization logos, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Dental Association, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. It also appears in many of the stamps shown in this exhibit.
