In December 1995, Harbour Lights introduced a series of Great Lakes lighthouses as a 'Stamp Set', matching the five lighthouses featured on a set of US postage stamps.

Two of these five had already been sculpted and released as limited editions (Marblehead OH and Split Rock MN) - but these were recently retired. The company's plan was to introduce all five of the 'Stamp Series' lighthouses as open editions -- Great Lighthouses of the World (GLOW).

Collectors quickly let their feelings be known; many felt that Harbour Lights should not issue any lighthouse as an 'open edition' that had not previously been issued as a limited edition and retired.

Harbour Lights listened and acted in accord with their collectors' wishes. GLOW open edition lighthouses would only include those lighthouses that had been limited editions and retired.

And they made that decision retroactive. It would cover the three Stamp Series lighthouses issued in 1995 and the four 1996 GLOW lighthouses that had already been released, plus two more that were already in production but not yet shipped.

The product numbers for each of the seven lighthouses were switched from a 400 series to a 100 series. And the edition numbers dropped the prefix letter that identifies GLOW lighthouses in the transition.

This led to some confusion because for a time it was still possible to find both the 400 series and the 100 series pieces with different labels. And none of these pieces showed an edition size on the flag.

The lighthouses affected were:

• 182 Spectacle Reef MI (formerly 410)
• 183 St. Joseph North Pier MI (formerly 411)
• 184 Thirty Mile Point NY (formerly 414)
• 175 Cape Lookout NC (formerly 405)
• 176 Fire Island NY (formerly 406)
• 177 Alcatraz CA (formerly 407)
• 178 Mukilteo WA (formerly 417)

(Note that Harbour Lights later introduced other GLOW lighthouses that used the 400 series product numbers in the list above.)

For these seven lighthouses, some carry edition numbers that start with a letter (A1124, for example), and some do not have the letter. None of these seven have an edition size on the flag, but the edition size was set at 9,500. Although labeling or base flag numbering may be confusing, in each case, the edition size of 9,500 was adhered to -- and the pieces were produced and distributed in exact numeric order.

HL168 Cape May NJ and HL169 Peggy's Cove NS were already in production as open editions. Before shipment, we changed these to limited editions. Neither of these have edition sizes on the flag, but none of the pieces carry a letter prefix, The edition size for each is 9,500.

Cape May NJ	Peggy's Cove Nova Scotia