Territorial

Man Posted To …

by Richard Zimmermann

In 1905, Mr Harry Turner made local Guernsey postal history by arranging to be conveyed as a postal item from Guernsey to Sark. At that time, the General Post Office permitted, under special circumstances, the conveyance of individuals by Royal Mail, provided they were accompanied by a Post Office telegraph messenger. With official approval granted, Mr Turner embarked on the Sark boat alongside his postal escort. Upon arrival in Sark, the pair enjoyed a carriage drive and luncheon at the Dixcart Hotel before returning to Guernsey later the same day. This unusual journey, completed at a cost of 5 shillings and 10 pence [equivalent in today’s money to about 47£ or 55€], remains a remarkable and little-known episode in the history of postal services in the Channel Islands.

Thirty five years later, in February 1940, several months prior to the German occupation of the Channel Islands, civilian travel between Guernsey and Alderney had become severely restricted, with most transport requisitioned for military use. Major Palmer found himself stranded in Guernsey for two weeks, unable to secure passage on the Courier ferry service to Alderney. Determined to return to his family, Major Palmer consulted the Post Office Guide and concluded that there was no explicit prohibition against being sent by post. Acting on this interpretation, he presented himself at Guernsey Post Office and formally requested to travel as a parcel. Although reluctantly accepted, arrangements were made for him to be escorted by a postal worker to the harbour. Initially, the ferry captain objected on the grounds that Major Palmer was neither cargo nor mail. However, when only two of the twelve booked passengers presented themselves, the captain permitted him to travel, though he was consigned to the hold. Upon arrival in Alderney, Major Palmer was duly taken to the postal sorting office before being formally “delivered” to his home by a local postman [Texts taken from the Guernsey Post Office web site].

To honor the ‘flexibility’ of the Post, Guernsey issued two separate joint issues on the same day of September 1, 2026, one involving Alderney and the other involving Sark, illustrated with comics, and entitled “Man posted to …”. Stamps were issued in miniature sheets of 5 se-tenant pairs and mixed FDCs became also available.

However, even if these stamps are identical and issued on the same day, Sark and Alderney are territories strongly postally linked to Guernsey, with production of stamps controled by Guernsey. These stamps must be considered as a Territorial Twin issue [TD] and will be filed under references [D20260901a] and [D20260901b] respectively, similarly to the Alderney – Guernsey Christmas stamps issued on October 30, 2019 [D20191030]. This is also the first joint issue in which Sark is involved. Sark is a very small island with 500 inhabitants, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency, with its own set of laws based on Norman law, and its own parliament. It was a royal fiefdom until 2008, when the Constitution of Sark went into effect.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

by Richard Zimmermann

On January 5, 2022, the British Antarctic Territory, the Falkland Islands and the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands have issued a series of stamps in honor of Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton at the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death. Shackleton is well known for several Antarctica expeditions including an heroic behavior to save his team stuck in the ice. He died on January 5, 1922 at age 47 from a heart attack while starting a new Antarctic expedition and he is buried on the South Georgia Island. The twelve pictures used for these stamps are based on black and white or colorized photographs of Shackleton taken at different ages, with team, with ship or map, including also some pictures of his grave. This issue is considered as a territorial parallel issue [D/PD].

Adam Paish (UK) mentioned very recently that these three countries associated to Ascension, Bahamas and Tristan da Cunha will issue four stamps each and a souvenir sheet to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elisabeth II. Exact dates of issue are not known yet, but Bahamas seems to be the first and plans to issue stamps on March 17, 2022. This issue will be considered as an omnibus parallel issue [O/OP].

Saarland missing in the catalogue ?

by Richard Zimmermann

Why are Germany – Saarland joint stamps from the 1957-1959 period not reported in the catalogue while Germany (Berlin) – Germany (West) are ? This is a question reported by Jaap Sarelse (The Netherlands) who noticed, while scrolling through the Vol 2 and Vol 3 Parts of the catalogue, that these issues were listed in the 1996 Catalogue edition, but are missing in the 2022 one. Indeed this is a good question which needs explanations and corrections.

Just after WWII, the Saar region, under French military occupation and administration, spent the following 12 years as a French protectorate. Under this status, which is close to Independence, the Saar was using French Francs and was allowed to issue its own stamps. A plebiscite held on October 23, 1955, to establish an independent Saarland under an agreement signed in October 1954 by both France and Germany, led to the rejection of the proposal by 67.7% of the population. As a consequence, Saarland was allowed to join the Federal Republic of Germany as a new “Land” by January 1, 1957, with a transition period completed on July 7, 1959. At this date, the Deutsche Mark became the official new currency. During this transition period, Saarland continued to issue its own stamps. Those were produced in Berlin, on the basis of other existing German stamps, but still labelled in French Francs.

On this basis, some stamps issued during this period by the almost independent Saarland deserve to appear in the catalogue. The commemorative stamps which have the same design and the same date of issue are indeed Territorial Dependency issues [TD] from main class Territorial stamp issues [D] which will now be reported in the catalogue. These include the following:

  • 1957 (January 2): Integration of Saarland to Germany
  • 1958 (January 9): 50th anniversary of the death of Wilhelm Busch
  • 1958 (March 18): 100th birthday of Rudolf Diesel
  • 1958 (July 21): 150th anniversary of the German gymnastics’ associations
  • 1958 (August 29): 150th birthday of Hermann Schulze Delitzsch
  • 1958 (October 1): Rural economy – Charity stamps – Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen
  • 1959 (March 6): 500th anniversary of the birth of Jakob Fugger
  • 1959 (May 6): 100th anniversary of the death of Alexander von Humboldt

The Europa stamps from 1957 and 1958 including Saarland are already reported in the catalogue.

All the above stamps are now reported in the catalogue. The other definitive stamps cannot be considered as joint stamp issues, while the following non-commemorative stamps with the same design have been listed in the catalogue as non-accepted joint stamp issues [N] without full description:

  • 1957 (October 1): Social service – Mining workers
  • 1957 (October 5): International week of letter writing
  • 1958 (March 5): Fight against forest fires
  • 1958 (April 1): Charity stamp for children: Folk songs

As a consequence, this major change in the catalogue, led for the first time to the creation of a new version of Vol 2 which became V3.02 and substitute to V3.01. The former version V3.01 remains available in the Catalogue archives section for comparison purpose. The shift of pages in Vol 2 led also to a shift of pages in Vol 3 which had also to be replaced by V3.02. Of course, all these new information is reported in the different tables of content (country, topics) from Vol 1, which became also V3.02. These changes are reported here as it is the first time this occurs, and to better explain how the update works, but, of course, we will not bother you with such modifications in the future. You just must be sure that the Catalogues accessible on the Catalogue pages contain always the most updated information. In case of doubt, you can always check in the Archive section.

2022 Year of the Tiger

by Richard Zimmermann

On January 5, 2022, appeared the first joint stamps of the year. As for previous years, China PR issued two stamps at the occasion of the change of Lunar calendar, in 2022 Year of the Tiger, at the same date as Macau, issuing four stamps and one souvenir sheet with a round stamp. A high number of countries are issuing stamps at this occasion, but Macau and China are the only postal administrations which got used to produce a mixed first day cover with the stamps from both countries (not including the souvenir sheet).

Rindert Paalman (the Netherlands) noticed that the issue of 2021 (Year of the Ox) was missing in the catalogue. This will be corrected within the next days and will correspond to an important addition which will affect for the first time the upgrading of one catalogue volume. As Macau and China PR are politically dependent countries, these issues will be filed in the category [D].

By checking for earlier issues reported in the catalogue, it appeared that for the year 2019 (Year of the Pig), the entry was mistakenly filed as [P20190105] which has to be renamed as [D20190105].

A check of Lunar Year stamps issued by China and Macau before 2019, showed that both countries issued stamps usually on January 5 of each year, since at least year 2000, but we have not seen mixed FDCs for such products. So, earlier Lunar Year stamps from these two countries will not be reported in the catalogue, unless someone provides proof of the existence of mixed FDC covers corresponding to these stamps.