Wednesday, August 01, 2007

First one in Guam

Since June 1898 they invaded this Pacific island and for the first time of the latter philatelic history, a United States of America postage stamp is illustrated with a Guam topic. Issued 1st June 2007, this airmail 90-cent stamp reproduces a sunset picture of Hagåtña Bay, whose name is also this US territory's capitale name.

Like others US territories (Samoa, Porto-Rico, îles Vierges et Mariannes du Nord), the inhabitants have been using US stamps without any distinctive mark other then the cancellation. Concerning Guam, the same took place during the Spanish rule before 1898 and during the Japanese occupation between December 1941 and 1944. Philippines stamps were in use during these two periods.

Two moments knew others stamps (or almost) :
* when the US Navy administrated the postal service (1899-1901), eleven US stamps were overprinted « GUAM »,
* from April 1930 to April 1931, overprinted Philippines stamps and two new stamps labelled « GUAM GUARD MAIL » were created when the military governor wanted to extend the mail delivery to all the island.

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