Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Possession Island Stamps

The following is a mystery that I hope someone can help with. When SWA became the independent country of Namibia, South Africa initially held onto the Penguin Islands (of which Possession Island was the largest). These islands are off the Skeleton Coast. After the ANC came to power these 'guano' islands were ceded to Namibia. Can anyone contibute some advice that adds to our knowledge of this sheet of imperforate 5c stamps from Possesion (sic)  Island?

Uploaded files:
  • Maritime-4-Possession-Is-5c-sheet1.jpg
  • Maritime-4-Possession-Is-1.jpg
  • Maritime-4-Possession-Is-Map-1.jpg
  • Maritime-4-Possession-Is-Map-2.jpg

The stamps immediately reminded me of those from Australia's Norfolk Island, most especially its 10/- which has a seabird with similarly spread wings against a background of Norfolk pines. I had not heard of Possession Island before this thread. The only photos I could find showed the island as barren and coated in white bird shit. I had, of course, heard of the "guano islands" of the west coast but no more than that. I assume that Possession Island is one of those. It is the largest island in the Penguin Islands group which are strung out over 200 miles off the southern SWA / Namibian coast. I am reluctant to call them an archipelago. Given that the stamps are 5 cents in value and if we assume that their origin is South Africa or SWA, they must have been printed after decimalisation in 1961. My guess is that whoever designed the stamp had some knowledge of Australia's Norfolk Island stamps - and none at all about the treeless  reality of Possession Island. This sheet is possibly the work of a philatelic opportunist who cannot spell. Given its design, I doubt that it had any other purpose, like a token for workers on the guano islands or some such.

When I was around 16 years old, a friend and I started a "mail order"  stamp business. At the time the major "Trade" dealers were Rosen & Son. The in thing was the sand dune states, Maluku Selatan, China, Yemen,  etc.  Your stamps remind me of that period, but I would say they were done to emulate the "spirit of the potato" stamps of Tristan da Cunha except they were misspelled.  Nice cinderella, but certainly bogus.

I would date them early to middle sixties.