Local Carriage Stamps - Herm Island Stamps and Lundy Island's Renowned Puffin Stamps
Herm Island and Lundy Island local stamps make a fun addition to a stamp collection and are widely known among stamp collectors. Here's a bit of history behind these two groups of interesting local carriage stamps.
Herm Island is one of the smallest Channel Islands, located in the English Channel between the United Kingdom and the Normandy coast of France. The Herm Island Sub-Post Office was closed in 1938 due to insufficient use. Mail to and from Herm Island now must travel between Herm Island and Guernsey, a much larger Channel Island that has the nearest post office.
A local tenant on Herm, A.G. Jefferies, carried the mail back and forth to Guernsey. He decided to defray the costs he incurred by issuing a set of local carriage labels - also called local stamps. This arrangement was fine with Royal Mail as long as the labels did not bear the word "postage." All mail from Herm was stamped with Herm local stamps (used to pay "postage" from Herm to Guernsey) and also with British stamps (to pay postage from Guernsey to its ultimate destination).
Although Lundy is located between England and Wales in the Bristol Channel and is not one of the Channel Islands, the history behind the stamps of Lundy is similar to that of the stamps of Herm Island.
The Lundy Sub-Post Office was closed in 1927, also for insufficient use, but the mail still had to get between Lundy and the North Devon coast, the location of the nearest Royal Mail post office. For the first couple of years after its closure, the owner of the island - who colorfully referred to himself as the "King of Lundy" - carried the mail between Lundy and the North Devon mainland without charge. But in 1939 he decided to offset his expenses by issuing a series of private "postage" labels with denominations expressed in "Puffins," one puffin being of the same value as one British penny. All mail from Lundy was stamped with Lundy puffin stamps (used to pay "postage" from Lundy to North Devon) and also with British stamps (to pay postage from the mainland to its ultimate destination).
Herm Island and Lundy Island local stamps make a fun addition to a stamp collection and are widely known among stamp collectors. Here's a bit of history behind these two groups of interesting local carriage stamps.
Herm Island is one of the smallest Channel Islands, located in the English Channel between the United Kingdom and the Normandy coast of France. The Herm Island Sub-Post Office was closed in 1938 due to insufficient use. Mail to and from Herm Island now must travel between Herm Island and Guernsey, a much larger Channel Island that has the nearest post office.
A local tenant on Herm, A.G. Jefferies, carried the mail back and forth to Guernsey. He decided to defray the costs he incurred by issuing a set of local carriage labels - also called local stamps. This arrangement was fine with Royal Mail as long as the labels did not bear the word "postage." All mail from Herm was stamped with Herm local stamps (used to pay "postage" from Herm to Guernsey) and also with British stamps (to pay postage from Guernsey to its ultimate destination).
Although Lundy is located between England and Wales in the Bristol Channel and is not one of the Channel Islands, the history behind the stamps of Lundy is similar to that of the stamps of Herm Island.
The Lundy Sub-Post Office was closed in 1927, also for insufficient use, but the mail still had to get between Lundy and the North Devon coast, the location of the nearest Royal Mail post office. For the first couple of years after its closure, the owner of the island - who colorfully referred to himself as the "King of Lundy" - carried the mail between Lundy and the North Devon mainland without charge. But in 1939 he decided to offset his expenses by issuing a series of private "postage" labels with denominations expressed in "Puffins," one puffin being of the same value as one British penny. All mail from Lundy was stamped with Lundy puffin stamps (used to pay "postage" from Lundy to North Devon) and also with British stamps (to pay postage from the mainland to its ultimate destination).
As a side note, M.C. Harman, the so-called King of Lundy, also issued his own coins. There are two denominations of Lundy coins, with one puffin and half-puffin denominations. Each has Mr. Harman's bust on the obverse (front) and a puffin on the reverse. He of course got into trouble with the law for the unauthorized minting of money.
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