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).

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.

Cinderella Stamps - Not A Fairy Tale, But A Collecting Specialty


Cinderella stamps are collectible items that are stamp-like adhesive labels, not usable for postage. Because there is no adhesive involved, and because they do pre-pay postal fees, the imprinted postage on postal stationery is not considered to be cinderella in nature.

Cinderella stamps usually resemble regular postage stamps, but they usually do not bear a denomination or a country's name, although sometimes a fictitious country's name or denomination may be present (for example, the Lundy stamps that bear a denomination in "puffins"). In some cases the name of the organization or cause being promoted or publicized is printed on Cinderellas.

Cinderellas are often collected in the same way as postage stamps. Many are common, but others were produced in very limited numbers and are quite scarce. Cinderellas are not normally included in stamp catalogs, although Scott's Specialized Catalog of U.S. Stamps and Covers does include Christmas Seals in a separate section.


Some of the Types of Cinderella Stamps

There are many different types of cinderellas, none of which have anything to do with the famous fairy tale. An incomplete list of cinderella stamps includes advertising poster stamps, local stamps and stamps issued by pseudo-countries that are not recognized in the postal and political world, court fee stamps, propaganda labels, Christmas Seals, Easter Seals and other charity labels, most telegraph stamps and decorative labels. Revenue stamps, although not used to pay postage charges, are generally not considered to be cinderella stamps.


More Detail on a Couple of Types of Cinderellas

Local stamps

Local stamps began to be printed soon after the invention of the adhesive postage stamps. Seen in many countries, many local stamps performed postal functions where the national postal service was lacking for some reason. But other local stamps are essentially nothing more than decorative labels. One example of a local carriage stamp that truly was used for postal purposes: the well-known Rattlesnake Island (Ohio) stamps, used because postal service wasn't available from the island to the mainland.

Other examples include the many offshore islands in the United Kingdom that issue local carriage labels. In some cases, these local stamps have a genuine use, paying for transport of the mail to the mainland by ferry; the regular British postal service - Royal Mail - takes over the delivery of such mail once it reaches the mainland. Other local stamps were (and are) produced simply to sell to collectors and tourists. Usually they are placed on the back of the envelope, with a conventional stamp on the front to pay for onward delivery by the official postal service. Islands for which such labels have been issued include the Summer Isles, Lundy, Staffa and the Calf of Man.


Political and propaganda stamps

Stamps issued by the various countries of the world often feature patriotic themes. Propaganda stamps differ in that they are unofficial stamps produced solely to promote or publicize a particular political agenda or ideology, or to create confusion or bad morale among the country's enemies.

Some stamps have been issued by breakaway governments or governments in exile, in both cases to give those governments a greater sense of greater legitimacy in the public's eye. But these stamps have no postal validity and must be considered to be Cinderella stamps.

Cinderellas are fascinating creatures to collect. Most are inexpensive and provide a lot of fun, but some are quite serious in their message. Give cinderella stamps a shot.

The Local Carrier Stamps / Cinderella Stamps of Great Britain

You've probably heard about Lundy stamps - the famous Puffin stamps used to offset the cost of local delivery from the Island of Lundy (located off the Devonshire coast) to "mainland" England.

They are essentially private postage stamps, with a value expressed in "Puffins." They began in 1927 and continue to be printed and used today. They are to be affixed to the bottom left hand corner of the envelope, so that the mainland sorting offices can process them. Their cost includes the standard Royal Mail charges for onward delivery.

The Lundy Puffins are a type of stamp known to philatelists as "local carriage labels," "local carrier stamps" or "local delivery stamps." Although the Lundy stamps are probably the best-known of the local stamps used in the United Kingdom, there are several others.

These include:

Bernera Islands, a group of islands off the coast of Scotland.

Davaar Island, also off the coast of Scotland

Eynhallow, also known as Holy Island. Also located off the coast of Scotland

Gairsay Island, a Scottish local post in the Orkney Islands

Herm Island, located near Guernsey

The Isle of Jethou, a Channel Island 3 miles east of Guernsey

St. Kilda, an island 100 miles off the coast of Scotland

Sanda Island, another Scottish island

Staffa, yet another Scottish island

the Isle of Stroma, off the north coast of Scotland

These local stamps can be fascinating to locate and collect. Some other countries also use similar stamps, including the famous Rattlesnake Island stamps used in a remote area near Sandusky, Ohio, United States.