French Polynesia Stamp 50 Annv.

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The French Settlements in Oceania gained the status of Overseas Territories on 22 July 1957 and were thus given the new title of “French Polynesia”. On 03 November 1958, the first series of stamps bearing that name appeared. That series consisted in 9 “postage” stamps, 4 “air mail” stamps and 3 “tax” stamps.

All the 3 'tax' stamps have the same motif, different value 1, 3, 5F. See Picture 3

The 'air mail' stamp have 4 motifs. See Picture 2

The 'postage stamps' have 3 motifs, named 'Man with headdress(no picture here)', 'Girl playing guitar', 'Girl with shells on beach'. The 20th anniversary of that first series of stamps was already marked in 1978 by the issuing of a series and a miniature sheet taking up the themes of the three original stamps again. See Picture 1

On that memorable day, everyone rushed down to the Post Office; not only philatelists (who were then numerous in the Territory) but also common people who wanted to pay the postage of their mail with stamps that were particularly representative of the country. Therefore, many letters were sent on that day, even though no official first day cover nor special date stamp were issued. Nevertheless the Post Office rapidly had a linear postmark made which everyone could affix on the envelopes or postcards, whether they matched the topic or not.

Now 6th Nov. 2008 it reproduce the image of the 3 stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary. See Picture 4

At the same day, also issue 3 ATM, see below.

The face value is 720, 100, 360 FCFP from top to bottom, above ATM issued on 6th Nov. 2008. All the 3 ATM are the details of comemorative postage stamps issued on the same day. The printing is not good, very slight ink, hard to recognize the face value.

It is island idea to issue such incredibale value, hard to enter into circle.

Size of the issue is 76 x 26 mm, different from the fish issue on 2003, it is 87 x 34 mm.

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