Guernsey Post is the postal service for the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It includes a Philatelic bureau, and regularly issues both definitive and commemorative stamps. It also provides postal services for Sark.
In contrast to the United Kingdom, Guernsey Post pillar boxes can be identified by their distinctive blue colour.
The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852. Anthony Trollope, the novelist, who was employed by the General Post Office, trialled pillar boxes in the Channel Islands before introducing them into mainland Britain. [1] He was influenced by roadside letter-receiving pillars used in France. Before the use of pillar boxes, on the mainland, individual letters would be taken by hand to a letter receiving house or post office, which was often a coaching inn, a postage stamp purchased and the letter handed to the receiver or postmaster, to connect with the mail coach and later the railway. [2] In the Channel Islands, people took their letters to the mail steamer when it was awaiting the tide in the harbour – the particular problem of an island mail service then. Pillar boxes allowed letters to be posted at any time and they could then be collected when a steamer was due. They were convenient and immediately successful. However, as with many innovations, the first boxes were introduced into Jersey. [3] One of these original pillar boxes can be seen in Union Street, St Peter Port and has been maintained by Guernsey Post in its traditional red livery.
Guernsey stamps were first issued in the island during the German Occupation of 1940–1945, when there was a great shortage of British stamps, as all ties with mainland Britain had been severed by the German authorities.
Guernsey's government, the States of Guernsey, took over the running of postal services from the British Government in October 1969 (as did Jersey, forming Jersey Post). Since then on it has regularly issued Guernsey stamps. Guernsey is postcoded as the GY postcode area, established in 1993 as an extension of the United Kingdom postcode system. [4]
In 2001, the States of Guernsey commercialised the Post Office, and it became Guernsey Post Ltd and was awarded the licence to operate the reserved sector postal operation and meet the Universal Service Obligation (USO). To monitor Guernsey Post and either encourage competition in the market or where it is missing provide a controlling force the Office of Utility Regulation, otherwise known as the OUR, was created.
Since 2019, Guernsey Post Ltd has operated a fully-electric home delivery fleet. The same year, the company installed 654 photovoltaic panels to the roof of the company's headquarters to power the building. Surplus energy is supplied back into the island's grid.
Guernsey Post is a member of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation.
Guernsey and Alderney Stamps are world-renowned for their beauty and quality. [5] The first Guernsey Postage Stamps were designed and printed during the occupation in 1941 when supplies of British stamps ran out. Over the years many aspects of island life have been commemorated and depicted on Guernsey and Alderney stamps. Topics of past philatelic issues include the sea, the natural world, agriculture and horticulture, transport, sport, Christmas, military, art and entertainment. Guernsey Stamps are produced by Guernsey Post.
Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the General Post Office. A full postcode is known as a "postcode unit" and designates an area with several addresses or a single major delivery point.
Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British conquered the Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company gradually annexed the other powers on the sub-continent and brought into existence a British administrative system over most of modern-day India, with a need to establish and maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Falkland Islands.
Jersey Post is the licensed universal service provider of mail service for the Bailiwick of Jersey.
Hongkong Post is a government department of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a trading fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. It has been a sub-member of the Universal Postal Union since 1877, and is a separate entity from China Post.
A pillar box is a type of free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories, and, less commonly, in many members of the Commonwealth of Nations such as Cyprus, India, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Malta, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, as well as in the Republic of Ireland. Pillar boxes were provided in territories administered by the United Kingdom, such as Mandatory Palestine, and territories with agency postal services provided by the British Post Office such as Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait and Morocco. The United Kingdom also exported pillar boxes to countries that ran their own postal services, such as Argentina, Portugal and Uruguay.
Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.
The Isle of Man Post Office, which formerly used the trading name Isle of Man Post, operates postal collection, ancillary mail services, philatelic goods and delivery services and post office counter services on the Isle of Man.
Country definitives, formerly known as regional postage stamps of Great Britain, are the postage stamps issued for regions of the United Kingdom, reflecting the regional identity of the various countries and islands of the British isles.
Aden is a city in southern Yemen. Aden's location made it a popular exchange port for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe. When Captain S. B. Haines of the Indian Marine, the East India Company's navy, occupied Aden on 19 January 1839, mail services were immediately established in the settlement with a complement of two postal clerks and four letter carriers. An interim postmaster was appointed as early as June 1839. Mail is known to exist from 15 June 1839 although a regular postmaster was not appointed until 1857; one of the officials of the Political Agent or the civil surgeon performed the duties of postmaster for a small salary.
Pakistan Post is a state enterprise which functions as Pakistan's primary and largest postal operator. 49,502 employees through a vehicle fleet of 5,000 operate traditional "to the door" service from more than 13,419 post offices across the country, servicing over 50 million people. Pakistan Post operates under the autonomous "Postal Services Management Board" to deliver a full range of delivery, logistics and fulfillment services to customers.
The postal history of Malta began in the early modern period, when pre-adhesive mail was delivered to foreign destinations by privately owned ships for a fee. The earliest known letter from Malta, sent during the rule of the Order of St John, is dated 1532. The first formal postal service on the islands was established by the Order in 1708, with the post office being located at the Casa del Commun Tesoro in Valletta. The first postal markings on mail appeared later on in the 18th century.
The story of Japan's postal system with its postage stamps and related postal history goes back centuries. The country's first modern postal service got started in 1871, with mail professionally travelling between Kyoto and Tokyo as well as the latter city and Osaka. This took place in the midst of the rapid industrialization and social reorganization that the Meiji period symbolized in Japanese history. Given how the nation's railroad technology was in its infancy, Japan's growing postal system relied heavily on human-powered transport, including rickshaws, as well as horse-drawn methods of delivery. For example, while commemorating the 50th anniversary of Japan's postal service, the country's 1921 government released decorative postcards depicting intrepid horseback riders carrying the mail. This however was done to compare postal transport in past and present, as the other card showed modern transportation viz. rail and shipping. The railroad net from the north to the south, Aomori to Nagasaki, was completed in 1889. Prior to 1920s, local delivery was mainly by men- and horsepower, not principally different to Europe.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Isle of Man.
The first postage stamps marked Jersey were issued during the occupation of the island by the Germans during World War II.
The first postal service took place using mail sent with captains of packet ships, using agents in the England and in the islands for the end delivery. The cost was normally 3d. The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852, to collect mail for the Royal Mail packet boats. The oldest pillar box in use in the British Isles is in Guernsey.
Post & Go stamps, also called Faststamps, are variable rate postage stamps printed on self-adhesive labels and sold by stamp vending machines by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom, as well as by Jersey Post, Guernsey Post, the Royal Gibraltar Post Office and Q-Post (Qatar).