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Confederate States of America
(1860-1865)
U.S. Possessions
Specially overprinted stamps were not issued for other U.S.
possessions.
Hawaii was annexed at the same time that specially overprinted stamps
were being issued for the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Puerto Rico,
Philippines and Cuba, yet the transition in Hawaii moved directly from
stamps of Hawaii to regular issues of the U.S.
The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917.
Regular U.S. issues immediately superseded stamps of the Danish West
Indies. No overprints were produced.
 Danish West Indies Scott 4a, "T" in
selvage
Several series of revenue stamps have been issued for U.S. Virgin
Islands. They are not overprints of U.S. regular issues or revenues,
but were specially printed by BEP for use in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Examples of plate number singles are unusual but they do exist.
Virgin Islands revenues
The U.S. acquired a number of Pacific island territories, but no
special overprinting was done for the Marshall Islands, American Samoa,
Midway, Wake, Howland, the Line Islands, Micronesia, the Ryukyus, or other Pacific
territories. Some are now independent (Marshall Islands, Federated
States of Micronesia), others have been returned or reunited with their
home country (Ryukyus), while still others remain part of the U.S. It is possible to find covers bearing plate number
singles of regular U.S. issues that have been canceled in those places.
According to the Antarctic treaty, no country is allowed to formally
claim any part of Antarctica, but all nations are welcome to establish
scientific and exploratory bases. Some countries have issued special
stamps for use by their scientific and support teams. For example,
Australia issues separate stamps for the Australian Antarctic Territory,
whereas France includes its Antarctic bases in stamps issued for FSAT, the
French Southern and Antarctic Territories. However, the U.S. has not
issued separate stamps.
Standard military mail sent within the regular mailstream requires
standard U.S. postage. Some military departments may use Official
stamps for some mailing purposes. Military mail sent from regular
bases in non-combat zones uses standard U.S. postage. Military mail
sent from active soldiers in combat zones is sent free and thus would not
have plate number singles.
The U.S. Army has operated field or base post offices for troops
stationed in various foreign countries as part of peace-keeping efforts,
police actions, or outright war. No specially overprinted stamps
have been issued for this purpose.
Official diplomatic mail sent by diplomatic courier does not require
postage.
Official mail sent within the country represented uses the stamps of
that country.
Personal mail sent to U.S. addresses by employees in overseas
embassies, consulates and other offices can be included in the regular
diplomatic pouches. Standard domestic postal rates apply.
Stamps must be affixed, and such mailings are canceled in Washington,
D.C., where they enter the mailstream. Plate number singles may
exist on modern diplomatic mail, but would have to be collected on cover.
Allied Military Government (AMG)
Special stamps were produced for use by citizens of France, Germany,
Austria and Italy, using the military postal service run by the Allied
Military Government immediately after World War II. These services
were superseded when infrastructure, personnel and procedures were
established and local postal service could resume.
We are deeply indebted to APNSS member Wallace Cleland for generously
sharing examples of these AMG issues. Many of the plate number singles
shown here are
photographically cropped from images Wallace used to illustrate his series
of articles on AMG
plate blocks. For more information, see the April through October 2006 issues of
The United States Specialist, published by the
United States Stamp Society.
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This page last updated September 9, 2008.
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