Early Stamps of Hawaii

The first stamps, known to collectors as the ‘Hawaiian Missionaries’ – the majority of recorded examples having been used on letters from missionaries to their families and friends in America – were typeset at Honolulu in denominations of 2, 5 and 13c. The 2c, used on local letters, is the scarcest of the series, though all of them are in the major rarity class. There are two varieties of setting in each type of these stamps. A subsequent version of the 13c stamp was inscribed ‘H.I & U.S. Postage’ to denote the 5c local and 8c American postage, on mail going from the islands to the United States. Stamps portraying Kamchameha III and Kamchameha IV were issued in 1853 and 1862 respectively.

The National Bank Note Company of New York recess printed a series in 1864 – 1866 portraying members of the Hawaiian royal family. Other portraits and denominations were introduced at various times up to 1890 and were printed by the American Bank Note Company, in some cases reusing the original National Bank Note plates. Some of the stamps portrayed King Kamchameha V.

The Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1893 and a republican form of government was instituted, with American backing. The contemporary postage stamps were overprinted ‘Provisional Government 1893’ at the offices of the Hawaiian Gazette in red or black. Apart from double or inverted overprints there were numerous varieties in the setting, or the omission of various letters, numerals and full stops.