COVER N.127 - PALAU

Postmark: ROP Philatelic Office Koror, PW 96940  03.06.2022
Posted on the 3rd June; received on the 21st June 2022

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Another exotic cover, from one of those less than common places - Palau! Thank you so Much Stephen! and also thank you for the funny cartoon  card inside.

Google Earth is a good friend. Many have been the times that I've used it to fly over destintions that, most unfortunately, I don't think I might ever get to know "in the flesh". Palau is one such place, and just from looking at the photos available on the photos layer, it really makes me wish I could go and visit... all those islands with their lagoons, pristine waters, breathtaking sights.... in the meantine, though,  I'll stick to looking at the stamps and trying to learn something from them :-)

14 Cent stamp, part of a twelve stamp definitive set issued on 12March 1987, dedicated to local flowers. The flower on this particular stamp is a Bikkia palauensis, one of the 10 species of the Bikkia genus, that is endemic to Melanesia and Micronesia.

Palau issued its first stamps in 1983, when the country was still a US-administered UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, having finally became independent in 1994 although under a Treaty of Free Association with the United States.

 

One of the first issued sets then was the one the 20 Cent stamp comes from, an eight stamp set issued in se-tenant form on 15DEC1983, celebrating the voyage of Captain Henry Wilson, a Captain from the British East India Company  who, on route from Macau to England wrecked his ship Antelope, in the island of Ulong, one of the  340 coral and volcanic islands of the Palau Archipelago. 

Upon returning to Engand, Wilson took with him Prince Lee Boo, the second son of the ruler of Koror, who quickly became the talk of the town, although he tragically died of smallpox with only 20 years of age.

The 20 Cent stamp is illustrated with an image of Queen Luddee, and although I could not find any reference to her I strongly suspect her to be Prince Lee Boo's mother. 

Rembrandt's "Portrait of a Young Man with a Lace Collar", is the well known painting illustrating the 1 Dolar stamp, part of a four stamp set issued on 16FEB2004, dedicated to treasures of the Hermitage, the famous Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg, which also comprises reproductions of famed paintings by Goya, Correggio and Velázquez.

As it happened with the other two Palau covers in my collection, the envelope is also postmarked with a machine applied cancellation from Honolulu, Hawaii, since I believe all the mail from Palau is processed via Hawaii.