POSTCARD N.117 - PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Postcard sent on the 2oth September; received on the 17th October 2023

Postcard image: Flag and Coat of Arms of Papua New Guinea
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Papua New Guinea. Another country joins the list, thanks to a postcard laden with very nice stamps as it is always the case with the Flying Dutchman.... Muito obrigado, Eric. Um abraço!

Now, this particular type of postcard lends itself very well for blog posts since it takes all of hard the work from the writer. In fact, not knowing much about this insular country in Oceania, which has but one land border with Indonesia on its main island, New Guinea, I happily rely on the notes included around the image of the outstanding country's flag, and leave it for you to do the same  😀.

As of today, Papua New Guinea is administratively organised into 22 Provinces belonging to four regions.

In 2001, 2004 and  2005, the Papua New Guinea Postal Services issued three sets of stamps dedicated to the flags of the country Provinces. Since the total series comprises but 20 stamps, I suppose there must have been some administrative changes since then, account taken of the 2 province discrepancy. 

- The flags on the postcard are all part of the 2005 issue that came out on 21SEP2005 and which comprised six stamps (2 x 75 toea; 1; 3; 3.10; 5.20 Kina).  Left to right, top to bottom, they exhibit the flags of the Southern Highlands Province; Gulf Province and Western Province.

- The 7 toea stamp on the top right corner is part of a four stamp set issued on 23JAN1980, celebrating the fact of Papua New Guinea becoming a member of the UPU in 1979. The four stamps trace the story of postal services on the country going back to its days of German administration in the late 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.  The stamp, dedicated to the contemporary Postal Services provider is illustrated with an image of a postal worker sorting mail and a mail delivery van in front of a post office building.

Papua New Guinea is a country of immense biodiversity and  according to the WWF, there may be about 300,000 different insect species in the country.

Butterflies rank high on the list of endmic species and as such it is no surprise that these should be selected to illustrate several stamp sets.

- One such set, comprising four values (7,10;L 30; 40 toea), was issued on 11JUN1975. The lesser value stamp, on the card, is graced with the illustration of an Ornithoptera Alexandrae, the largest butterfly there is, with a wingspan that can reach 30 cm, endemic to PNG.

- The 1cent stamp featuring a Papilio Ulysses Autolycus, a butterfly of the Papilionidae family, which can be found in PNG, Indonesia and Australia, was issued while PNG was still an Australia administrated trust territory, designated Papua and New Guinea, on 14FEB1966. 

 - The last stamp also dates back to the Australian Administration times. A definitive 2 cent stamp, issued on 01APR1971, it is illustrated with the image of a Raggiana Bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea raggiana), also endemic to the Island.

Unfortunately, the stamps are not postmarked, but there is evidence of a mechanical postmark on the lower right corner of the postcard, which reads SWLE 993 / 23:17 /20/09/2023. Now, what SWLE stands for...

UPDATE

Just a while ago I got an email from Eric Contesse, author of the most informative and inspirational cover colleting blog that I know: "Mon Blog Timbré". (if you never read it, just hit the link and you're in for a treat...).

Turns out Eric shed all the light I needed on the SWLE postmark, and informed me that it meant that the postcard had transited through Australia, the initialism standing for “Sidney West Letter Facility”.

Un grand Merci, Eric !