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.

 COVER N.105 - PALAU

Postmark:  - ROP Philatelic Office , Koror, PW 08-04-22 / Honolulu HI 967 18-04-22 

Posted on the 8th April  received on the 26th April 2022

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Second cover I got from the Republic of Palau, and I was not at all waiting for it, so it came as a great surprise. Thanks a lot Stephen.

Let me quote from a Nat Geo article I read on the Portuguese Nat Geo website:

"Approximately two years ago, Palau officialy designated some 500 thousand km2 of its maritime territory as protected marine reserve, where no fishing or extractive activities are allowed. The reserve became the sixth largest of the type at worldwide level - the island of Palau is smaller than the city of New York and, on the other hand, the country's protected maritime area is larger than the state of California"

The article goes on to say that the reserve proved its worth and that biomass in it was twice that of the unprotected areas.

This is the kind of news that makes you believe there is still hope for mankind, in spite of the constant reminders that it just might not be that way, if we as a species are not able to deal with our own creations ... a capital bombed when the Secretary General of the UN was visiting it; temperatures running into the 50ºs C in India and Pakistan; a country in the hands of a bunch of alienated people who prohibit  music and education, and the list goes on, and on...

further down the article states:

Palau relies, to a great measure, on an healthy marine ecosystem. It has one of the highest biodiversity rates in the whole world and  a significant part of its economical revenues are generated by environmental tourism.

Hail Palau! let your success be the success of us all.

In a country so deeply dependent on nature, it is no great wonder that a lot of its stamp emissions are centred on fauna, flora and scenery (although you can find a lot of stamps one other themes not so easy to correlate, like Elvis....) even if not always local.

I can't resist mentioning something I noticed when researching for these lines:

in 2020, Palau issued two souvenir sheets dedicated to butterflies. they feature each 4 stamps, the butterflies being identified by legends as the same on each block, that is to say, there would be 2 photographs of each butterfly species, one in each block. so far so good, but....

One of the species featured is the Pieris rapae, the well known cabbage butterfly, but in one of the blocks the image is not of this species but of another member of the Pieridae family, probably the Euchloe crameri, and this I am 100% positive, because both species are common around here, and I've photographed them.

Euchloe crameri

Pieris rapae

Anyway, it can happen to the best, and I suspect that the second "corrected" souvenir sheet was issued to replace the first, but then there would be no point in replacing all the other photos... anyone knows anything about this?

Stamps on the cover, left to right

The second stamp emission after Palau's independence that ocurred in 1983, was of a block of four 20 Cent stamps, issued on 16MAY1983, dedicated to the Birds of Palau.

One of them is that on my cover, with the illustration of a Palau Fruit-dove (Ptilinopus pelewensis), the national bird of the country, endemic and common, and an absolute smasher in terms of beauty. 

I could not find any information on the 22 Cent stamp dedicated to the UN International Year of Peace, but I'm sure it is a rather recent item. The stamp is illustrated with a classic scene .. a propeller of a WW2 aircraft surrounded by colourful fish  of the kind we'd expect to see in Palau's waters.

the 44 C stamp pair is part of a block of four issued on 19FEB1988, dedicated to "Ground Dwellers". the lovely illustrations are of the Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus)on the leftside stamp and of the Buff-banded Rail (Rallus philippensis), on the right side stamp.

The Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) like all herons is a member of the Ardeidae family, and it can be found in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Java, New Caledonia, Palau, and the Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia.

The Buff-banded Rail is a small chicken like bird of the ralidae family which is quite common across australasia. 

Both birds have a least concern conservation status in the IUCN classification.

The cover exhibits 2 postmarks, one manual from the philatelic office of Palau in  Koror, and another, machine applied in Honolulu, Hawai, where I presume the cover transited through, (I think I've read it is the USPS that handles Palau's mail).

 COVER N.62 - Palau

Postmark: ROP Postal Service - Koror 06JAN2022
Posted on the 6th January; received on the 21stJanuary
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Fantastic cover! Thank you so much Stephen!

I was not expecting to get any mail from such an uncommon origin in my letterbox. I'm sure Mr. Postman must have wondered too, when he delivered this beautiful cover, full of interesting stamps. 

Palau... I had once again to go and ask Google earth to help me locate this tiny archipelago country made out of more than 500 islands, although only eight have main island status.

Located in the Pacific Ocean, not very far from the Philippines to the West and Indonesia to the South, the Republic of Palau's history is one of constant domination by external powers, that began in the 18th century with the Spanish, followed by the German, the Japanese, direct administration by the League of nations, the USA,  until finally gaining its independence in 1994.

As to be expected  from such an exotic location, Tourism is its main economic driver although fishing also contributes to Palau's balance of Trade with products such as Tuna and shellfish.

Stephen used a lot of stamps on this particular cover. The four  20 cent stamps constitute a set that was issued on 05DEC1984 in se-tenant form dedicated to  flowers (local, presumably). The stamps integrate a small "Christmas 1984" legend, so they can be considered to be a Christmas emission.  The flowers depicted are (left to right):  Mountain Apple (Eugenia malaccensis); Beach Morning Glory (Ipomoea littoralis);Turmeric (Curcuma domestica) and Plumeria (Plumeria obtusa).

The two 25 cent stamps are the lower right corner of a 25 stamp (5x5) minisheet, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon, issued on 20Jul1989, and they depict respectively the command module reentry into Earth's atmosphere and the jettisoning of the service module.