Postage stamps and postal history of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Postage stamps and postal history of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands The first mail service to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands was ad hoc, depending on which ships were calling at the various islands. A regular service began in 1911; Edward VII postage stamps of Fiji were overprinted and put on sale on 1 January of that year, followed in March by a set of four stamps depicting a "Pandanus" tree, inscribed . These were followed in 1912 by George V stamps of the common type, inscribed . A new definitive series came out starting 14 January 1939, featuring local
Turks and Caicos Islands the Dominican Republic) and the other Antilles archipelago islands. Cockburn Town, the capital since 1766, is situated on Grand Turk Island about east-southeast of Miami, United States. The islands have a total land area of . The first recorded European sighting of the islands now known as the Turks and Caicos occurred in 1512. In the subsequent centuries, the islands were claimed by several European powers with the British Empire eventually gaining control. For many years the islands were governed indirectly through Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. When the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, the islands received their own governor,