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
Gilbert Islands Chinese communities in the smaller countries of the South Pacific: Kiribati, Nauru Tonga and the Cook Islands (Macmillan Brown Working Paper Series) [Online]. Available: http://www.pacs.canterbury.ac.nz/documents/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Willmott_WP17.pdf (accessed 6 February 2012). Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands (; formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill Islands) are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They form the main part of Kiribati ("Kiribati" is the Kiribati rendition of "Gilberts"). The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands are arranged in an approximate north-to-south line. As the crow flies it is approximately between the northernmost