Postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu Postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls. Its population of 10,472 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world. In terms of physical land size, at just Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world. Tuvalu was formerly the Ellice Islands, part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands which split into Kiribati and Tuvalu upon gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1978
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands belongings. Everything else was burnt, but these four sets were saved and brought to the UK by Robert Headland, BAS. The pound sterling is the official currency of the islands, and the same notes and coins are used as in the United Kingdom. For more information on British currency in the wider region, see Pound sterling in the South Atlantic and the Antarctic. The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is .gs. Although the territory has no permanent residents, the domain suffix has some popularity for website registrations, with approximately 6 million