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The Pitcairn Islands Past and Present Issues

We are pleased to welcome you to our Stamp News Now coverage of the of the Pitcairn Islands. This small nation in the southern Pacific Ocean is far more popular than its size alone would indicate. In “Pitcairn From the Air, and On Land,” we present an overview of this remote nation—including how you can become a member of its small, thriving community.

For additional background, we have an ongoing “World of Stamps” feature starting from the first issues.

Starting with the 2019 “Pitcairn Looks At the World of Echinoderms,” issue, we also will be bringing you here each new issue from the Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau.


Pitcairn Island Stamps

Pitcairn From the Air, and On Land
— 2018 | From the Air: Pitcairn Islands (shown)
Click to see: From the Air, plate block

Last December the Pitcairn Islands issued a set of four stamps on the theme, “Pitcairn from the Air.” Most collectors think of Pitcairn Island as the haven the Bounty Mutineers sought, and many Pitcairn postage stamp issues remind us of that history.

However the “Pitcairn from the Air” stamps inspired me to find out more about the Pitcairn today, rather than in 1790 and the ensuing years. So I went to the official Pitcairn Islands website, http://www.immigration.gov.pn/index.html and what follows is . . ."

Continue Reading Pitcairn From the Air, and On Land [PDF Document]


Pitcairn Island Stamp - 1995 Oeno Island Holiday

World of Stamps - Island Communities: Pitcairn Islands
— 1995 | Oeno Island Holiday (shown)

The Pitcairn Islands, which consists of Pitcairn Island itself and the outlying islands of Ducie, Oeno and Henderson, has an area of 18.1 square miles and a current population of 67. Only Pitcairn Island itself is populated.

Scenery of the island has appeared on many stamp issues, including a 1981 set featuring landscapes, a 1993 showing island views, an 1996 set showing . . .

Continue Reading World of Stamps - lsland Communities: Pitcairn Islands [PDF Document]

Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau

Click to see many previous Pitcairn issues as well as Annual Collections and FDC Year Packs going back to 2006 at the Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau website.




The Event That Inspired Melville’s “Moby Dick”
— February 2020 | Sinking of the Essex

In August 1819 the 238-ton whaleship Essex sailed from Nantucket, Mass., beginning a planned two-and-a-half year voyage to the rich “whaling grounds” of the South Pacific. In November 1820 in the southern Pacific under Captain George Pollard Jr. the Essex was attacked and sunk by a large sperm whale. The ship sank within two days but the crew of twenty was saved and headed in the direction of Chile in three small boats, with navigational equipment and sail cloth.

The survivors were more than 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the nearest islands (the Marquesas) without adequate supplies of food and freshwater. They came across . . .

Continue Reading The Event That Inspired Melville's "Moby Dick" [PDF Document]


Angels Over Pitcairn Stamp, Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau 2019

Pitcairn Completes 2019 Program With “Angels Over Pitcairn”
— December 2019 | Angels Over Pitcairn (shown)
Click to see: 3 designs of Angels Over Pitcairn.

One of the more attractive issues celebrating the 2019 Holiday season was an issue from Pitcairn with the theme, “Angels over Pitcairn”. Shown here are the strip of three stamps, the First Day Cover design and the cancellation.

The three angels in this issue play an important part in the beliefs of many of the islanders and provide a relevant link to Christmas in what is one of the remotest places to celebrate this happy time of peace and fellowship. Derived from . . .

Continue Reading Pitcairn Completes 2019 Program With "Angels Over Pitcairn" [PDF Document]


Pitcairn Island Stamp of Star Fish - Echinoderms Stamp Block - October 2019

Pitcairn Looks At the World of Echinoderms
— October 2019 | Pitcairn Echinoderms - Starfish (shown)
Click to see: 4 Pitcairn Echinoderms stamp designs

On October 23, 2019, the Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau issue released a colorful set of four stamps and a First Day Cover featuring Echinoderms, one of the most diverse groups of marine invertebrates.

Echinoderms include starfish, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars and crinoids. They play important ecological roles from the shore environment to . . .

Continue Reading Pitcairn Looks At the World of Echnoderms [PDF Document]