Our big events recorded with our stamps.
The postal system at Port Maria was established upon independence in 1980. Early stamp issues were rather primitive and amateurish, and certainly not designed with either collectors nor a modern postal service in mind. Click here for more remarks on the early stamps.
In 1989, the Occussi-Ambeno Government Printer, KDPN, was given the contract to print stamps for Port Maria, and an immediate increase in the quality of the finished product became apparent.
Most of the stamps since 1989 are illustrated on the right.
In 1990, the country celebrated its first Ten Years of Independence, and a special Souvenir Sheet comprising three definitive stamps was issued. And in 2000, Twenty Years of Independence were celebrated when another Souvenir Sheet was issued. So far, these are the only Souvenir Sheets to have been issued by Port Maria.
No new stamps were issued between the years 1991 and 1998, and philatelists could be forgiven for imagining Port Maria to have become a “dead country.” So it was a welcome surprise for all in the 19th year of independence, just before the turn of the century, that a new full-colour stamp issue made its appearance. This was a single 50 tanos stamp showing a dalek, evil creations of the mad genius Davros from the planet Skaro.
The
daleks feature prominently in the movie series “Doctor Who”, the adventures
of a wandering time traveller from the planet Gallifray, and his companions, and
the 50 tanos stamp celebrates the great occasion of the Re-Discovery of a Lost
Episode of the “Doctor Who” adventures.
Click here
for more details on the finding of the lost episode.
Click here for more information about the adventures of Doctor Who.
During 2000, several more attractive stamps were issued, of which the highlight was Port Maria's first stamp booklet, which contained several sets of the magic mushroom stamps.
In 2004, several attractive stamps honouring the author A.A. Milne, were issued. These feature his creations Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. And in 2005, another stamp features a scene from the adventures of the time-traveller Doctor Who.
