Postage Stamps and Postal History of Guam - Territory of The United States

Territory of The United States

In 1899, when it began to administrate the island, the US Navy issued eleven postage stamps overprinted "GUAM". These were from the definitive series illustrating with portraits of US presidents or major personalities. This series was first issued between 1890 and 1894. The denominations and colors used for Guam are from 1895 and 1898–1899 issues.

Denomination and color Portrait
Stamps from the 1895 series
2-cent carmin George Washington
3-cent violet Andrew Jackson
8-cent brown-violet William Sherman
50-cent red-orange Thomas Jefferson
1 dollar black Oliver Hazard Perry
Stamps from the 1898–1899 series
1-cent green Benjamin Franklin
4-cent brown-red Abraham Lincoln
5-cent blue Ulysses Grant
6-cent brown-carmin James Garfield
10-cent brown Daniel Webster
15-cent green-olive Henry Clay

When the United States Post Office Department (USPOD) took charge of the postal service of Guam in March 1901, the local population, soldiers from the US Navy base and indigenous Chamorros, had to use US stamps without any distinctive marks. Since 1901, only a Guam town cancellation indicates domestic posting. This situation is common to others insular unincorporated territories of the United States, such as, Northern Mariana Islands since 1944, Virgin Islands since 1917, Puerto Rico since 1900 and American Samoa since 1899. The existence of a local post at the beginning of the 1930s and the Japan occupation periods were exceptions.

Since its annexation, Guam was the subject of one postage stamp produced by the United States Postal Service. On June 1, 2007 a 90-cent stamp, part of the airmail series "Scenic American Landscapes" depicting a sunset on a beach and the Hagåtña Bay was released.

The island's name was included on the central label of the 50th Anniversary of the World War II miniature sheets of ten stamps each, issued between 1991 and 1995.

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