Description

— New stock added —

Set of five Herm Island stamps issued on 1 May 1957, commemorating the presence of Neolithic burial sites on the island. The 4db, 8db and 2d values show a Neolithic man fishing, while the higher-value 6d and 1s stamps depict two men hunting. The stamps feature a roulette perforation.

Listed in Backman & Forrester’s Herm catalogue as numbers 32 to 36.

U/M / Unmounted Mint / MNH / Mint Never Hinged.

About Herm Island

Herm Island, which is one of the smaller Channel Islands, and within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, produced its own stamps between 1949 and 1969.

Unlike many of the labels that appear to come from islands off the coast of the UK, those of Herm performed a genuine local postal function. Mail posted on the island, which did not have an official British post office, carried a Herm Island stamp for transport to the Guernsey mainland, and a UK stamp for the journey beyond. One publicity document, issued by Herm's tenant in 1962. reports that 150,000 pieces of mail were handled the previous year.

However, when Guernsey took over its own postal service in 1969, Herm was no longer allowed to issue and use its own stamps.