Description

Interesting and collectable postcard from Herm Island, posted in 1957, bearing a bisect of the island’s 1949 1d map definitive.

September to October 1957 was one of four periods in the 1950s when 1d Herm Island stamps were cut in half diagonally and used as ½d stamps. This was caused by a shortage of specific ½d stamps – covering the local postcard rate – following the island’s busy summer season.

Please study the scans carefully. There is some discoloration to the front and back of the postcard, as shown, reflecting the age of this item and its passage through the post.

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.