Today in Postal History
Fiji to New Caledonia
November 16, 1898
This cover was postmarked with three CDS of
the G.P.O. in Suva,
the capital
of Fiji.
Suva is on the southeastern side of Viti Levu,
the
largest island in Fiji,
at 18° 8' S and 178° 25' E about 2,000 km north of New Zealand.
The cover is neatly addressed to Monsieur
Auguste Benoit in Nouméa, Nouvelle Caledonia.
Nouméa is
the
capital on the southwest coast of the island of
New
Caledonia at 22° 16' S and 166° 27 E 1000 km or so west of
Suva.
There are no other markings on the front.
I have no scan of the rear to tell whether
there are arrival marks there or not.
A Consular Post Office was established in
1858.
The first Fijian stamps were typeset and printed by the Fiji Times in
1870.
In 1871, King Cakobau established a formal
government
for Fiji and issued stamps for the royal post office.
In 1874, Great Britain finally accepted King Cakobau's
offer to cede Fiji and Fiji became a Crown Colony.
Existing stamps were overprinted with V. R.
and were in use until new issues were printed in 1878.
The cover is franked with an 1892 ½d
slate gray and a 1891 2+d chocolate (SG 76 and 79).
I'm not satisfied with those choices for the
colors but Gibbons lists slate grey,
pale grey, and greenish slate for the ½d while Scott uses
greenish black.
The 2½d color choices are chocolate, brown, yellowish brown,
ultramarine (an error), and yellow brown, while Scott is content with
red brown.
The selected colors are the ones my color consultant chose when given
the alternatives.
To compound the problem, the Gibbons color
choices have
different perforations which I cannot determine from the scan.
Gibbons uses the term "nearly 12" to describe one of the
perforations.
I don't recall that being used elsewhere.
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