Ascension Island

Ascension Island History & Postal History

The first settlers on Ascension were British soldiers sent there during Napoleon's exile on St Helena. Today, Ascension Island is perhaps best known for its British and American military presence largely involved with satellite tracking and communications. Being one of the few Atlantic islands with an airport, Ascension regularly sees military aircraft from the UK, United States, Falkland Islands and Brazil passing through. Following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in 1982, Ascension Island and the airport played a key role as a naval staging post and airborne supply airfield for British liberation forces.

Ascension Island's first postage stamps were issued in 1912 using overprinted St Helena stamps and the first unique stamps weren't issued until 1924. Before 1912 British stamps were commonly used on correspondence from Ascension. Until the 1860s most of the mail was naval and cancelled on arrival in the UK but, from then on, a number of single ring and hooded Ascension postmarks came in to use locally. Victorian and Edwardian covers bearing these marks are much sought after by collectors.

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More Ascension Island Links from the Web

Ascension
Stamps of King George V Silver Jubilee - Ascension Island
http://www.philatel2.com/jubilee/id...

Ascension Island - A complete list of mint postage stamps (1946-2009)
Ascension Island (1946-2009) A complete list (1946-2009) of Ascension Island postage stamps, souvenir sheets (miniature sheets) and booklets.
http://www.stanleylisica.com/plist_...

Ascension Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The main export item is Ascension Island postage stamps, first issued in 1922. Typically five to six sets of stamps are issued each year. Sales of commemorative coins and ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascens...

Albany Stamp Company - Ascension Island Stamps, French Polynesia ...
Specialist in Ascension Island Stamps, French Polynesia Stamps, Timbres de Polynesie, Timbres de Polynésie, Polynesie Stamps, Vietnam Stamps, Korea Stamps, Antarctica Stamps ...
http://albanystamp.com/Ascension%20...

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