#AIRMAIL 5 CENT STAMP SERIES#

at a time when a surface rate postcard was still only one cent. The stamp paid for an airmail postcard to the U.S. Since the Panama Canal was a major tourist attraction, Panama Canal postcard views were very popular. The image is superimposed on a depiction of part of the Americas centered on the Canal Zone.

#AIRMAIL 5 CENT STAMP SERIES#

The 4-cent Globe and Wing airmail (Scott C21) was issued on July 16, 1951, as one of a six-stamp series replacing the old Gaillard Cut permanent series with a more modern depiction of a winged airmail allegory. Issues such as the 35-cent and 80-cent are quite scarce on cover.

First day covers are also well known, and postal usages are always popular among collectors. Others were destroyed when their use was reduced to almost nothing by rate increases. These stamps were printed in fairly large quantities, many of which sold-out in the course of business.

The last of the Globe and Wing airmails, an 8-cent rotary press stamp (Scott C34) was issued on January 7, 1963, to meet the new airmail rate to the United States. The 8-cent issue is a product of the rotary press, easily noted by the ridges on the gum. These two groups of Globe and Wing airmail were printed on what are known as ‘flat plates.’ The first group (except for the 31-cent) is found on both ‘wet’ printings (distinguished primarily by the richness of the color and yellowish, crackly gum), as well as ‘dry’ printings (with a clearer color and smooth gum). The fifteen-cent postcard/aerogram rate also went into effect to Europe and the Mediterranean. A thirty-five-cent rate (Scott C31) was instituted for letters, and fifteen- cent rate (Scott C29) for postcards and aerograms or air letter sheets to Australasia, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa at that time. The ‘cumulative’ or ‘compound’ rates to the rest of the world were halted at that time, and so the 25-cent issue (Scott C30) became the one used on letters to Europe. had increased to seven cents (Scott C28) and postcards to five cents (Scott C27). For example, on August 1 the basic airmail rate to the U.S. Such letters did not pass through the U.S., so a 10-cent stamp (Scott C23), not a 16-cent stamp, was all that was needed.īy 1958 a need had arisen for other denominations to reflect rate changes, so on August 16 of that year a second group of Globe and Wing airmails (Scott C27-31) was issued to catch-up with some of the changes. However, the rate on a letter to South America beginning on October 1, 1946, was set at a uniform ten cents. and twenty-five cents to its destination). This also explains the 31-cent stamp (Scott C25) of this series, intended primarily for use to Australasia, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa (six cents to the U.S. In other words, foreign rates were ‘cumulative’ or ‘compound’, with the U.S rate being added to the foreign segment. to Europe and the Mediterranean, so its stamp intended for that use would be twenty-one cents (Scott C24). The Canal Zone authorities decided, however, on the same fifteen-cent rate as the U.S. The airmail letter rate to the U.S., which was set in Washington, was six cents (Scott C22), and the postcard rate was four cents (Scott C21) at the time. At first glance, some of the denominations seem rather strange, but this is explained by the fact that the Canal Zone Postal Service had the right to set its own rates for foreign mail.

The first group of the new airmail stamps was issued in 4-, 6-, 10-, 21-, 31-, and 80-cent denominations on July 16, 1951. Aviation had progressed considerably since 1931, when the Gaillard Cut airmail was issued, and it was agreed that a more modern design was appropriate. Louis’ flying over the Continental Divide at the Panama Canal's Gaillard Cut. The Winged Airmail symbol (the image over a good part of the western hemisphere and centered on the Isthmus of Panama) was created to replace the by-then antiquated view used on Canal Zone airmails that depicted what appears to be the ‘Spirit of St. In addition, a single 8-cent stamp (Scott C34) was issued on January 7, 1963. The Globe and Wing airmails comprise two distinct series, the first issued on J(Scott C21-26), and the second (Scott C27-31) on August 1, 1958.

Airmail 5 cent stamp