The Panama Canal Zone

Panama Canal Zone

The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...

issued its own postage stamps beginning in 1904.

Overprints

Initially they were the current stamps of Panama or (less often) the US, overprint

Overprint

An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...

ed with "CANAL ZONE" in various ways. Philatelists have identified over 100 varieties, some of them quite rare (and counterfeit

Counterfeit

To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...

ed). The last of these overprints were issued in 1939.

First stamps

In 1928, the Zone issued a definitive series inscribed "CANAL ZONE POSTAGE" depicting various persons involved in the construction of the canal, as well as a 5 c value showing the Gaillard Cut

Gaillard Cut

The Gaillard Cut, or Culebra Cut, is an artificial valley that cuts through the continental divide in Panama. The cut forms part of the Panama Canal, linking Lake Gatún, and thereby the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gulf of Panama and hence the Pacific Ocean...

. A series of 16 stamps in 1939 commemorating the 25th anniversary of the canal's completion showed "before" and "after" views of various points along the canal. Thereafter stamps appeared at an average rate of about two per year, with a commemorative set in some years and no stamps in others. The inscriptions were changed to just "CANAL ZONE" in the 1960s. This paralleled the abandonment of the word "POSTAGE" on many United States stamps, as the United States ceased to issue revenue stamp

Revenue stamp

A revenue stamp, tax stamp or fiscal stamp is a adhesive label used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things...

s.

An error

The most famous Canal Zone stamp was the four cent stamp (Scott

Scott catalogue

The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Co, a subsidiary of Amos Press, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the entire world which its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in six large volumes and is also produced in...

 #157, error stamp #157a), issued on October 12, 1962, for the opening of the Thatcher Ferry Bridge (now the Bridge of the Americas

Bridge of the Americas

The Bridge of the Americas is a road bridge in Panama, which spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. Completed in 1962, at a cost of US$20 million, it was the only non-swinging bridge connecting the north and south American land masses until the opening of the Centennial Bridge in 2004...

), the first elevated bridge connecting the two sides of the Canal. One pane of fifty stamps was released without the silver ink used to depict the Bridge. Upon learning of this, Canal Zone postal officials proposed to release a large quantity of intentional errors, to destroy the value of the errors. This would have paralleled what was done at almost the same time for the U.S. four cent stamp showing Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...

--some stamps had been issued with an inverted background, and to destroy their value, the United States Post Office Department

United States Post Office Department

The Post Office Department was the name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the Postmaster General....

, within a month of the original release, issued millions more. Publicity and a lawsuit by stamp dealer H.E. Harris

Henry Ellis Harris

Henry Ellis Harris was a philatelist and stamp dealer who through his company, H.E. Harris & Co., popularized philately for many Americans, especially children.-Selling stamps:...

, who was in possession of some of the errors, and claimed that the new release would effectively destroy their value prevented the release of the Canal Zone intentional errors.http://www.stamps.org/Almanac/alm_HallofFame_1975-79.htm

Final years

The final years of the Canal Zone saw few stamps issued--those that were issued were mainly for new first-class postal rates (the first-class rates paralleled those of the United States) The last stamp (fifteen cents) of the Zone was issued on October 25, 1978, and depicted one of the towing locomotives and a ship in a lock. Thereafter Panama took over the administration of postal service and, after a brief transition period, Canal Zone stamps became invalid.

Sources

• Stanley Gibbons Ltd: various catalogues
• Encyclopaedia of Postal History
• Rossiter, Stuart
  Stuart Rossiter
  Percival "Stuart" Bryce Rossiter was a renowned British philatelist and postal historian who wrote extensively about British postal history and postage stamps of British colonies in Africa and was actively involved in numerous philatelic institutions...
  
  & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986. ISBN 0356108627

External links

• The first stamps of the Canal Zone.