Take a whirlwind tour of an island nation whose stamps make a great addition to your collection. ~ Published: 2008-08-24 15:16:14

Collect the World! - Ascension Island

By Jeffrey A. Walker

There are many reasons to collect stamps – one of them certainly is to learn about a place and culture that we may never be able to visit in person. Such a place is Ascension Island. One of the reasons that it is difficult to visit the island is the lack of available transportation and, of course, the cost. Collecting stamps of Ascension is a tolerable substitute, but probably not as much fun as a real visit!

A collection of Ascension stamps is reasonably available to the average collector, a quick skim though the Scotts Catalog shows most stamps can be obtained very reasonably with a few in the 2-digit category and a couple high values can run over $100 US.

Make your own album

Ascension Island specialty albums can be purchased, but a better alternative is printing your own from the Stamp Albums website, www.StampAlbums.com. That is where I obtained mine, and it looks very nice. But before we begin delving into philatelic specifics, let's talk about the Island itself.

Ascension Island

Ascension Island is located in the Central Atlantic Ocean, it's position in the ocean affords it comfortable warm weather year-round. There are 4 towns located on the Island, Georgetown, English Bay, Two Boats and Green Mountain. Georgetown and English Bay are located on the coast with Green Mountain and Two Boats inland. The island is volcanic, with the dormant crater residing in the center, the area around the crater holding a lot of vegetation. Let us hope that it remains dormant, I am thinking of the neighboring island of Tristan de Cuhna that had to be evacuated at one time due to volcanic activity.

There are approximately 1000 inhabitants on the island. Ascension has government buildings, it's own police force, hosptial and even a school, that serves a little over 100 students. There is also a little church on the island, my guess would be that it is inter-denomonational, but I am sure about this. There is also a basin of sorts to collect fresh water.

Strategic Location

Ascension is the home to an American airbase “Wideawake AFB” which serves both American and British aircraft. Widawake was built during World War II to facilitate in getting aircraft to the European theatre. It was strategically important to the British during the Falklands conflict, and militarilly it serves as a convenient “stationary aircraft carrier” it is situated in a nice area in the Atlantic.

Ascension is a convenient listening post for space. During the early American space missions, it was a vital communications link, and now is the home to a large array antenna, and also serves as a facilitator for the global positioning system (GPS) constellation of satellites.

History of the Post

Postally, Ascension went through what I would call 4 phases. Mail started being available from Ascension around 1858 in the form of ships mail. The letters being without stamps and sent irregularly on Union Steamship lines. Contradicting what I said at the beginning, aquiring these could be very costly, as not many were available, due to low numbers of senders. It would be fun to find out if the government offices on the island have old documents dating from the time with correspondence and maybe some British revenue documents. It would make a great postal history exhibit.

There was a period after 1867, up to 1922, when British postage stamps were available for use on the island. The only way to determine these is by the circular date cancellation which is “Ascension”. The only post office operating at that time (and probably now) was at Georgetown. Victorian era stamps being used, especially the colorful Queen Victoria jubilee issues. At stamp shows, look carefully in penny-boxes and you may walk away with one of these jewels for your collection! It would be interesting to know the highest value British stamp employed in service at the island at that time, and if items bigger than common letters were mailed.

The next phase came after 1922, when for 2 years postage stamps of St Helena were overprinted with “Ascension” for use on the island. Curiously, there is little mention of this era in Scotts, although it is treated quite extensively in Stanley Gibbons catalog (another reason for a collector to have a copy of Gibbons). In this set, there are 3 plate varieties that manifest themselves in the St Helena stamps that get into the Ascension issues as well. The “Broken mast”, “Torn flag” and “Cleft rock” varieties exist and I leave them to your study. These can be some of the more expensive varieties, with the curious circumstances of the cancelled copied being worth more postally than the unused. Expect to pay one of the highest prices for the high value in this set – over $130 US in the 1995 Scott catalog.

1924 marked what I consider the classic era of Ascension collecting. I think that many collectors, including myself, enjoy the King George V & VI & Queen Elizatbeth issues immensely. Very similar in design, the themes conveyed give one a survey of the island. I consider them some of the better bicolors produced by for the Crown Colonies. My personal favorites include the “Green Turtle” and “Land Crab” from the Queen Elizabeth issue. The scenery examples are excellent as well.

A little Caution

Keep yourself from being embarrassed like I did in my earlier collecting years. I got very excited over what I thought was a “Missing Corner Frame” on the 10 shilling red-violet King George VI view of the “Three Sisters”. Looking at the stamps, it looks a little strange for the upper right frame of the stamp to be unprinted, but this is the way it was designed. It looks so curious, that a British Commonwealth dealer (albeit a new one) I showed it to, was fooled for a moment as well, but we soon found figured it out, and had a good laugh.

In the current phase after 1963 consists of many British Colony common design types as well as a proliferation of issues that, although interesting, are out of my area of expertise. I think that the subjects would make excellent additional information about the island available, and should be in the albums of the Ascension collector.

Some Extras

There is only one “Back-of-the-book” item issued, that being a rather recent postage due series. I'm not sure how they handled postage due on the island, because that would probably be a fairly common occurance. I suspect that it was handwritten on the envelopes delivered.

The advanced collector has the opportunity to collect postal history of Ascension, any envelope from or to the island is a candidate for the album. Anything from 1863 sent from Ascension would carry a premium, especially covers that have the British stamps cancelled “Ascension”. I would love to have an item like that in my album. I wonder how many are in existance?

Just like every person has a story, so does every country. Ascension is more than a few pages in your worldwide album, it is real people, living in a special place, in a special time. By knowing the country and the history, we can look at our album and let our minds wander over the tiny island in the central Atlantic.

Happy collecting!