GERMAN COLONIES
NEU GUINEA
STAMPS
1897

Forerunners are stamps of the German Empire that were in circulation in foreign countries and the colonies without any special identification (i.e. not overprinted "Neu Guinea"), until issue of their own stamps. 'Proper' forerunners were officially delivered to post offices and were sold from postal counters, stamps that were not used or not officially issued are non-proper forerunners (e.g. Michel V39 and V43). All forerunners and interim stamps can only be recognised by the cancellation and as such there is no such thing as an unused forerunner.

The protectorate of German New Guinea consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea Island, Kaiser Wilhelmsland, the Bismark Archipelago, the islands of New Pommern, New Hannover and New Mecklenburg in addition to the Admiralty Islands, the Northern Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Buka.

Foreign ships operating in the area carried mail to and from Germany on a semi-regular basis until German Postal Steam Ship Lines began operations in 1886 to Asia and Australia.

Official Post Offices were opened in Finschafen (15 Feb 1888), Hatzfeldthafen (1 Apr 1888), Kerawara (4 Apr 1888), Konstantinhafen (15 May 1888), Stephansort (14 Dec 1889), Herbertshöhe (Jun 1897), Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (1 Mar 1892), Matupi (1 Nov 1894) and Berlinhafen (22 May 1898). An additional cancel was used temporarily in Kerawara (4 Apr 1888) to (May 1888).

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