Sale No: 40
Lot No: 764
Symbol: ![]()
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Tonga, 1936, Tin Can Mail cover to New Zealand, legal-size, with numerous cancels and cachets. Cover folded vertically and stained at right, otherwise Fine,
Tin Can Mail originated in the Niuafo'ou island of Tonga whereby isalnders would use native mulberry poles that were buoyant to assist them in swimming to passing ships holding the mail wrapped in oilcloth and tied onto these spears. The packet was tied to the line and hauled up to the ship and placed in the mailstream at the next port of call. The purser on the ship would place incoming mail to the islands into an empty kerosene or cracker can and toss it overboard for the swimmers to retrieve. Around 1920 a German trader named Walter George Quesell, who worked for Burns Philp and Co., began rubber-stamping his outgoing mail with the mesage "Tin Can Mail". It didn't take long for stamp collectors and tourists to catch on and it became a phenomenon to witness. One fateful day in 1931 or 1932, one of the swimmers was bitten by a shark. The wound was fatal, and, as a result, the Tongan government decreed that swimming for the mail was prohibited. Thereafter, the mail could only be taken to and from ships in outrigger canoes. This, too, was hazardous because of the turgid waters that surround the island of Niuafo'ou (Tin Can Island). But thereafter, the mail was marked "Tin Can-Canoe Mail." It was still a novelty, eagerly sought by stamp collectors all over the world. Suggested Bid $40-60 (Image)
Suggested Bid $40-60
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Opening US$ 45.00
Sold...US$ 45.00
Closed..Sep-11-2021, 15:56:30 EST
Sold For 45
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