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Half a stamp is better than one
Local Guernsey envelope with bisected 1940 Stamp Centenary 2d. Orange (SG BS 7). The adhevise is cancelled with a machine cancellation of Guernsey on 31 DEC 1940 (New Year's Eve!).
The intention of this Letter of the Month is to show that Guernsey stamps did not begin with the initiation of the Guernsey independent postal administration in 1969; neither did it start with the G.B. Regional issues 1958-1969; the general Channel Islands issue of 1948; or even the Occupation Issues, circulated from 1941 to 1945; it began when the Island almost ran out of stamps in late 1940.
The war in Guernsey opened on a Sunday evening in June 28 when German Heinkels dropped bombs and strafed a line of lorries (trucks) loaded with tomatoes for shipping to England. Twenty-three civilians were killed and another thirty-six wounded.
The purpose of this raid was to determine if there would be any serious opposition to a German invasion. On the evening of the day after the bombing the first German troops flew into Guernsey and the main forces arrived the following day.
On July 1, 1940 the occupation of the island was a fact and links between Guernsey and England were broken. Guernsey, and indeed all the Channel Islands had, until then, used English postage stamps; the supply was now cut off.
The postal authorities must have been asleep at the switch for it was a few weeks before anyone considered a supply of stamps. By the time realization dawned, the stock of stamps became dangerously small.
So on December 24 1940, the States of Guernsey authorized the bisecting of the remaining G.B. 2d. stamps for the local 1d. postage until a new supply of Guernsey stamps could be printed. Circulation of these bisects began on December 27.
Bisects exist of the following issues, and were used from December 1940 until February 1941 when the ld. scarlet printed by the Guernsey Press Co. LTD became available:
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(a) George V definitives:
Stanley Gibbons # BS1 2d. Orange, 1912-1922,
Stanley Gibbons # BS2 2d. Orange, 1924-1926,
Stanley Gibbons # BS3 2d. Orange, 1934-1936,
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(b) George VI definitives:
Stanley Gibbons # BS4 ld. Scarlet, 1937
Stanley Gibbons # BS5 2d. Orange, 1938
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(c) 1940 Stamp Centenary commemoratives:
Stanley Gibbons # BS6 ld. Scarlet
Stanley Gibbons # BS7 2d. Orange
Stanley Gibbons # BS8 2 ˝ d. Ultramarine
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These issues are crucial to a complete Guernsey collection. Actually there is a need for caution because attempts have been made to reproduce the bisects. They are easily identifiable as genuine, by close examination of the cancellation inks especially at the diagonal cuts. Needless to say there are no authentic mint bisects!
Literature/Sources:
Stanley Gibbons: Specialised Catalog Channel Islands Stamps and Postal History
Newsletter of the VIPS
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