page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone
section_title: 1939 25th anniversary issues
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone / 1939 25th anniversary issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Canal Zone Postage stamp, 1939 Issue, 20cThe Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced 205,000 of this issue, with over half, approximately 104,000, were never sold. On February 28, 1941 the remaining issues were withdrawn from sale, where they were burned on April 12 that same year.
context_page_description: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone is a subject that covers the postal system, postage stamps used and mail sent to and from the Panama Canal Zone from 1904 up until October 1978, after the United States relinquished its authority of the Zone in compliance with the treaty it reached with Panama.
  The Canal Zone was a strip of territory 50 miles long and 10 miles wide across the Isthmus of Panama, and was ceded to the United States for the purpose of constructing and operating the canal which connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Upon the establishment of the Canal Zone in 1903, seventeen Post Offices had also been established and were operated by the U.S. Government. The Canal Zone and its post offices, with the main distributing office in Cristobal, operated as an independent government agency under the direct authority of the President of the United States. In the towns where there were railroad stations, the station agents of the Panama Railroad functioned as postmasters. Along with ships and freight, domestic mail and mail from around the world moved through the canal.
context_section_description: On August 15, 1939 the Canal Zone Post Office issued a series of 16 stamps commemorating the 25th anniversary of the canal's completion, depicting "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 stamps. The last such item replaced was the 2 cent postal card on November 1, 1958. 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 cent value showing the Gaillard Cut.
caption: Pedro Miguel Locks
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