page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone
section_title: Air mail issues
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone / Air mail issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Canal Zone air mail cover, with 25c overprint on 2c Goethals issue, postmarked
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: The first Canal Zone air mail stamps were issued in 1928—1929, with rates of postage over-printed on existing Canal Zone permanent issue stamps, issued in 1929.
caption: Canal Zone Airmail cover, franked with 25c overprint on Goethals 1928 issue, Postmarked Feb. 12, 1931
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