page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island
section_title: 1958–1959 transition
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island / Postal independence under Australian administration / 1958–1959 transition
caption_attribution_description: English: The first postage stamp of Christmas Island, 2¢, 1958, Queen Elizabeth II definitive. Русский: Первая почтовая марка острова Рождества, 2 цента, 1958.
context_page_description: The postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, was linked to its original economic situation until 1993. Mainly ruled by a phosphate production commission, the island was part of the British Straits Settlements colony from 1901 to 1942, then of Singapore from 1946 to 1958. Although it was placed under Australian control in 1958, the island remained postally and philatelically independent until 1993 when Australia Post became the island's postal operator.
  The island issued its own postage stamps from 1958. Those issued by Australia Post since 1993 are also valid in Australia, as are Australian stamps in Christmas Island.
  According to the Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue, 32 stamps were issued when postal responsibility was exercised by the Phosphate Commission between 1958 and 1969, and 335 under the responsibility of the Christmas Island Administration between 1969 and 1993. From March 1993 to February 2003, during its ten first years of postal responsibility, Australia Post issued 153 stamps for Christmas Island.
context_section_description: While Singapore prepared its accession to self-government, the United Kingdom decided to transfer Christmas Island administration to Australia, a country which had been controlling along with New Zealand the phosphate company, the British Phosphate Commission, since 1948. The Australian Christmas Island Act accepted the continuity of the Singapore legal system on the island, including the postal system. The Malayan dollar remained the currency because of the needs of South-East Asian workers. Consequently, the island's postal system was independent of Australia's and placed under the responsibility of the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission. Inhabitants could collect their mail at the post office in Flying Fish Cove. For outgoing mail, specific postage stamps would be issued even if the Australian Department of Territories asked the Australian post office to produce them. Postal rates remained those of Singapore, placing this State inside the interior rate zone of Christmas Island.
  However, two modifications were made on the Singapore postal system in Christmas Island: the airmail postage rate to Australia was reduced and Australian cancelling stamps were sent in 1958 with the designation: "CHRISTMAS ISLAND / INDIAN OCEAN / AUST".
  The first philatelic issue was released on 15 October 1958. It was an adaptation of Australia's 1 shilling 7 pence stamp of March 1955, using a bas-relief profile of Queen Elizabeth II by W.L. Bowles with floral ornament. The design by F.D. Manley was reshaped by engraver G. Lissenden to include a black "CHRISTMAS ISLAND" and encircled value in Malayan dollars overprint. The face values and part of the chosen colours were inspired by the last definitive stamps of Singapore in use in Christmas Island. Stamps were printed in recess for the effigy and the word "Australia" and in typography for the overprint by the Note Printing Branch of the Commonwealth Bank in Melbourne. The philatelic office in Melbourne, in charge of the Australian Territories stamp sales, delivered one hundred stamp sheets to the Phosphate Commission which expedited them to the island by a ship sailing from Fremantle. The same royal effigy served for the registered postal stationery issued on 18 May 1959.
caption: A 1958 2c stamp of Christmas Island.
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