page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone
section_title: 1906–1909 issues
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the Canal Zone / 1906–1909 issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Canal Zone, de Obaldia, 10c, 1906 Issue
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: Postage stamps issued in 1906–1907 were printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Engraving and Printing Co, in New York; Those issued in 1909 were issued by the American Bank Note Company. This series of stamps features portraits of statesmen, educators and other prominent men involved in Panama's early history. There were ten designs in all. Some of the issues were printed with the portrait inverted. The 1909 overprints were printed at the Isthmian Canal Commission’s Printing Office in Panama City. The overprinting in the first printing places the word CANAL near the left side of the stamp, reading upward. Successive printings were issued with CANAL at the right, reading downward. Some of the issues have missing or partially missing overprints, doubled overprints and inverted overprinting. A specialized catalog is needed to determine which values have the various oveprinting errors.
  A second series of stamps was issued in 1909, honoring the same figures depicted above in the 1906 issues, with same color themes for a given stamp, but with different border designs.
caption: Jose de Obaldia
  Issue of 1906
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