Tin Can Canoe Cover

heres a tin can cover from Tonga I picked up from the old geezer on the Cape..now if I can remember how to shrink it to under 90 kb I will be alright !

Nice cover, Philby

From Wikipedia:

The [Tongan] island is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji and Samoa, 574 km north of Tongatapu island group and 337 kilometers northwest of Vava'u. It is a still active volcano.

Other names for the island are Good Hope island and Tin Can island. The latter name originated from the fact that, since the island has neither a natural harbor nor a wharf, in earlier times, mail was delivered and picked up by strong swimmers who would retrieve packages, "sealed up in a biscuit tin" and thrown overboard from passing ships. An early trader, named Walter George Quensell, acted as postmaster at that time and stamped the mail with colourful marks which have become a collectors' item. The Tongan government took over this tradition with special Niuafo'ou stamps since 1983.

This is too funny... I'd just read your post, and then minutes later, found the identical cover... Thanks for sharing.

Bfranton I vant to see it !

Not as clean as yours, I think, but it's the same...

And I thought I was unique !! even the same stamps !!

Nice covers! Aren't authentic postally used covers relatively rare?

Not nearly "rare" so as one might want to think. They're just in someone's attic or....?:)

Too Cool! I've always wanted one of those covers ever since I heard about them. I love the novelty of it all.

Dude, after you have been around a while you will be amazed what you come accross..you just have to live long enough !! You could probably get one for a few bucks....

Of course, it would help if I actively looked for an item like that as opposed to my normal US covers. LOL! I've been around longer than some and less than others. That reminds me of a compliment I was paid by another life long collector decades my senior at my last stamp club meeting. He said that I know just as much as him if not more. Then the gentleman he was talking to asked if I appraised stamp collection (his father had just passed away and he was sorting his 50 year collection).

Dude I don't know if I have the stomach for appraising someones stamp collection..they might ask if I wanted to buy it..a dealer friend told me.."never make an offer" ask the person what they are asking for their collection...

Rodd, do you know the name of the ship on that card?

Ooooooh (sucks breath in)

I'll have to do some digging around, BeeSee.

Are you ready for this?
That is a painting of the Tin can mail.
It appeared on the front cover of the Australian Stamp Monthly
around 1970-1975.
It now appears as a mini sheet from one country or another.

I am an ex sailor, and I can tell you
I can almost taste the sea salt on that painting.
It still leaves me with awe how the artist captured that.

The database came to the rescue :

"Australian Stamp News" March 1983

unfortunately, this will be stacked away somewhere in the attic.

Your best bet is to find the catalogue listing
of the minisheet, it may declare the artist.