1988 United States - Australia Joint Issue Covers

In January 1988, Australia celebrated the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet on its shores and the beginnings of its first settlement. The Fleet had departed from Portsmouth, England on May 13, 1788 under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip. It included eleven ships, six of which were convict ships. The intent of the Fleet was to transport prisoners out of England to Australia and to establish a penal colony there.

The Fleet arrived first in Botany Bay (so named by Captain Cook during his initial survey of the area in 1770), on January 18, 1788 after a journey that included supply and repair stops at Tenerife (Canary Islands), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Cape Town (southern Afirca); the voyage took approximately 8-1/2 months to complete.

Soon realizing that Botony Bay was not a good place to establish a settlement, Captain Phillip ordered the Fleet north along the coast to Port Jackson (also named by Cook). The Fleet entered and anchored in Port Jackson on January 26, 1788. It was there that the first British settlement in Australia was built.

January 26 is celebrated as Australia Day in Australia and was the first day of issue for the US-Australia joint issue of stamps. The Australia Post also teamed up with the United Kingdom and New Zealand for joint stamp issues; the UK and New Zealand stamps were issued on June 21, 1988. The US-Australia stamps are the focus of this post.

As with other US joint issues, Fleetwood released a Joint Issue Series of covers that included one for the US stamp with a USPS FDI postmark, one for the Australian stamp with an Australian Post postmark and one that included both stamps, each cancelled with its country's postmark.

Fleetwood also produced a standalone cover for the US stamp, and that's where my series of posts on the 1988 US-Australia joint issue is going to begin. Shown below is the standalone FDC for the US stamp along with the Maximum Card for the same issue.

Nice covers, Bluejay.
What I found unusual was the depiction of a kiwi on the artwork of the cover. Kiwis are only found in New Zealand and not in Australia.

@StevieG: Good catch! I hadn't given the kiwi much thought. I can't offer any explanation, as I don't know what the artist - Tom McNeely - was considering as source material when he prepared the artwork for the cover/MaxCard.

Next up are the three FDCs that comprise Fleetwood's Joint Issue series. The individual stamps of the US and Australia each get a cover plus there's a cover for the pairing of each country's stamp/postmark. And no kiwi birds in the cachets!

The US Stamp Cover



The Australia Stamp Cover



The US + Australia Stamp Cover




More to come!

In addition to the four FDCs and Maximum Card already presented, I also have a philatelic-numismatic cover (PNC) that Fleetwood created for the Australia Bicentennial.

On the philatelic side, the cover features the US stamp and the Australia stamp; each of the commemorative stamps was cancelled with a local January 26, 1988 postmark which represented the first day of issue for each of the stamps. The cover's numismatic side is addressed via a $2 coin from Australia. 1988 was the first year of issue for the $2 coin - Australia's first of the denomination; it replaced the $2 note that was discontinued.

The obverse of the coin features the Raphael David Maklouf portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

The commemorative reverse design presents a head-and-shoulders view of an aboriginal male / tribal elder facing right. In the sky behind the man is seen a representation of the Southern Cross constellation; a small grouping of Australian flora is shown to the right of "2 DOLLARS." The design is the work of Horst Hahne (his initials appeared below the aboriginal male in 1988 and 1989; they were removed from all future issues of the coin).

@StevieG: had a thought...I wonder if the artist confused the kookaburra with the kiwi and mistakenly thought he was adding the former to the cover's artwork?

I thought I'd add the joint-issue first day covers (FDCs) produced by Australia Post. The cachets on the three covers were created by Roland Harvey - the same artist who created the illustrations for the stamps.

(Note: The text on the back of the Australia stamp cover and the back of the two-stamp, joint-issue cover is very similar.)

I know they aren't philatelic in nature, but I thought some folks might enjoy seeing a very attractive (IMO) numismatic tie-in to the Australian Bicentennial covers I've presented...


In 1988, in honor of Australia's Bicentenary, the Australian Bicentennial Authority in conjunction with the Royal Australian Mint (RAM) issued a set of six silver commemorative medallions.

The Bicentennial Authority developed the six themes depicted on the medallions, then held a competition to select the artist who would interpret the themes into designs for each of the medallions. Australian artist/sculptor Michael Tracey was the winner of the design competition. The six themes are:

• The Aboriginals
• British Settlement
• Explorers / Pioneers
• Federation
• Defence Forces
• Living Together

The themes provide a broadly arching timeline for Australia's development as a nation.

The medals share a common reverse design, the logo of the Australian Bicentennial Authority encircled by a commemorative inscription and a pair of branches from the wattle tree.

Each of the sterling silver (0.925 fine silver) medallions is 50.0 mm in diameter and 4.00 mm thick. The weight of each is 71 grams, which equates to about 2.11 troy ounces (a total of ~12.66 troy ounces of silver in the set). All of the medallions are struck in proof. The series was limited to 10,000 sets, but I'm not sure how many were actually sold. I contacted the RAM regarding the final sales figures, but, somewhat surprisingly, they were unable to provide me with the information.

The set came in a large, dark green case and included a booklet that briefly describes each medal along with a COA.


Individually-Themed Obverses







Common Reverse