Canal Zone Anybody?

Postcard from Panama

You know, though I do collect US and it's possessions (Hawaii, Philippines, Cuba), for some reason I've avoided The Zone. Looking back at this thread makes me rethink that decision. Time to print some more pages!

Great postcard. Panama City looks like a sleepy little fishing village back then, guess that all changed after the canal was built. Your card is even post marked the year the canal was finished.

1946-49

Resurrecting an old thread. How many others are interested in the stamps of the Canal Zone and/or the events that led to its construction?

I love Canal Zone. It is how I got into stamp collecting with me father when I was young. Canal Zone stamps hold a special place for me.

I found a complete set of album pages on line, got the free software, and modified them to suit my needs. I added pages for most of the booklet panes as well. Here's a couple of examples.

I'm really glad that I found this thread. I've been interested in the Panama Canal ever since I wrote a paper about it back in college. This interest has transferred into my stamp collecting and I treasure all of my Canal Zone stamps. Although my collection is rudimentary, I'm striving to improve it. For anyone interested in the history of the Panama Canal (more than Wikipedia provides), may I suggest reading "The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914" by David McCullough. I still have the copy that I had in college and can highly recommend it.

I have been considering collecting some of these. I acquired the pages for US possessions in an album I bought last year.

I have collected those stamps that were issued with both wet and dry printings. Many are confused on how to tell these apart. The main characteristic is that the wet printed stamps have a design that is narrower than the dry printed stamps.

I grew up in the Canal Zone. My preference is for Canal Zone postal history though I also collect the stamps as well.

I came across half a dozen letters from the Canal Zone during 1918 from a US soldier serving with a Field Artillery Battalion. Interesting content in some of the letters. The soldier writes home telling family of soldiers arriving and dying from the flu shortly afterward. If I remember my history of WWI correctly flu claimed many lives during that conflict.





Also came across this stamp with a Perfin cancel and Canal Zone overprint. Guessing the overprint came first. Can't imagine why a stamp would require both.

gettinold, the overprint makes a Canal Zone stamp out of a US stamp. The perforated "P" was applied by the user of the stamps as a way of prohibiting unauthorized use.

Peter

Peter

Thanks. So the P is associated with a particular entity. Thought it meant Panama.