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Stamp Collecting: Ascension
Ascension Island is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, a dependency of the British overseas territory of St Helena. The island is primarily a site for British and American military, satellite tracking, and communication activities.
The postal history of Ascension begins with covers franked with the Victorian issues of Great Britain and cancelled with Ascension cancels. Ascension's first adhesive stamps were the 1912-1922 stamps of St. Helena overprinted ASCENSION in red or black. These were followed up in 1924 by a series of 12 using the St. Helena design, but inscribed for Ascension.
Modern military covers are particularly sought after by Ascension philatelists and postal historians.
Collectors' & Reference Sites
- Philatelic Aspects of Ascension
- Neil MacFall's Ascension Island collection is impressive to behold. It features virtually every stamp ever produced for the island, and blends together photographic and philatelic images. The pages displayed cover the topics of History, Geology, Birds and Plants.
- St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha Philatelic Society
- The objectives of the Society include promoting the collecting, study and research of philatelic materials relating to these three South Atlantic islands. The society is truly international with members literally all over the world.
- Ascension Island Post Office & Philatelic Bureau
- On these pages you can discover the latest philatelic items from the three islands of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
Books
- St Helena & Dependencies Stamp Catalogue
- Published in December 2007. 3rd Edition. This Stanley Gibbons catalogue covers the stamps of Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha, as well as St Helena itself and includes booklets and postage dues for all three territories. It also contains listings of Great Britain stamps used in Ascension and the popular Tristan Da Cunha 'Cachets'. Listings of new issues are complete to late 2007.
Dealers' sites
- Stamps of Ascension - from Delcampe.net (International sellers)
- Stamps of Ascension from Stanley Gibbons (UK)
- Stamps of Ascension in forthcoming Sandafayre Stamp Auctions (UK)