Guernsey Post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Guernsey Post pillar box.

Guernsey Stamp commemorating Victor Hugo's Toilers of the Sea

Guernsey Post is the postal service for the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It includes a Philatelic Bureau, and regularly issues both definitive and commemorative stamps.

In contrast to the United Kingdom, Guernsey Post pillar boxes can be identified by their distinctive blue colour (see photo).

[edit] History

The first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852. One of these original pillar boxes can be seen in Union Street, St Peter Port and has been maintained by Guernsey Post in its traditional red livery.

Guernsey stamps were first issued in the island during the German Occupation of 1940-1945, when there was a great shortage of British stamps, as all ties with mainland Britain had been severed by the German authorities.

Guernsey's government, the States of Guernsey, took over the running of postal services from the British Government in October 1969 (as did Jersey, forming Jersey Post). Since then on it has regularly issued Guernsey stamps.

In 2001, the States of Guernsey commercialised the Post Office, and it became Guernsey Post Ltd and was awarded the licence to operate the reserved sector postal operation and meet the Universal Service Obligation (USO). To monitor Guernsey Post and either encourage competition in the market or where it is missing provide a controlling force the Office of Utility Regulation, otherwise known as the OUR, was created.

Guernsey Post is a member of the Small European Postal Administration Cooperation.