U S A – Hawaiian Missionaries Stamp – worth £.450,000

The Hawaiian Missionaries are the first postage stamps of the Kingdom of Hawaii, issued in 1851. They came to be known as the “Missionaries” because they were primarily found on the correspondence of missionaries working in the Hawaiian Islands

Mail in Hawaii used to be carried by ships with no official postal system in place. However, by 1851, traffic in Hawaii was high enough that the government set up a postal office and established official postal rates.

These Hawaiian Missionaries Stamps came in the denominations of 2, 5, and 13 cents. They were the first stamps issued in Hawaii and were most often used by missionaries working there at the time.

An envelope containing a 2 cent and 5 cent Hawaiian Missionary stamp (as well as two other 3 cent stamps) survived to this day and is known as the Dawson Cover:

Unused: 450,000 pounds
Used: 225,000 pounds