Information AboutNew Britain |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NEW BRITAIN | |
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and Ulawun volcanoes]] New Britain is the largest Island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea , and has Rabaul as its principal city. For administrative purposes, New Britain comprises two Province s: # East New Britain with headquarters in Rabaul # West New Britain with headquarters in Kimbe "). On 11 September 1914 , Neu-Pommern became the site of one of the Early Battles Of World War I , when Australia n forces landed on the island. At that time, Neu-Pommern formed part of German New Guinea . Previous to this, some armed engagements had taken place in Africa . Fighting had started in Europe with the Battle Of Cer on 12 August 1914. POSTAGE STAMPS When the Australian Naval And Military Expeditionary Force occupied German New Guinea in 1914 , it met the need for Postage Stamp s by Overprint ing existing stocks of the ( Unwatermarked ) German New Guinea and Marshall Islands stamps with "G.R.I" (short for ''Georgius Rex Imperator'', referring to the current British King George V . Values ranged from one penny to five shillings, and roughly corresponded with the values of the original stamps expressed in Pfennig s: 1d on 3pf and 5pf stamps, 2d on 10pf and 20pf, and so forth. The Australians issued a first setting of the overprint on 17 October 1914, followed by a second setting (with slightly different spacing) on 16 December . In all, the produced some 50 distinct stamps. In addition, Australian postal authorities pressed Registration Label s into service as 3d stamps, overprinted in the same way as the others. Labels of the Friedrich Wilhelmshaven , Herbertshohe , Kawieng , Kieta , Manus , and Rabaul post offices became overprinted in this manner. In 1915 the Australians superseded these improvised stamps of New Britain with stamps of the " North West Pacific Islands ". Because of the short period of use of the New Britain issues, they occur quite rarely, and command high prices; the most common denominations cost at least $15 US apiece, and the five-shilling overprints fetch prices of over $10,000 on the rare occasions when they come up for sale. In addition, the overprinting process produced a number of errors, and these also command high prices. REFERENCES
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