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New Britain
*** Shopping-Tip: New Britain
:''This article discusses the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. For other uses of the name, see
New Britain (disambiguation).''
Image:Newbritain_lrg.jpg thumb|330px|New Britain from space, June 2005. Clearly visible is ash plume from [[Langila 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
provinces:
#
East New Britain with headquarters in
Rabaul
#
West New Britain with headquarters in
Kimbe
William Dampier became the first known European to visit New Britain on
February 27,
1700: he dubbed the island with the Latin name ''Nova Britannia''. The German colonial administration which ruled the area from 1884 to 1914 called the island '''Neu-Pommern''' ("New
Pomerania").
On
11 September 1914, Neu-Pommern became the site of one of the
World War I#Opening_battles early battles of World War I, when
Australian 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 stamps by
overprinting 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 of the United Kingdom George V. Values ranged from one penny to five shillings, and roughly corresponded with the values of the original stamps expressed in
pfennigs: 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 labels 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1915 the Australians superseded these improvised stamps of New Britain with stamps of the "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
* Australian War Memorial, [http://www.awm.gov.au/units/event_145.asp Operations against German Pacific territories], 06 August 1914 - 06 November 1914.
Category:Islands of Papua New Guinea
da:New Britain
de:Neubritannien
fr:Nouvelle-Bretagne
ja:ニューブリテン島
nl:Nieuw-Brittannië
pl:Nowa Brytania
fi:Uusi-Britannia
zh:新�列顛
*** Shopping-Tip: New Britain
