TUVALU

TUVALU.

Map of Nanumea island.
Tenth stamp in a set of 15, issued on 01.07.1976.
Face value: 20 cents of Tuvalian (Australian) dollar.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 36.
- Scott No. 32. (?)
- StampWorld No. 32.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 67. (?)
- Yvert et Tellier No.32.

Tuvalu is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean, formed by 4 coral reefs and 5 atolls, with a total area of 26 km² (10 sq mi), and its total population is about 12,000 inhabitants. Its maximum altitude is 4.6 m (15 ft) above sea level. Its capital is Funafuti, with about 6500 inhabitants.
This is the fifth set of stamps issued by Tuvalu since its separation from the Gilbert Islands (present-day Kiribati) on January 1, 1976. Its independence, however, was officially proclaimed on October 1, 1978. It is a constitutional monarchy belonging to the British Commonwealth, in which Queen Elizabeth II was officially recognized as the monarch of Tuvalu. Previously, the archipelago was known as the Ellice Islands, and from 1895 together with the Gilberts it formed the British protectorate of Gilbert and Ellice (British Micro-Polynesia). The islands were already inhabited in the first millennium BC by Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa. The first Europeans to arrive there, on January 16, 1568, were a group of Spaniards commanded by Álvaro de Mendaña, who gave the name of Islas Nombre de Jesús to the archipelago.

Nanumea is an atoll in Tuvalu, located just south of the equator and west of the International Date Line. The island is 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) with a population of 512 people (2017 census). The first recorded sighting of Nanumea by Europeans was by Spanish naval officer Francisco Mourelle who sailed past it on 5 May 1781 and named the island San Agustín. From 1879 to 1881 the British Alfred Restieaux was the first resident trader on Nanumea. The Post Office in the island opened around 1919.