1941 20c Canal Zone Official Airmail, Gaillard Cut, Red Violet, Panama Canal Overprint Type I

Most stamps are made for the public, but some were made for the government alone. In 1941 the Canal Zone began overprinting its regular airmail stamps for official use by federal offices in the zone. The overprint program ran through 1951. The idea was simple. Government agencies needed a separate stamp for official mail, so they would not have to use stamps meant for sale to the general public.

This 20 cent airmail shows the Gaillard Cut, the stretch of the canal dug through the Continental Divide. It was first called the Culebra Cut, and work on it went on for years, with landslides making it harder than engineers had expected. Major David du Bose Gaillard led the central district that included the cut. He was promoted to colonel in 1913 and died that December, before the canal opened in 1914. In 1915 the cut was renamed Gaillard Cut in his honor.

Collectors tell the two overprint types apart by small differences in the lettering. This stamp is Type I. Official stamps like this one were used only within the Canal Zone’s federal offices, so they tell a small story about how the territory ran its own government mail. The Canal Zone ended in 1979, when the land was returned to Panama.