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#H31
1864 2c King Kamehameha IV, Rose Vermilion, Hawaii
$85.00
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Own #H31 – Hawaii’s First Perforated Stamp
This 2-cent stamp from the Kingdom of Hawaii depicts King Kamehameha IV, born Alexander Liholiho in 1834 and the grandson of Kamehameha the Great, who had unified the Hawaiian Islands under a single dynasty just decades earlier. Alexander came to the throne in 1855 at the age of 20, inheriting a kingdom under growing pressure from American commercial and missionary interests. His response was deliberate: he removed American members from cabinet posts, cultivated stronger ties with Great Britain, invited the Church of England to establish itself in Hawaii, and worked to balance the foreign influences competing for power over island life. He even translated the Book of Common Prayer into Hawaiian. Queen Victoria agreed to serve as godmother to his son, Prince Albert.
Perhaps the most lasting achievement of his reign was the founding of the Queen's Hospital in Honolulu in 1860. Alarmed by the rapid decline of the Native Hawaiian population from introduced diseases, Kamehameha IV and his wife Queen Emma personally solicited donations from legislators, foreign residents, and ordinary citizens when the legislature declined to fund the hospital outright. The institution they built, today known as The Queen's Medical Center, continues operating in Honolulu more than 160 years later. His reign ended in tragedy. His only son Albert died suddenly in 1862, and the king, who never fully recovered from the loss, died the following year at 29.
This stamp holds a notable place in Hawaiian postal history as the kingdom's first perforated stamp, issued in 1864 the year after Kamehameha IV's death. Before this issue, Hawaiian stamps were printed imperforate and had to be cut from the sheet by hand. The denomination is expressed in Hawaiian as Elua Keneta, meaning two cents. Hawaii operated its own postal system as a sovereign kingdom until annexation by the United States in 1898, and the stamps from this period are among the few widely circulated records of the royal figures who shaped the kingdom in its final decades.
Own #H31 – Hawaii’s First Perforated Stamp
This 2-cent stamp from the Kingdom of Hawaii depicts King Kamehameha IV, born Alexander Liholiho in 1834 and the grandson of Kamehameha the Great, who had unified the Hawaiian Islands under a single dynasty just decades earlier. Alexander came to the throne in 1855 at the age of 20, inheriting a kingdom under growing pressure from American commercial and missionary interests. His response was deliberate: he removed American members from cabinet posts, cultivated stronger ties with Great Britain, invited the Church of England to establish itself in Hawaii, and worked to balance the foreign influences competing for power over island life. He even translated the Book of Common Prayer into Hawaiian. Queen Victoria agreed to serve as godmother to his son, Prince Albert.
Perhaps the most lasting achievement of his reign was the founding of the Queen's Hospital in Honolulu in 1860. Alarmed by the rapid decline of the Native Hawaiian population from introduced diseases, Kamehameha IV and his wife Queen Emma personally solicited donations from legislators, foreign residents, and ordinary citizens when the legislature declined to fund the hospital outright. The institution they built, today known as The Queen's Medical Center, continues operating in Honolulu more than 160 years later. His reign ended in tragedy. His only son Albert died suddenly in 1862, and the king, who never fully recovered from the loss, died the following year at 29.
This stamp holds a notable place in Hawaiian postal history as the kingdom's first perforated stamp, issued in 1864 the year after Kamehameha IV's death. Before this issue, Hawaiian stamps were printed imperforate and had to be cut from the sheet by hand. The denomination is expressed in Hawaiian as Elua Keneta, meaning two cents. Hawaii operated its own postal system as a sovereign kingdom until annexation by the United States in 1898, and the stamps from this period are among the few widely circulated records of the royal figures who shaped the kingdom in its final decades.
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