American Samoa

The Samoan Islands are a group of islands in the South Pacific, first sighted by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722. The western part of the archipelago eventually became a German protectorate and is now the independent state of Samoa. The eastern islands became a territory of the United States after the Second Samoan Cilvil War and the Tripartite Convention of 1899. In 1925 Swains Island was annexed and added to the territory.

Nowadays American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States. The head of state is the US president. The governor of American Samoa is the head of government. There is a territorial legislature, the Fono, that consists of a House of Representatives and a Senate. Capital of the territory is Pago Pago.

Since there are no American Samoan stamps, I chose for my envelope the four United States stamps that were issued with a Samoan theme. The most prominent is the issue of 17 April 2000 with the alia, traditional canoe, issued for the centenary of the islands belonging to the United States. Then there are the flag from the Flags of our nation series of 2009, the coral reefs issue of 1980 and the cardinal honeyeater from the tropical birds issue of 1998.

The coral reefs stamp was damaged during its voyage from the Pacific to the Netherlands, but the envelope remains a beautiful piece in my collection.

Date sent: 14 April 2017

Date postmark: 27 April 2017

Date received: 13 May 2017

Number of days: 29

Envelope in collection: 38