Tuvalu,
formerly known as the Ellice
Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean,
midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises three reef islands
and six true atolls. Tuvalu has a
population of 10,640 (2012 census). The total land area of the
islands of Tuvalu is 26 square kilometres.
In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro
de Mendaña was the first European to sail through the archipelago,
sighting the island of Nui during his expedition in search of Terra
Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island;
the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of
English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The islands came under
Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when each of
the Ellice Islands was declared a British Protectorate by Captain
Gibson of HMS Curacoa between 9 and 16 October 1892.
The Ellice Islands
were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner
from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories
(BWPT), and then as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from
1916 to 1974. A referendum was held in December 1974 to
determine whether the Gilbert Islands and Ellice Islands should each
have their own administration. As a consequence of the referendum, the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony ceased to exist on 1 January 1976 and
the separate British colonies of Kiribati and Tuvalu came into
existence. Tuvalu became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 1
October 1978. [R1]
The Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau was established on 1 January 1976, which
was the day the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony was dissolved and
Tuvalu was established with separate British dependency status. The
first postage stamp cancellation devices were put into use the same
day. In the late 1980s, Tuvalu became involved in a court case with
Clive Feigenbaum, who was the Chairman of the Philatelic Distribution
Corporation (P.D.C.). The legal case made claims in relation to a
contract with the government of Tuvalu relating to allegations as to
the deliberate production of stamps with errors for sale to collectors
at inflated prices. According to the New York Times, "P.D.C. produced
14,000 deliberate errors: stamps with inverted centers, missing
elements or perforation varieties, which it sold for inflated prices".
[R2]
Official stamps of Tuvalu related to Paleontology and Paleoanthropology: Charles Darwin