Hawker Airmail Stamp (Newfoundland, 1919)

Newfoundland 3 cents overprinted for the Atlantic flight, April 12, 1919 Newfoundland only joined Canada in 1949, and before then it had some of North America's most exciting stamps. This is the headline act: a sheet of 200 three-cent Caribou stamps overprinted First Trans-Atlantic Air Post for Harry Hawker's attempt to fly the Atlantic. The plane came down in the ocean and the mail was salvaged, and each stamp carries the postmaster's initials, J.A.R., on the back. With only 87 or so possible mint examples, it is a dream rather than a purchase for most of us. Newfoundland's later airmails and its Caribou definitives, the stamp under the overprint, are the affordable way to tell this story in an album.