Guernsey (Guernésiais: Guernési) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy. It lies roughly north of Saint-Malo and to the west of Jersey and the Cotentin Peninsula. With
several smaller nearby islands, it forms a jurisdiction within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency.
The jurisdiction is made up of ten parishes on the island
of Guernsey, three other inhabited islands (Herm,
Jethou and Lihou), and many small islets and rocks. The
jurisdiction is not part of the United Kingdom, although defence and most foreign relations
are handled by the British Government. The entire jurisdiction lies within the Common Travel Area of the British Islands and the Republic of Ireland. Taken
together with the separate jurisdictions of Alderney and Sark it forms the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The
two Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey together form the geographical
grouping known as the Channel Islands.
The name
"Guernsey", as well as that of neighbouring "Jersey", is of Old Norse origin. The second element of each word, "-ey", is the Old Norse for "island", while the original root, "guern(s)", is of
uncertain origin and meaning, possibly deriving from either a personal name
such as Grani or Warinn, or from gron, meaning pine tree. Previous names for the Channel Islands vary over
history, but include the Lenur islands, and Sarnia, Sarnia is the Latin name for Guernsey,
or Lisia (Guernsey) and Angia (Jersey).
Guernsey does not have a
Central Bank and it issues its own sterling coinage and banknotes. UK coinage and
(English, Scottish and Northern Irish-faced) banknotes also circulate freely
and interchangeably. Guernsey has the official ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code GG
and the official ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code GGY;
market data vendors, such as Reuters, will report products related to Guernsey using the
alpha-3 code. Both the Guernsey Post postal boxes (since 1969)
and the telephone boxes (since 2002) are painted blue, but otherwise are
identical to their British counterparts, the red pillar box and red telephone box. In 2009 the telephone boxes at the bus
station were painted yellow just like they used to be when Guernsey Telecoms
was state-owned. The oldest pillar box still in use in the British Isles can be
found in Union Street, St Peter Port and dates back to 1853.
The first postal service
took place using mail sent with captains of packet ships, using agents in the
England and in the islands for the end delivery. The cost was normally 3d. The
first pillar boxes in Britain were introduced in the Channel Islands as an experiment in 1852, to collect mail for
the Royal Mail packet boats. The oldest pillar box in use
in the British Isles is in Guernsey. The first postage stamps printed for use
in Guernsey were issued during the occupation of
the island during World War II. In the 1950s Guernsey used British regional stamps
marked specifically for use in Guernsey but valid for postage throughout the
United Kingdom. Guernsey has issued its own stamps since the creation of Guernsey Post, 1 October 1969. The Bailiwick of Guernsey incorporates Alderney, Herm and Sark
which all used the Guernsey issues from 1969. From 1983 Guernsey began issuing
specific stamps designated Alderney for use in
that island which are also valid throughout the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
In 1998 postage stamps
were issued without a price stated on the stamp, the terms "Local"
and "UK" being used to distinguish the values. In 2010 "EUR"
(Europe) and "ROW" (Rest of World) were issued. In 2012 this was
expanded further with "UK Letter", "GY letter" (Guernsey)
"INT letter" (International) "UK large" and "GY
large" designating envelope size and destination. Starting in 2015,
Guernsey also issues Post & Go stamps.
The cover posted on May 11, 2016 and I received in my hands on May 16, 2016.
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