Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, The Cook Islands postmarked on June 6, 1978.
The Cook Islands
The Cook Islands, 1600 miles North East of New Zealand, consist of seven northern atolls, sparsely inhabited; and a group of eight islands 200 miles further south, some of which are volcanic. These latter islands include Mangaia, Aitutaki, and Rarotonga, which is the largest. The Polynesian inhabitants are closely related to the Maoris, and like them are citizens of New Zealand. They derive their living from fishing, and growing coconuts, bananas, citrus fruit, tomatoes, pineapples and root vegetables.
This issue of the Cook Islands was printed by photogravure in six colours on security paper bearing a fluorescent coat of arms. The stamps were released on 6 June 1978 and in addition to a portrait of Her Majesty, include the following three designs:
Lion of England. In societies with little centralised authority, the lion reveals a symbolism rather different to that of our world. For neolithic Europeans it symbolised motherhood, for Africans it is the butt of jokes, being defeated in folk tales by smaller, smarter animals. For the Assyrians, by way of distinction, deities of destruction were frequently depicted in leonine form, and by association the lion came to be adopted as a symbol of authority. It has enjoyed heraldic use in Britain since the 12th Century, and is the only royal beast to wear a crown.
Imperial State Crown. Worn on state occasions, the Imperial State Crown differs from others in its rising arches of silver and diamond oak leaves and acorns. In the language of symbolism, use of the oak originated in its linking heaven and earth, whispering in the breath of the sky-god.
Tangaroa. Described in a maze of Polynesian legends as a sky or ocean god, Tangaroa was believed to have emerged from the embrace of Heaven and Mother Earth, and to have helped his brothers separate their parents — thereby dispersing night and chaos, and letting in the day. For this, Tangaroa was banished to the ocean by another brother, Ta- whiri-ma-tea (god of stability and the winds). Other myths tell how Tangaroa fished up islands, and created mankind from worms in a tree creeper, and of how the tears of Heaven fell as rain and dew on the wife from whom he had been separated.
