Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, Tokelau postmarked on June 28, 1978.
Tokelau
The Tokelau Islands Atafu, Fakaofu and Nukunonu are low lying coconut and pandanus covered coral atolls in the South West Pacific, 2400 miles from Hawaii. Rainfall averages 100 inches per annum, and the islands experience occasional hurricanes and droughts. The economy of the 1600 Polynesian population is based on agriculture and fishing, but small amounts of copra and woven goods are also exported.
European discovery of the islands dates from John Byron's voyage of 1765 in HMS 'Dolphin', but contact with European civilisation in the early days brought the islanders little but misery. Slave raiders, mostly British, as in most other Pacific islands broke up the traditional patterns of family life, carrying men off to the new plantations in Fiji and Queens- land. This practice, known as 'blackbirding' became so intense between 1850 and 1870 that the British government finally declared the islands a protectorate, and the worst excesses were curbed. After a short period included in the Gilbert and Ellis Island group, Tokelau was transferred to New Zealand and are governed still by an administrator appointed by that country.
This commemorative issue by Tokelau was designed by Miss Eileen Mayo of Christchurch, printed in lithography by Questa Colour Security Printers and released on 28th June, 1978. It comprises four designs.
8c — Westminster Abbey. This design symbolises the entrance of Her Majesty into the Abbey for the Coronation ceremony. The Abbey itself, once a Benedictine monastery, was built in Early English style by Henry III starting in 1245, although parts such as the western towers were not completed until 1745.
10c — King Edward's Chair. Made by order of Edward I to house the Stone of Scone which he plundered from Scotland in 1297, this chair has seated every crowned monarch since Edward II at their coronation. Tokelau islanders would have little difficulty in recognising our response to this relic as inspired by the equivalent of their ancestral mana'.
15c — Coronation Items and Procedures. Depicted here are scenes from the service; Her Majesty promising to govern the people according to law, and to uphold the Christian religion; the delivery of the Orb symbolising christian domination of the world; the Investiture and the Crowning.
30c — A Portrait of Her Majesty.
