The Channel Islands lie off the coast of Northern France near to Cherbourg. They were the only part of the United Kingdom officially occupied by Germany during the Second World War.

To mark the third anniversary of their liberation in 1945, issued a pair of commemorative stamps. Initially the stamps were designed for use in the channel islands, but they were put on sale at head post offices across the UK. This was possibly an oversight on the part of the post office but they post office agreed that they were valid for postage in Great Britain.

There were many activists at the time who argued with the issue, based on the fact that the Post office should not differentiate between the term Great Britain and United Kingdom!

The two stamps depicted islanders gathering islanders gathering “Vraic.” ,A type of local seaweed, primarily used as an agricultural fertiliser.

The stamps were issued on 10th May 1948 and printed by Harrison & Sons.

The stamps are one of the only UK issues that are not officially seen as a British issue, even though they were available across Britain and valid for postage. Many collectors refuse to accept them, but as they have barely any value collectors usually have them somewhere in their collection.

Stanley Gibbons, the UK stamp experts and producers of catalogues, list them separately in their GB catalogues under Channel Islands. They are the only two stamps under this heading!

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