Discovered Some New Lands

I recently bought a large "Mystery Box" from Champion Stamp store in NYC. In it there are about 2 thousand stamps and associated postal history, most of it non-U.S.. I've never collecting anything other than U.S. stamps in the past and am having a good time going through these stamps. Going through some of them, I've discovered that there was a Nyasaland and is a South Georgia. South Georgia is a British territory in the South Atlantic and Nyasaland was the country of Malawi before their independence from Great Britain. Love learning something new.

 

I've never paid much attention to South Georgia, but was surprised to see reindeer on that stamp. Had to go to Wikipedia to learn why. The island has a Scandinavian heritage as it was a port of call for Norwegian whalers in the early 20th century, and it was they who introduced reindeer to the island. Turns out the reindeer became too numerous and were damaging the flora of the island. They were all killed in an extermination hunt in 2013. The island is now free of reindeer.

Don

 

Found two more that I hadn't heard of before. First up, Dominica, an island in the Caribbean Sea. I had heard of the Dominican Republic, but a little research shows that Dominica isn't the Dominican Republic. Originally a French colony, then a British colony, it gained its independence in 1978.



Then I found a stamp for Reunion, an island in the Indian Sea is an overseas department of the French Republic.

 

Don't know. That cover went to Niagara in Upper Canada, so I googled Kinston, Canada and didn't see anything about a Kinston, Canada.