Following the Channel Islands’ liberation from German occupation on 9 May 1945, an Inter-Island Conference was held on Jersey the following year where it was suggested that Jersey and Guernsey each be permitted to have its own distinctive postage stamps or at the very least, a slogan postmark.
Following the approval of King George VI, on 10 May 1948 two stamps, in 1d and 2½d values, went on sale to mark the third anniversary of Liberation.
In the absence of any flora, fauna, or heraldry exclusively associated with the Channel Islands, the stamps depict vraicing, or seaweed gathering, alongside the King’s head.
10 years later, on 18 August 1958, the first of Queen Elizabeth II’s Guernsey regional stamps was issued (3d value), depicting the portrait of Her Majesty taken by Dorothy Wilding Portraits Ltd. A 4d stamp of the same design followed later in 1966.
On the 3d and 4d stamp values, Her Majesty’s portrait is off-centre to the right, with the Crown of William the Conqueror in the top left-hand corner and below it, a stylised Guernsey lily (Nerine Sarniensis).
The 2½d stamp depicts Queen Elizabeth II in the centre, with the Guernsey lily in the bottom left hand corner and the Crown of William of Normandy in the top right hand corner.
