Aloha,
Greetings from Hawai'i Post in the Hawaiian Islands. Hawai'i Post is
an express mail delivery company on the island of O'ahu that requires
stamps to prepay postage on all urgent letters and packages.

Two stamps were issued on July 6th 2004 depicting Hawaiian Money.
Money in Hawai'i has a very colorful history and this is the first in
a series of stamps depicting this theme.

Hawaiian money began with scrip. The earliest known scrip was printed
for Ladd & Company, a sugar plantation near Koloa on the island of
Kaua'i. The plantation began in 1835 on almost a 1,000 acres of land
leased from King Kamehameha III. In 1837 the owners, Brinsmade, Ladd &
Hooper decided to issue scrip to pay their workers. The scrip was
redeemable at the company store in Koloa. The original scrip was small
and crudely printed in Honolulu on old amateur theater tickets. It
came in 3 denominations - Hapawalu (12.5 cents), Hapaha (25 cents) and
Hapalua (50 cents). A plantation worker's pay for one day was food
(usually fish and poi) and a Hapawalu scrip. Only 2 of the Hapawalu
scrip have survived today, but none of the others.

In 1839, a much improved scrip was printed by the Boston Bank Note
Company in Boston, Massachusetts. It was in two denominations, $3 and
$5, both printed in dark brown ink on off-white paper with a blank
reverse side. However, it is not known if the $3 scrip was ever
circulated, since the very few copies that have survived are not
signed and only surfaced recently, meaning they were probably held in
bank vaults or archives for many years. The $5 scrip is known to have
been widely used at Koloa and the surviving copies are signed and
unsigned.

The Ladd & Company scrip was in circulation for about 5 years until
November 1844, when the plantation went bankrupt. The Kingdom of
Hawai'i seized all their assets, putting them on sale to settle the
land lease payments owed to them. About $2,000 worth of this scrip was
outstanding at the time of the bankruptcy.

The first stamp prepays the Overnight rate. It shows the $3 scrip
(Ekolu Kala) which depicts 6 sailing ships in the upper center, and 2
sailing ships at the lower left. At the right side is an eagle and
shield printed sideways. The numeral "3" is in the upper left hand
corner and is depicted on the postmark for this issue.

The second stamp prepays the Same Day rate. It shows the $5 scrip
(Elima Kala) which has a whaling scene in the upper center, and a
sailor leaning on an anchor, middle right. The numeral "5" is in the
upper middle left hand corner, and also in the upper right hand corner
and lower right hand corner.

At the bottom center, both scrip are inscribed in Hawaiian "Ke olelo
na mea nana i kakuiana inoa malalo eho, e haawi aku lakou. i ka mea
nana mai ikeia palapala, i na KALA EKOLU (on the $3 scrip, or KALA
ELIMA on the $5 scrip) iloko oka waiwai mak ko lakou hale kuai i
KOLOA".

Translated this means "The person who signed this note below states
that they will give to the person who reads this note the sum of $3
(or $5) out of their Kaua'i store in Koloa."

For more information about this issue, please go to:
http://www.hawaii-post.com/2004-06JUL.html

For more information about other issues from Hawai'i Post, please go
to:
http://www.hawaii-post.com/stamps.html

Mahalo (Thank you),

Hawai'i Post
P O Box 8735
Honolulu Hawai'i 96830
U.S.A.

http://www.hawaii-post.com