Hawaii's Grinnell Missionary Stamps

Part I
by Michael Mills

The Kingdom of Hawaii’s 1851 Missionary stamps are one of the great stamp issues. Not only are they rare and valuable, but they’re related to one of the great “black sheep” of philately, the Grinnell Missionaries.

Labeled counterfeit without a modern forensic trial back in the 1920s, the Grinnells exist in a twilight zone between philatelic fact and philatelic fiction. And though the debate may have begun during the Great War, recently it has been revived in London.

Shattuck and Emerson

As the story goes, apocryphal or not, in 1918 Charles Shattuck sold a bundle of stamps to George Grinnell for five dollars US. Shattuck was then in his eighties, a son of Hannah and Jesse Shattuck, who had been lifelong friends of Hawaiian missionaries Ursula and John Emerson.

The Emerson and Shattuck families had corresponded throughout the years, and in the bundle of stamps were 71 Missionary stamps, soon to become known as the "Grinnell Missionaries."

Grinnell claimed he found the stamps in a prayer book in the bundle.

The Postmasters  

The Emerson family arrived in Hawaii early in the 19th century, and their sons later became Hawaiian postmasters in the kingdom. Samuel Emerson was postmaster of Waialua on Oahu in the late 1850s, and William Emerson was the assistant postmaster of Honolulu in the early 1850s.

The Missionary stamps were authorized in June 1851, and William Emerson assisted in their production. Later, in November William took ill and stayed with his parents in Waialua. However, in March 1852, he died at sea, and his belongings were apparently returned to his parents.

Hawaii’s 1851 Missionary Issues

In all the Hawaiian Kingdom released three issues to cover the necessary rates; a two-cent stamp to send newspapers to the USA, a five cent stamp for letter rate within the Hawaiian Islands, and a thirteen cent stamp to prepay all fees for letters to the east coast of America --- five cents Hawaiian post, two cents for ship fees to the USA, and six cents for transcontinental mail.

The inscription on this thirteen cent issue was changed in April 1852 from “Hawaiian Postage” to “H.I. & U.S. Postage” to clarify matters for USA postmasters. All were printed at Hawaii’s GPO in Honolulu on pelure paper, and what’s been called a “cold, metallic blue” ink.

These stamps were Hawaii’s only postage from October 1, 1851, when they were issued, until 1853. A 1995 census of Missionaries shows only 15 two cents, 61 five cents, and 70 of thirteen cents with the first inscription, and 51 of the second inscription.

George Grinnell

A year after Grinnell bought the stamps, he sold 43 "Grinnells" for $65,000 to a dealer named Klemann, who soon sold 16 of them for $75,000 to Alfred Caspary. But Caspary quickly declared the stamps counterfeit, and Klemann quickly sued Grinnell to recover his money.