The Gozo Philatelic Society has set up a display of stamps and postal material at Il-Ħaġar museum in Victoria. The collection belonged to Wolfgang Juncker, a prominent German Melitensia philatelist who donated his collection to the society. The Maltese postal system was among the first to be set up like other countries, but the first Malta stamp only appeared in 1860.

However, since this was not valid for overseas mail, Malta continued to use British stamps. Collectors appreciate the rarity of letters posted from these islands but even loose stamps are of great interest if the postmark is clear enough. In fact, most correspondence from Malta would show either an “A25” cancellation or just an “M”.

Besides Queen Victoria stamps, the exhibits include various antique letters which in those early days were normally folded in the form of an envelope. One of these belonged to Gozo bishop Pietro Pace, who writing to Rome, used a 2½d mauve stamp, with an identifiable seal.

Seals can also be seen on many others, posted in Gozo or Malta, addressed to Italian countries such as Genoa, Livorno, Messina and Naples. One letter underwent a long voyage away from the European continent: to New York! The earliest is dated 1870. The British stamps used include the penny Red, twopenny Blue, 4d Orange and the halfpenny.