Stamp Desk / Emperors and queens
Hawaii, 1853 (13 cents, Kamehameha III)
A king in uniform with a high collar, framed by lettering on four sides.
Illustration of a historical stamp for learning, shown at screen size. Not valid for postage.
How to read it
It says UNITED STATES, but read the rest: HAWAIIAN and HONOLULU. The kingdom’s stamp included the US postage.
- 1HAWAIIAN 5 Cts
- 2UNITED STATES 8 Cts
- 3HONOLULU · HAWAIIAN
- Inscription
- POSTAGE · HAWAIIAN 5 Cts · UNITED STATES 8 Cts · HONOLULU · HAWAIIAN 13
- Meaning
- The 13 cents paid 5 cents of Hawaiian postage and 8 cents of US postage for a letter to the mainland; HONOLULU is the capital.
- Issued by
- Kingdom of Hawaii
- Today
- the United States (the state of Hawaii) Flag of United States
- Year
- 1853. Issued 1853.
- Made by
- Postal administration of the Kingdom of Hawaii (official issuing/publishing administration); Unknown individual designer/engraver (designer and engraver not established)
One fact
King Kamehameha III appears on this 1853 stamp of the Kingdom of Hawaii, decades before Hawaii joined the United States.
Source and public-domain rule
Kingdom of Hawaii, published before 1931. Published by the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1853; Hawaii is now under US law, where any copyright in works published before 1931 has expired. Hawaii is now under United States law (Hawaii Admission Act, sec. 15); there, the longest term for a work published before 1978 is 95 years from publication, which ended for every work published in 1930 or earlier. The stamps stay labelled as issues of the Kingdom of Hawaii; they are not US federal works. Legal sources: 17 U.S.C. § 304, Hawaii Admission Act (Public Law 86-3), sec. 15.
Scan: Stamp Hawaii 1853 Kamehameha III Sc6.jpg on Wikimedia Commons (revision 1188447680), licence templates {{PD-old}} (a public-domain reason different from ours; both are recorded). Downloaded 2026-10-22, sha256 097850f34401…; cropped and cleaned for this site. Facts checked 2026-10-22 against source 1 and source 2. Research record, not legal advice; a second check of these rights by a person is planned, and a stamp that turns out not to be free to use will be removed. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
