Definitive Stamps in the Reign of King George VI

King George VI ascended to the throne in 1936, and Hong Kong began issuing definitive stamps bearing his head in 1938. The design with the oval frame that had been used for over three decades was abandoned and one similar to that from the reign of Queen Victoria was taken up again. The only differences were that the sovereign now faced right and the patterns in the upper corners were replaced by small crowns. At that time, two new characters for cents were adopted, one being defined as one hundredth of a dollar and the other one tenth, that is 10 cents. The denominations now reflected to a much greater extent the way they sounded in colloquial Cantonese and ranged from 1 cent to $10.

At the end of the Second World War, after Japan surrendered in August 1945 and its three years and eight months’ occupation of Hong Kong starting from December 1941 came to an end, looted stamps appeared in illegal markets, and to crack down on their sale all stamps above one dollar were nullified and new ones reprinted in different colours. Back on sale in April 1946, this new set of stamps did away with the 15-cent denomination, but added 8-cent, 20-cent and 80-cent denominations, with this last one representing the airmail postage to Britain and Europe at that time.