Lord Tu'ivakano with the new stamps at Tonga Post

Two new Tongan stamps, one featuring the Prime Minister, Lord Tu'ivakano, and the other featuring Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, were released by Tonga Post on Friday, 12 October, World Post Day.

The Interim Chairperson of Tonga Post Board of Directors, Petunia Tupou said that the stamp of Queen Elizabeth II was to fulfill a wish of the late King George Tupou V for a Tongan set of stamp to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebration.

The second set of stamps, featuring an image of the Prime Minister was to mark the first anniversary of Lord Tu'ivakano's democratically elected government. It is believed to be the first time that a Tongan Prime Minister is featured on a stamp. 

Since Tonga established its postal services in 1886 Petunia said that stamps were a reliable source of foreign earning for Tonga. She said that in 1967, a stamp to commemorate the anniversary of the coronation of King Tupou IV was very popular among stamp collectors and the sale of Tongan stamps contributed 5% of Tonga's total revenue for that year.

Tongan stamps in those days had free form shapes and included bananas, and pineapples shapes, and foils.

Tonga Post became a public enterprise in 2008, and for the first time this year it presented government with a dividend of $10,000.

The Prime Minister, Lord Tu'ivakano attended the World Post Day celebration. He commended Tonga Post for their hard work, with only 14 staff. He also congratulated them on their project to establish mail boxes for all Tongan homes, for the convenience of delivering mail. He said that Tonga should have five post offices, but for the meantime it had only two, in Nuku'alofa and in Neiafu, Vava'u.

The new stamps are on sale at the Philatelic Bureau. The stamps designer and printer is unknown.