New Caledonia is a French Overseas Territory located in the South Pacific. Annexed by France in 1853, its first stamp didn’t appear until 1859. The profile of Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, appeared on that stamp. As Kenneth Woods stated in This is Philately, each sheet had fifty different varieties on it because the stamps were hand-drawn. Many stamps issued in the following years were general stamps of French Colonies overprinted with the initials NCE. This stands for the French name, Nouvelle Calédonie (Nlle. Calédonie). The colony was associated with the “Free France” movement and stamps issued during 1941 and ‘42 are overprinted or inscribed “France Libre”.
New Caledonia