In German New Guinea, in the Bismarck Archipelago and the North Solomon Islands, the first German post offices opened in 1888 and used some stamps of the German Reich, issued between 1875 and 1887 (denomination in an oval or imperial eagle series).[2] On the mail, they were cancelled with a round datestamp bearing the name of the town in the upper part and a five arm star in the lower. The "DEUTSCH- / NEU-GUINEA" mention appeared in the middle of datestamps some years after, and there can be two or three stars.[2]
In 1897 and 1898, six stamps of Germany were overprinted with the name of the colony, printed in diagonal on two lines.[2] It is in 1901 that the first stamps were issued with the name of the colony printed on them, in the German colonial series, picturing the imperial yacht Hohenzollern.[2]
The Australians issued a first setting of the overprint on 17 October 1914, followed by a second setting (with slightly different spacing) on 16 December. In all, they produced some 50 distinct stamps.
Because of the short period of use of these issues, they occur quite rarely, and command high prices; the most common denominations cost at least $15 US a piece, and the five-shilling overprints fetch prices of over $10,000 on the rare occasions when they come up for sale. In addition, the overprinting process produced a number of errors, and these also command high prices.
In 1915 these improvised stamps of New Guinea were superseded with stamps of the "North West Pacific Islands".