Postage stamps and postal history of Madagascar

An 1891 stamp of Madagascar.

A stamp of the earlier British post in Madagascar supported by the British Vice Consul.

Stamps from the 1895 British inland postal service.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Madagascar, briefly also known as Malagasy.

Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world.

First stamps

The first stamps used in Madagascar were general issues for the French Colonies.^[1]

The 1891 issue was printed on sheetlets of 10 stamps. The hand preparation of the die meant that each of the 10 positions had its own identifying traits. The differences usually pertain to the number of dots (points) in the two rows above and below the value. A quick count of the dots in the two pair of rows will usually discern the type, as well as indicate forgeries.

British posts

British interests in Madagascar organised two different posts on the island.

A runner service between Tananarive and the French Post Office at Tamatave was organised by British residents before 1884. It was made official by the British Vice Consul in 1884. It used locally produced stamps between 1884 and 1897 after which stamps were discontinued but the service continued with handstruck marks.^[1]

During the French war of occupation the British ran an inland postal service using special stamps between January and September 1895.^[1] This was not an official service of the British Post Office.

Independence

The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed on 14 October 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. The first stamps of the republic were issued in December 1958.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 Rossiter, Stuart & John Flower. The Stamp Atlas. London: Macdonald, 1986, pp.328-330. ISBN 0-356-10862-7

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamps of Madagascar.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamps of British post in Madagascar.

Postage stamps and postal history of Africa

Afars and Issas Algeria Angola Anjouan Ascension Basutoland Bechuanaland Protectorate Belgian Congo Benin Biafra Botswana British Bechuanaland British Cameroons British Central Africa British East Africa British Somaliland Burundi Cameroon Cape Juby Cape of Good Hope Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo Côte d'Ivoire Cyrenaica DRC Diégo-Suarez Djibouti East Africa and Uganda Protectorates Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Equatorial Guinea Fernando Poo Fezzan and Ghadames French Congo French Guinea French Somaliland French Sudan French West Africa Gabon Gambia German East Africa German South-West Africa Ghana Gold Coast Griqualand West Guinea Guinea-Bissau Inhambane Italian East Africa Italian Libya Kenya Kenya and Uganda Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika Kionga La Agüera Lagos Lesotho Liberia Libya Lourenco Marques Madagascar Malagasy Republic Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Morocco Morocco Agencies Mozambique Namibia Natal Niger Niger Coast Protectorate Niger Territories Nigeria Northern Nigeria Protectorate Nyasaland Protectorate Nyassa Company Obock Oil Rivers Protectorate Oltre Giuba Orange Free State Pietersburg Portuguese Guinea Quelimane Reunion Rhodesia and Nyasaland Rio Muni Ruanda-Urundi Rwanda Saint Helena Senegal Senegambia and Niger Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia Somaliland Protectorate South Africa South Sudan South West Africa Southern Nigeria Protectorate Spanish Guinea Stellaland Sudan Swaziland Tanganyika Tanzania Tete Togo Transvaal Tripolitania Tristan da Cunha Tunisia Ubangi-Shari Uganda Upper Senegal and Niger Western Sahara Zaire Zambezia Zambia Zanzibar Zimbabwe Zululand

See also Americas Asia Europe Oceania Portal WikiProject

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, October 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.