As a consequence of the Treaty of Nanking of 29 August 1842, Great Britain opened five consular postal agencies on 16 April 1844. Another five were opened later.
Amoy (1844), Cancelled "A1" 1866–1885; "D27" from 1876–1885
Initially letters were simply bagged in these cities and carried to Hong Kong, where they were cancelled "B62"; later (1860s/70s) each office received its own postmarking devices.
Postage stamps of Hong Kong were used from 1862 on, but after 1 January 1917 the Hong Kong stamps were overprinted "CHINA". The initial overprinting including 16 values ranging from 1 cent to 10 dollars; from 1922 on, an additional 10 values with the Multiple Script CA watermark were also overprinted.
All of the offices were closed on 30 November 1922 with the exception of those of the Leased Territory of Weihaiwei (Port Edward and Liu Kung Tau) which closed on October 1, 1930.
Weihaiwei was occupied on 24 May 1898, and mail franked with the Weihaiwei local was carried to Chefoo by Cornébé and Co. for onward processing. This lasted until the Chinese Liu Kung Tau Post Office was opened in March 1899, and it was in turn replaced by a British post office on 1 September 1899. A second British Post Office was opened at Port Edward in 1904. Hong Kong stamps overprinted CHINA continued in use in both offices until the settlement was given up on 1 October 1930.
Chinese postage stamp overprinted by the British Railway Administration, 1901
On 20 April 1901 Chinese 1⁄2c stamps were overprinted B.R.A. / 5 / Five Cents for use by the British Railway Administration in the North China Railway. The stamp was in use for only 30 days and it was used for the collection of the 5c late letter fee. The late fee was abolished on 20 May 1901 and the stamp withdrawn. These stamps exist both with black overprinted characters and green overprinted characters.
Robson Lowe, The Encyclopedia of British Empire Postage Stamps, Vol. 3, Pt. 3, London, Robson Lowe Ltd., 1949. Reprinted as Volume 40 of Billig's Philatelic Handbook, pp.468-477.
A cancellation is a postal marking applied on a postage stamp or postal stationery to deface the stamp and prevent its re-use. Cancellations come in a huge variety of designs, shapes, sizes and colors. Modern cancellations commonly include the date and post office location where the stamps were mailed, in addition to lines or bars designed to cover the stamp itself. The term "postal marking" sometimes is used to refer specifically to the part that contains the date and posting location, although the term often is used interchangeably with "cancellation." The portion of a cancellation that is designed to deface the stamp and does not contain writing is also called the "obliteration" or killer. Some stamps are issued pre-cancelled with a printed or stamped cancellation and do not need to have a cancellation added. Cancellations can affect the value of stamps to collectors, positively or negatively. The cancellations of some countries have been extensively studied by philatelists and many stamp collectors and postal history collectors collect cancellations in addition to the stamps themselves.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of India.
The French post offices in China were among the post offices maintained by foreign powers in China from the mid-19th century until 1922. The first French Post Office in China opened in 1862. Initially, the French government used ordinary French postage stamps for these offices. These forerunner stamps can be shown to have been sold or used in China only by a postmark. Stamps used at Shanghai prior to 1876, for example, can only be identified by diamond-shaped cancel made of a type referred to as a “losange à gros chiffres” with the numbers "5104" in the center of the cancel.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Hong Kong.
The Russian post offices in China were a collection of post offices established by Imperial Russia in various cities of China beginning in 1870.
Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries themselves are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.
Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.
Each "article" in this category is a collection of entries about several stamp issuers, presented in alphabetical order. The entries are formulated on the micro model and so provide summary information about all known issuers.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the British post office in Bangkok, Thailand.
The postal history of the Bahamas begins in the 18th century, with the earliest known letters dating from the 1760s. In 1804 a straight-line "BAHAMAS" handstamp came into use. The Royal Mail Line initiated a regular mail service in 1841, and from 1846 used a "Crown Paid" handstamp along with a dated postmark for New Providence.
Aden is a city in southern Yemen. Aden's location made it a popular exchange port for mail passing between places around the Indian Ocean and Europe. When Captain S. B. Haines of the Indian Marine, the East India Company's navy, occupied Aden on 19 January 1839, mail services were immediately established in the settlement with a complement of two postal clerks and four letter carriers. An interim postmaster was appointed as early as June 1839. Mail is known to exist from 15 June 1839 although a regular postmaster was not appointed until 1857; one of the officials of the Political Agent or the civil surgeon performed the duties of postmaster for a small salary.
John Harry Robson Lowe, Robbie to his friends, was an English professional philatelist, stamp dealer and stamp auctioneer.
Colonel Denys Richard Martin ranks among the most distinguished philatelists of the Twentieth century. As a systematic scholar and prolific writer, Martin illuminated some of the most difficult topics and set a high standard for the study of the postage stamps and postal history of India and Burma.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tibet.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Cyprus. The country's postal history is intricately linked to the island's political past.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zanzibar.
Coded postal obliterators are a type of postmarks that had an obliterator encoded with a number, letter or letters, or a combination of these, to identify the post office of origin. They were introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1843, three years after the first stamp was issued. They became common throughout the nineteenth century but very few remained in use until the twentieth century.
Weihaiwei, on the north-east coast of China, was a leased territory of the United Kingdom from 1898 until 1930. The capital was Port Edward The leased territory covered 288 square miles (750 km2) and included the walled city of Port Edward, bay of Wei-hai-wei, Liu-kung Tao and a mainland area of 72 miles (116 km) of coastline running to a depth of 10 miles (16 km) inland. Together with Lüshunkou it controlled the entrance to the Gulf of Zhili and, thus, the seaward approaches to Beijing.
Hong Kong issued revenue stamps from 1867 to the 1990s, both when it was a British colony as well as when it was under Japanese occupation.
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