This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Fiji.
Contents
Fiji is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 2,000 km northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It was a former British colony.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Fiji.
Fiji is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 2,000 km northeast of New Zealand's North Island. It was a former British colony.
Before the first postage stamps of Fiji, mail was carried by trading vessels to Sydney, Australia, and other ports, where it was placed in the mail. [1]
The first stamps of Fiji were issued on 1 November 1870 by the local newspaper, the Fiji Times. The British Consul objected to the service and tried to close it in 1871 and appointed an official Postmaster and the Fiji Times service was closed in 1872. [1]
Stamps were issued by the Kingdom of Fiji in 1871, showing a ‘CR’ monogram for ‘Cakobau Rex', the King of Fiji.
A British colony was established over Fiji in 1874. Previous issues of the Kingdom of Fiji were overprinted VR for "Victoria Regina", the royal cypher of Queen Victoria. Later issues had designs with a VR monogram.
Stamps with designs common to the British colonies were issued in 1903. The first pictorial set was issued in 1938.
Fiji achieved independence in 1970.
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage. Then the stamp is affixed to the face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover —which they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. Next the item is delivered to its addressee.
The postage stamps and postal history of British Columbia started in 1860 with the issue of a single brownish-rose stamp depicting Queen Victoria in profile and denominated as 2½ pence. It was issued jointly by Vancouver Island and British Columbia as each colony had insufficient postal trade to justify printing separate stamps. In 1862, Vancouver Island adopted decimal currency and sold the stamp for 5 cents, before issuing its own 5 and 10 cent stamps in September 1865. Meanwhile, British Columbia had increased the postal rate to 3 pence but continued to use the unified stamp. In November 1865, British Columbia issued its own stamps and the unified stamp became invalid. In 1866, the two colonies were united as British Columbia.
Indian postal systems for efficient military and governmental communications had developed long before the arrival of Europeans. When the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish and British conquered the Marathas who had already defeated the Mughals, their postal systems existed alongside those of many somewhat independent states. The British East India Company gradually annexed the other powers on the sub-continent and brought into existence a British administrative system over most of modern-day India, with a need to establish and maintain both official and commercial mail systems.
This is a partial timeline of significant events in postal history, including dates and events relating to postage stamps.
Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Falkland Islands.
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of New South Wales, a former British colony now part of Australia.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the postal areas Netherlands Antilles as well as its predecessor Curaçao. The area consisted of the islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius as well as Sint Maarten, Curaçao and Aruba.
The postal history of the Bahamas begins in the 18th century, with the first post office operating since 1733. The earliest known letters date from 1802. 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.
The postal history of Malta began in the early modern period, when pre-adhesive mail was delivered to foreign destinations by privately owned ships for a fee. The earliest known letter from Malta, sent during the rule of the Order of St John, is dated 1532. The first formal postal service on the islands was established by the Order in 1708, with the post office being located at the Casa del Commun Tesoro in Valletta. The first postal markings on mail appeared later on in the 18th century.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Jamaica.
The postal history of the Pitcairn Islands began with letters being sent without postage stamps, as none were available on Pitcairn. In 1921, the United Kingdom and New Zealand formally agreed upon a system to handle post from the island, but this arrangement was ended in 1926. In 1927, stamps from New Zealand were introduced. To improve the revenue generation of the colony, the British government established an official post office on the island in 1940. The opening of this post office saw the issuance of the first set of Pitcairn Islands stamps.
Belize started as the colony of British Honduras, formally established in the 17th century but disputed through the 18th century.
Bermuda, a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, was previously uninhabited when the British established a settlement in 1612.
The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, came under British control in 1670, as a dependency of Jamaica, continuing in that status until 1962.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Tuvalu.
Bechuanaland first issued revenue stamps as Stellaland in 1884. Note: this information is wrong. Bechuanaland was split into British Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. British Bechuanaland was added to the Cape Colony and the Bechuanaland Protectorate was governed from Mafeking until the seat of government was moved to Gaberone.
Revenue stamps of Fiji were first issued in 1871 or 1872, when the Fiji islands were an independent kingdom. The first revenue stamps consisted of postage stamps overprinted with the letter D.
 | This philatelic article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
