The postage stamps of Vietnam were issued by a variety of states and administrations. Stamps were first introduced by the French colonial administration. Stamps specifically for Vietnam were first issued in 1945. During the decades of conflict and partitioning, stamps were issued by mutually hostile governments. The reunification of Vietnam in 1976 brought about a unified postal service.
Stamps in Vietnam were first introduced by the French colonial administration in 1862. The stamps of these decades were initially of the general French colonial series. [1] In the 1880s, some of these were overprinted locally for Cochinchina (1886–88), Annam and Tonkin (1888) and French Indochina (1889). [2] Subsequently, definitive stamps of French Indochina were issued. The colony of French Indochina consisted of present-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Stamps specifically for Vietnam were first issued in 1945.
During the Japanese occupation of French Indochina (1940-1945), the colonial administration did not receive fresh supplies of stamps from France. For this reason they resorted to printing their own stamps at a print shop in Hanoi. These stamps were of lower quality than the pre-war stamps, and in addition, the machinery used for this purpose gradually deteriorated, with limited possibilities of repairing it.
The advent of stamps specifically for Vietnam came with the defeat of Japan in 1945. In Vietnam, the Japanese surrender paved the way for the anti-Japanese Viet Minh movement, which presided over a guerilla army, to seize key cities and political power in Vietnam. During 1945-1946, the Viet Minh government issued a large number of provisional postage stamps. These stamps were manufactured by adding an overprint to remaining stocks of the war-era stamps of French Indochina. Eventually, a set of definitive stamps depicting Ho Chi Minh were issued in 1946.
The ensuing conflict between the returning French troops and the Viet Minh government brought an end to the initial series of Viet Minh stamps. During the conflict, stamps were issued in various Viet Minh held regions, while new issues of French Indochina stamps were used in areas controlled by the French. Around 1950, national governments for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were established, each issuing stamps and coins in their own names. The first stamps of the Bảo Đại government in Vietnam were issued in 1951. These stamps supplanted the French Indochina stamps in the French controlled areas of Vietnam.
With the peace agreement in 1954, Vietnam was partitioned into a northern and a southern state. Each issued its own stamps.
Many stamps of North Vietnam were printed in Hanoi, [3] while others were printed abroad, e.g., in Prague, Czechoslovakia, (1958–59) [4] and subsequently in Budapest, Hungary. [5]
The stamps of South Vietnam were mostly printed in Paris, Tokyo, England (by De La Rue) and Rome during 1954-67, [6] in Japan during 1967-73 [7] and in England (by De La Rue) during 1973-75. [8]
Stamps used by military personnel were printed locally [9] and are of inferior quality.
Between 1963 and 1976, the insurgent National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (the NLF or "Viet Cong") issued their own stamps. These were printed in Hanoi. [10] When the Republic of Vietnam was toppled in May 1975, the NFL government became the sole stamp issuing authority, until the reunification of Vietnam one year later.
The reunification of Vietnam in July 1976 brought about a unified postal service. This effectively consisted of the postal administration in Hanoi operating throughout Vietnam. Indeed, the stamps issued in July and August 1976 still had the name of the North Vietnamese state printed on them, [11] while later issues have simply "Việt Nam" and "bưu chính" (post). As in North Vietnam, post-reunification stamps were partly printed in Vietnam and partly abroad. Domestically printed stamps were printed in Hanoi 1976-1987 and subsequently in Saigon. [12] During 1983-1990 most stamp issues were printed in Havana, Cuba, [13] these were of a superior printing quality. Eventually, the postal service acquired improved technology from Germany. Since 1990 all stamps of Vietnam have been produced domestically.
Many stamp sets of North Vietnam and post-reunification Vietnam are available imperforate, as opposed to the regular perforated versions. This goes for stamps printed domestically [14] and abroad. [15] At present, Vietnamese stamps are officially offered in both regular, imperforate and specimen versions. [16] The imperforate and specimen versions serve no postal purpose and are thus entirely aimed at the collector community.
During the war of independence (1946-1954) and immediate aftermath, some stamps were issued imperforate due to technical shortcomings. These may, of course, have inspired later collector oriented imperforates.
Apart from the regular issues (for postal use), a large proportion of the stamps of Vietnam have been made available to collectors as cancelled-to-order (CTO) versions. The Havana printed stamps of the 1980s usually have the CTO cancellation printed directly onto the stamp along with the rest of the design and are solely aimed at the collector community. While the majority of the stamps of this category found in the collector market are CTO versions, this should not overshadow the fact that similar stamps (non-CTO editions) are found postally used.
While a large proportion of the stamps of the 1980s appear to deliberately appeal to thematic collectors (cars, dogs, cats, etc.), 21st century stamps are broader in scope, and the issue rate has declined. This seems to reflect a shift in issuing policy away from the orientation towards thematic collectors, thus making the field of Vietnamese stamps more appealing in its own right.
A cancellation is a postal marking applied on a postage stamp or postal stationery to deface the stamp and to prevent its reuse. 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 "postmark" refers specifically to the part that contains the date and posting location, but the term is often used interchangeably with "cancellation" as it may serve that purpose. 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. 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 Indochina.
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 civilian French Post Office in Shanghai, China opened in 1862. Initially, the French government used ordinary French postage stamps e.g. Napoleon III, Laureated Empire, Ceres and Sage issues 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 1894, 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 or a Shanghai c.d.s. There are actually two types of "5104" obliterators differ by the shape of the "4", one straight and the other curved.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Afghanistan.
"French Colonies" is the name used by philatelists to refer to the postage stamps issued by France for use in the parts of the French colonial empire that did not have stamps of their own. These were in use from 1859 to 1906, and from 1943 to 1945.
A stamp catalog is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.
A cancelled to order postage stamp, philatelic symbol , is a stamp the issuing postal service has cancelled, but has not traveled through the post, but instead gets handed back to a stamp collector or dealer. They can come from withdrawn stocks of stamps cancelled in sheets and sold as remainders or from new sheets for sale at reduced rates to the stamp trade. Postal services of various countries do this in response to collector demand, or to preclude stamps issued for the collector market being used on mail. Some of the history of CTOs is from stamps being given to collectors on an approval basis, in person or through mailings; the first CTOs began in the late 19th century.
Yvert et Tellier is a postage stamp dealer and a philatelic publishing company founded in 1895 in the northern French city of Amiens, where the head office is still located. The logo is a circle divided into a snowflake and a smiling sun. It is a pun on the name of the company: hiver, été liés sounds a lot like the French pronunciation of Yvert et Tellier.
The State of Vietnam was a governmental entity in Southeast Asia that existed from 1949 until 1955, first as a member of the French Union and later as a country. The state claimed authority over all of Vietnam during the First Indochina War, although large parts of its territory were controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Elobey, Annobón, and Corisco was a colonial administration of Spanish Africa located in the Gulf of Guinea. The colony consisted of the small islands of Elobey Grande, Elobey Chico, Annobón, and Corisco. The capital was Santa Isabel. The islands are presently part of Equatorial Guinea.
A concise postal history of French Annam protectorate and Tongking protectorate, former territories of colonial French Indochina, that were located in present-day Vietnam. Dates 1888 - 1892
Each "article" in this category is in fact 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.
Telegraph stamps are stamps intended solely for the prepayment of telegraph fees. The customer completed a telegraph form before handing it with payment to the clerk who applied a telegraph stamp and cancelled it to show that payment had been made. If the stamp was an imprinted stamp, it formed part of the message form.
The Rare 2d Coil was an experimental vertical coil stamp, denominated 2d, issued by the Irish Post Office in 1935 and is one of the scarcest, and most valuable, Irish stamps. It is often referred to by stamp collectors simply as "Scott 68b" or "SG 74b", being the Scott and Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue numbers respectively.
The Chalon Head is the name of a number of postage stamp series whose illustration was inspired by a portrait of Queen Victoria by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780–1860).
The Ceres series was the first postage stamp series of France, issued in 6 different values from 1849 to 1850 as a representation of the French Republic.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Spain.
The Postal Union Congress (PUC) £1 stamp is one of a series of postage stamps of Great Britain issued in 1929. It is one of the classics of British philately and has been described as one of the most beautiful British stamps ever issued. The stamp was only the second British commemorative stamp to be issued. The first were the British Empire Exhibition postage stamps of 1924–25.
"Type Sage" is a reference to the definitive series of postage stamps issued by the post office of France between 1876 and 1900. Printed in a variety of colors and shades, the two central figures are allegories of Peace (left) and Commerce (right), giving rise to the name of the series. The name "Type Sage" comes from the tendency of French stamp collectors to refer to the series by the name of the designer of the artwork, in this case Jules Auguste Sage, whose name appears as "J. A. SAGE INV" along the lower left edge of the stamp beneath the word "REPUBLIQUE" of "REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE."