A first day of issue cover or first day cover (FDC) is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for use within the country or territory of the stamp-issuing authority. Sometimes the issue is made from a temporary or permanent foreign or overseas office. Covers that are postmarked at sea or their next port of call will carry a Paquebot postmark. There will usually be a first day of issue postmark, frequently a pictorial cancellation, indicating the city and date where the item was first issued, and "first day of issue" is often used to refer to this postmark. Depending on the policy of the nation issuing the stamp, official first day postmarks may sometimes be applied to covers weeks or months after the date indicated.
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 Zululand under British rule.
The British Central Africa Protectorate existed in the area of present-day Malawi between 1891 and 1907.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Bechuanaland Protectorate.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Niger Coast Protectorate.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate.
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.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Gibraltar.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Lagos, now part of modern Nigeria.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zimbabwe.
This article is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the British Cameroons. It falls into two essential parts: the occupation of German Kamerun by Anglo-French forces in 1915, when German Colonial stamps were issued with an overprint and surcharge; and the situation following a 1961 plebiscite, after which British Cameroons was divided between Cameroon and Nigeria.
The Mosely Collection of British Africa stamps dating to 1935 was formed by Dr Edward Mosely of Johannesburg, South Africa. The collection was donated to the British Museum by his daughter, Kathleen Cunningham, in 1946 and is now held as part of the British Library Philatelic Collections. After the Tapling Collection, this is considered the Library's most important philatelic acquisition due to the number of countries represented and the number of unique items included.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Swaziland.
Few revenue stamps of Nigeria and its predecessor states have been issued, since most of the time dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps were used for fiscal purposes. The first revenue-only stamps were consular stamps of the Niger Coast Protectorate and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which were created by overprinting postage stamps in 1898 and 1902 respectively. The Northern Nigeria Protectorate did not issue any specific revenue stamps, but a £25 stamp of 1904 could not be used for postal purposes due to its extremely high face value.
