Revenue stamps of Bechuanaland

Last updated May 05, 2019

Bechuanaland first issued revenue stamps as Stellaland in 1884.^[1] 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.

A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to collect taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, and many other things. Typically businesses purchase the stamps from the government, and attach them to taxed items as part of putting the items on sale, or in the case of documents, as part of filling out the form.

Stellaland

Stellaland's first revenues were issued in 1884 with the republic's coat of arms. Two years later a number of them were issued handstamped with a monogram JPM since a number of the original stamps had been stolen.^[1]

British Bechuanaland

British Bechuanaland's first revenues were stamps of Stellaland with the country's name obliterated and British Bechuanaland added by hand in 1886. A year later Stellaland revenues were issued with a small blue handstamp with the name of the new colony. Both of these issues are extremely rare and hard to find. Later in 1887 Cape of Good Hope revenues were issued overprinted for British Bechuanaland. These were replaced by dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps later in 1887, but these were still mainly intended for fiscal rather than postal use. ^[1]

British Bechuanaland was a short-lived Crown colony of the United Kingdom that existed in southern Africa from its formation on 1 Sep 1885 until its annexation to the neighbouring Cape Colony on 16 Nov 1895. British Bechuanaland had an area of 51,424 square miles (133,190 km²) and a population of 84,210. Today the region forms part of South Africa.

Bechuanaland Protectorate

The first revenues of the Bechuanaland Protectorate were issued in 1887, and were British Bechuanaland postage & revenue stamps overprinted Protectorate. Like the original issues these were valid for both postage and revenue, but were mainly used fiscally. From 1903 to 1913, revenues of the Cape of Good Hope and Transvaal were overprinted, and from 1914 to 1942 similar overprints were made on South African revenues. In 1918 British Bechuanaland 1s stamps were surcharged £5 for use as revenues however one exists postally used. In 1932, pictorial designs with the portrait of King George V similar to the contemporary postage stamps but with a different inscription were issued. Similar issues but with the portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II followed in 1938 and 1955 respectively. In 1961 the 1955 stamps were issued surcharged in South African rand. In 1965, a set of six stamps with face values from 25c to 4R was issued for Local Government Tax.^[1]

The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in southern Africa. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966.

The Transvaal Colony was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The physical borders of the Transvaal Colony were not identical to the defeated South African Republic, but was larger. In 1910 the entire territory became the Transvaal Province of the Union of South Africa.

South Africa issued revenue stamps from 1910 to 2009. Apart from national issues various provinces of the country issued revenues from around 1855 to c. 1970.

Botswana

In 1968, a 10 rand revenue stamp with the country's coat of arms was issued. In 1976 a similar stamp was issued but with the face value in pula. In 1967, a set of six Local Government Tax stamps was issued similar to the similar Bechuanaland stamps. These were issued surcharged in pula in 1976, and later that year a set in new values was issued.^[1]

Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia and the eighth largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 57,460 in 2011. It is known for its multitude of ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is the Pula Arena, one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters, and its beautiful sea. The city has a long tradition of wine making, fishing, shipbuilding, and tourism. It was the administrative centre of Istria from ancient Roman times until superseded by Pazin in 1991.

Tati Concessions

In 1896 revenue stamps were issued for use in the Tati Concessions Land. Six stamps were issued with the design of an African elephant, and with the face values of 1s, 2s6d, 5s, 10s, £1 and £5. All of these are rare and now command high prices.^[1]

The Tati Concessions Land was a concession created in the borderlands of the Matabele kingdom and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The concession was originally made by the Matabele King to Sir John Swinburne. It was administered from the Bechuanaland Protectorate after 1893, but after 1911 was formally annexed to it, finally becoming a statutory creature by its first piece of legislation, the Proclamation Number 2 of 1911 by the High Commissioner of Bechuanaland. It was locally administered by a Justice of the Peace.

African elephants are elephants of the genus Loxodonta. The genus consists of two extant species: the African bush elephant, L. africana, and the smaller African forest elephant, L. cyclotis. Loxodonta is one of two existing genera of the family Elephantidae. Fossil remains of Loxodonta elephants have been recognized only in Africa, dating back to strata from the middle Pliocene. However, sequence analysis of DNA from fossils of the extinct European species Palaeoloxodon antiquus shows it to be much closer to L. cyclotis than L. africana is, undermining the validity of Loxodonta.

Related Research Articles

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Bechuanaland Protectorate.

Stellaland was a short-lived Boer republic from 1882 until 1885, located in southern Bechuanaland, west of the then South African Republic, with Vryburg as its capital. It was incorporated in British Bechuanaland in 1885. British Bechuanaland was subsequently incorporated into the Cape of Good Hope in 1895.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of British Bechuanaland.

This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Lesotho, formerly known as Basutoland.

Mauritius issued revenue stamps from 1 March 1869 to 1904. There were various types of fiscal stamps for different uses.

Zanzibar issued revenue stamps from when it was a British protectorate in 1892, to after when it became part of Tanzania in 1993.

The British colony of Zululand issued revenue stamps in 1888. The only set consisted of seven values of 1d, 1s, 5s, 9s, £1, £5 and £20 of Natal revenues overprinted ZULULAND in a similar overprint to that used for postage stamps. The 1d later became valid for postal use as well. All the higher values now command high prices and are quite rare. In addition to this issue, the same Natal £5 is known with a different overprint in violet, but it is not known if this was a legitimate issue or not.

The island of Cyprus first issued revenue stamps in 1878 and continues to do so to this day. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus also issues its own revenue stamps.

Trinidad and Tobago, formerly divided as two separate colonies, issued revenue stamps from 1879 to around 1991.

British Guiana, now known as Guyana, first issued revenue stamps in 1865 and continues to do so to this day.

The island of Barbados first issued revenue stamps in 1916. There were various types of fiscal stamps for different taxes.

Basutoland, now known as Lesotho, first issued revenue stamps in 1900 and continues to do so.

The South African Republic (ZAR), later known as Transvaal issued revenue stamps from 1875 to around 1950. There were a number of different stamps for several taxes.

Cape of Good Hope issued revenue stamps from 1864 to 1961. There were a number of different stamps for several taxes.

Kenya, formerly known as British East Africa issued revenue stamps since 1891. There were numerous types of revenue stamps for a variety of taxes and fees. Also valid for fiscal use in Kenya were postage stamps issued by the following entities:

Nyasaland, now known as Malawi, first issued revenue stamps as British Central Africa in 1891 and continued to do so until the late 1980s.

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.

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.

Revenue stamps of British Somaliland refer to the adhesive revenue or fiscal stamps which were issued by British Somaliland, a British protectorate in present-day Somaliland, between 1900 and 1904. All Somaliland fiscals were revenue stamps of India overprinted BRITISH SOMALILAND.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Barefoot, John. British Commonwealth Revenues. 9th edition. York: J. Barefoot, 2012, pp. 82-86. ISBN 0906845726

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[barefoot-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Barefoot, John. British Commonwealth Revenues. 9th edition. York: J. Barefoot, 2012, pp. 82-86. ISBN 0906845726

v t e Revenue stamps by country
Africa	Basutoland Bechuanaland Bophuthatswana Botswana British Bechuanaland British Central Africa British East Africa British Somaliland British South Africa Company Buganda Cape of Good Hope Ciskei Cyrenaica East Africa and Uganda Eastern Nigeria Eritrea Ethiopia Fezzan Gold Coast Griqualand West Kenya Lagos Lesotho Libya Malawi Mali Mauritius New Republic Niger Coast Nigeria Northern Nigeria Northern Rhodesia Nyasaland Rhodesia Rhodesia and Nyasaland Seychelles South Africa South African Republic Southern Nigeria Southern Rhodesia Stellaland Tati Concessions Transkei Transvaal Tripolitania Uganda Venda Zambia Zanzibar Zimbabwe Zululand
Americas	Antigua Argentina Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bolivia British Guiana British Honduras British Virgin Islands Canada Colombia Falkland Islands Guatemala Guyana Jamaica Leeward Islands Montserrat Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States Uruguay
Asia	Abu Dhabi Aden Azad Jammu and Kashmir Bahrain Balochistan Bangladesh Batum Cyprus Dhofar Dubai Federated Malay States Hong Kong India Islamabad Johore Kedah Kelantan Malacca Malaya Malaysia Muscat and Oman Negri Sembilan North West Frontier Northern Cyprus Oman Pahang Pakistan Penang Perak Perlis Philippines Punjab Sarawak Selangor Sindh Singapore Straits Settlements Sungei Ujong Syburi Trengganu Trucial States United Arab Emirates Weihaiwei West Pakistan
Europe	Basel Cyprus Gibraltar Ireland Isle of Man Italy Malta Northern Cyprus Northern Ireland Scotland Southern Ireland United Kingdom
Oceania	Australia Australian Capital Territory British Solomon Islands Fiji Hawaii New South Wales New Zealand Norfolk Island Northern Territory Queensland South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia
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