First Issues - 1868 to 1870

page 8.1

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This is the eighth display in a series intended to show the first issues of every country. That includes the first stamp and (where issued) the first commemorative, airmail, charity, official and post due. Summary pages of the previous first stamps are shown on the reverse of pages two, three, four and six.

A new feature of this period was stamps for Portuguese colonies: Azores, Madeira, St. Thomas and Prince Islands and Angola.

Azores →

[1st January 1868] 1871 SG27 Sc21	Commemorative 1894 SG143 Sc64 Prince Henry the Navigator	Charity 1911 SG-C218a Sc-RA1	Post Due 1904 SG-D179 Sc-J1

First real definitive 1910 SG190 Sc112	1980 SG416 Sc314

A group of islands in the North Atlantic, west of Portugal. The Azores first issue was a Portuguese overprint: all of the first imperforate set are expensive and the #1 in particular at $3k/$2k mint and used. Similar perforated sets followed and the FSP (first sensibly-priced) stamp is the 1871 issue. Overprints continued to be used until the first real set in 1910. The 1911 postal tax issue was an additional charge on particular days of the year, the proceeds being put to charitable purposes. Unaltered Portuguese stamps were used from 1931. The Azores became an autonomous region of Portugal in 1976 and stamps were again issued in 1980, starting, pleasingly, with the Stamps on Stamps issue shown and the rather plain miniature sheet on the back of this page.

← Madeira →

1st January 1868 SG1 Sc2	Commemorative 1898 SG134 Sc37 Vasco da Gama	Charity 1925 SG-C142 Sc-RA1	Post Due 1924 SG-D145 Sc-RAJ1	First real definitive 1928 SG148 Sc45	Commemorative 1980 SG169 Sc66

Islands in the Atlantic Ocean northwest of Africa. Madeira followed a similar path with (inexpensive) overprints, eventual real stamps (after 60 years in this case) and reinvigoration in 1980.

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