First Issues - 1868 to 1870

page 8.2

← ↑ ↓ →

← St. Thomas and Prince Islands →

1869 SG17 Sc1	Commemorative 1938 SG371 Sc320 Visit of the President of Portugal	Airmail 1938 SG364 Sc-C3	Charity 1925 SG-C323 Sc-RA1	Post Due 1904 SG-D121 Sc-J1

Two islands in the Gulf of Guinea, 125 miles off the coast of West Africa. The date of the first issue is not known. The first airmail, 10c red-orange is expensive (£35/£29) and so is represented by the third in the set. The Islands did not resort to early overprints and produced some attractive stamps in past times, but since the 1960s they have entered the wallpaper market and produce endless commemoratives for thematic collectors. My 2004 Gibbons Simplified ignores everything from 1977. One useful 1985 product commemorates an important and expensive Cape of Good Hope stamp: I am prepared to make an exception and buy that.

← Angola →

[1st July 1870] SG7 Sc1	Commemorative 1938 SG383 Sc274 Vasco da Gamma	Airmail 1938 SG401 Sc-C1	Charity [1925] 1929 SG-C347 Sc-RA4	Charity 1991 SG961 Sc-B1	Post Due 1904 SG-D150 Sc-J1

On the Atlantic coast of Africa, bordered by Congo, Zambia and Namibia. Angola’s issues are very similar to St.TPI above. The first set of postal tax stamps is a common design type and so the first Angolan stamp is shown. There is a late entry semi-postal for the Red Cross. Independence was granted in 1975 as the People’s Republic of Angola, resulting in a stamp of questionable taste.

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