Shanghai Postage Stamps

The first postal service on European lines in China was established in Shanghai in 1865 for the convenience of the foreign mercantile community, and a further thirteen years elapsed, before the Imperial authorities followed suit. The definitive issues of the International Post Office in Shanghai featured the Chinese dragon and were valued in candareens (1865 – 1866 and 1867 – 1877) or cents (1866 – 1872). Stamps surcharged in cash appeared in 1879 – 1884 and were superseded by stamps inscribed in this currency.

The jubilee of the first European settlement in Shanghai was marked by the release of a stamp in December 1893. The design showed the female figure of Commerce, the rising sun and a winged wheel symbolising communications. After the establishment of the Chinese Imperial Post Office in 1878, the postal service of Shanghai had local status, though continuing to be recognised internationally until 1898, when the Chinese authorities suppressed the postal service.

A new definitive series was introduced in 1893. The stamps, from one half cent to twenty cents featured the coat of arms of the Shanghai municipality. The series was subsequently over-printed diagonally in Gothic script to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of European settlement. The 1c is known with this over-print double.

Following the example of Shanghai, the European merchant communities in the other treaty ports established their own postal services. Unlike Shanghai, these services never enjoyed international recognition and the stamps had local status only. Their heyday was in the 1890s, when attractive pictorial sets were produced with increasing frequency, with an eye to philatelic revenue rather than the performance of a real postal service.