Stamps Used Abroad
Stamps used abroad in overseas post offices, agencies and consular bureaux, were a feature of international mail before the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, and for some years afterwards. The first overseas post offices were the bureaux etranger established by France in neighbouring countries, the first being opened in Venice on 24 March 1561 and suppressed on 3 November 1675. A French post office was opened in Rome about 1580 and functioned until 1793, being re-opened in 1801 and continuing till 1871. The first of these offices to have a postmark was in Geneva (DE GENEVA) in 1695 and the name-stamps used by the French military at Courtrai and Suze (Piedmont), during campaigns in the War of the League of Augsburg, date from the same year.
Permanent post offices and postal agencies were established by France and Britain in many countries during the nineteenth century, to expedite the handling of overseas mail. Austria, Russia, Italy and India were among the other countries, which operated post offices outside their own frontiers and used their own stamps, distinguished only by postal markings.
British offices abroad were established from 1814 onwards, following the re-establishment of British packet routes at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. On the introduction of the Uniform Penny Postage in 1840, prepayment was gradually introduced in many of these offices, using crowned ‘Paid’ hand-stamps. Adhesive stamps of Great Britain were employed in overseas offices in the following countries: Argentina (1860 – 1873), Bolivia (1865 – 1878), Brazil (1866 – 1874), Chile (1865 – 1881), Colombia (1865 – 1881), Cuba (1865 – 1877), Danish West Indies (1865 – 1879), Dominican Republic (1869 – 1881), Ecuador (1865 – 1880), Egypt (1860 – 1882), Fernando Poo (1874 – 1877), Haiti (1865 – 1881), Mexico (1865 – 1876), Nicaragua (1865 – 1882), Peru (1865 – 1879), Porto Rico (1865 – 1877), Uruguay (1864 – 1873) and Venezuela (1865 – 1880). They were first used in Argentina (1860) and last used in Egypt and Nicaragua (1882).
In the colonies, British stamps were used till 31 December 1884 (Malta) and 31 December 1885 (Gibraltar). British stamps were used in Ascension Island from 1867 to 1922, the island being administered directly by the Admiralty and children born there being registered in the parish of Wapping. Unofficially, however, British stamps were used in Tristan da Cunha till 1952. No provision was made for the supply of stamps to the island but unstamped mail arriving in Britain was only surcharged at the single rate and not the customary double deficiency. Mail franked by British stamps and cancelled by one of the unofficial cachets of the island was accepted as fully paid by the British Post Office.
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