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The Wide World of Stamps
It is necessary to identify the main attributes a stamp must have to be considered a postage stamp. A postage stamp must be issued by a postal administration of a State, or by the postal authorities of a part of this State, or by other authorities who are entitled to do so. A postage stamp must be issued officially and must prepay the cost of conveying an item of mail from the place of posting to the addressee in any part of the world by the regular services of any of the world’s post offices.
Postage stamps do not have to be issued for the whole territory of a State (viz. the cantonal stamps of Switzerland, the stamps of the Canadian provinces), and do not have to be valid for the whole territory of a State (for example, the Czechoslovak ‘service’ stamps issued after 1945 which were valid only on the territory of Slovakia).
The issuing office must have postal sovereignity over the territory and also the means to transport mail. Therefore, stamps issued by governments in exile cannot be considered to be postage stamps. Although the overwhelming majority of postage stamps bear the name of the issuing State or country, this is not absolutely necessary. British stamps, for instance, have no text giving the name of the country; they just feature the portrait of the King or the Queen. After all, Great Britain was the first country to issue stamps and it is certainly entitled to this privilege.
Postage stamps usually have a text giving the franking value, but this is not absolutely necessary. Take for example the Austrian newspaper stamps with the head of Mercury of 1851. There are no value figures on the stamps; this was denoted by colour.
In addition to officially issued postage stamps there are other stamps worth attention. In various places during different periods, postal services were established which supplemented and enlarged the postal network of the State. For these purposes and the executive authorities, for instance the regional or local authorities or private companies and persons charged to supply these postal services, issued their own stamps. Although in these cases, there is no actual State postal service, such stamps are interesting for collectors. It is important to decide whether such issues are postage stamps, whether their issue really did serve a need, whether it was necessary and whether they were really used as payment for the delivery of mail. If these conditions are met, then such issues achieve the character of stamps and become items of philatelic interest.
Such semi-official and private issues can be found used on their own or on mail or in combination with official stamps in places where such a local or private postal service was connected to the official network of postal services. Such mixed frankings are of great interest and very much sought after in the philatelic world.
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