Foreign And Commonwealth Office Collection
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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection was formed by instruction from the Secretary of State for the Colonies on 23 April 1890 to all territories under his authority. The intention was to have a record of all Colonial Postage and
revenue stamps A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...
,
postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
s, embossed envelopes and
newspaper wrapper In philately a wrapper is a form of postal stationery which pays the cost of the delivery of a newspaper or a periodical. The wrapper is a sheet of paper, large enough to wrap around a folded or rolled newspaper and with an imprinted stamp to pay t ...
s. The collection contains single examples of the stamps in use at that time as well as some obsolete issues and single copies, usually from first printings, from 1890. Variations such as colour varieties and alternate watermarked papers are included. When the collection was closed in 1992, it was transferred British Library, Philatelic Collections.


Scope

] There is a full range of revenue stamps, as issued to the territories, for the
King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...
and
Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
reigns. In addition there is an extensive selection of postage due labels. Many of the stamps in the Collection are further identified by a date showing when they were received by the Colonial Office. As well as postcards, embossed envelopes and newspaper wrappers there are registered envelopes, air letter forms, reply postcards, and examples of paper money and postal orders. Many items are annotated with the date of receipt by the Colonial Office. The collection consist of three ledgers into which stamps have been stuck down, preventing the examination of watermarks, and a further 36 boxes of postal stationery.Martin, Jeremy, & John Powell. (2010) ''West Africa in the British Library Philatelic Collections''. Dronfield:
West Africa Study Circle The West Africa Study Circle (WASC) is the "international specialist society for the study of stamps, postal stationery and postal history of West Africa."Home ...
. pp. 126-138.


Tristan da Cunha relief stamps

The authorities in St Helena created stamps to raise money for the island of
Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...
after the population was evacuated due to volcanic activity in 1961. This was mistakenly done without approval of the Colonial Office and the issue was withdrawn. A post card, bearing three of the four values in the set, sent by the Governor of St Helena to "The Rt. Hon. Reginald Maudling, MP, Secretary of State for the Colonies" informing him of the new stamps is in the collection and is considered among the rarest items as only 434 sets of stamps were sold before being withdrawn.


Representative items

A representative sample showing the international scope of the collection includes: * Bermuda: 1936 King George V 12/6d Revenue stamp approved for postal use * Hong Kong: 1874 Queen Victoria $10 rose-carmine fiscal stamp * Gold Coast: 1889 Queen Victoria 20s green and red * Natal: 1902-03 King Edward VII Revenue £20 red and green * Malaya: Perak 1895-99 $25 green and orange * Nyasaland (now Malawi): 1908-11 King Edward VII £10 purple and ultramarine and King George V £10 purple and ultramarine


References

{{British Library Named Collections British Library Philatelic Collections Philately of Tristan da Cunha