1862 Bonelli's Electric Telegraph Co Ltd 3d stamp

5c Colombian Telegraph Stamp 1886 Type 2

Telegraph stamps are

stamps Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

intended solely for the prepayment of

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

fees. The customer completed a telegraph form before handing it with payment to the clerk who applied a telegraph stamp and cancelled it to show that payment had been made. If the stamp was an

imprinted stamp In philately, an imprinted stamp is a stamp printed onto a piece of postal stationery such as a stamped envelope, postal card, letter sheet, letter card, aerogram or wrapper.Carlton, R. Scott. ''The International Encyclopedic Dictionary of ...

, it formed part of the message form.Bennett, Russell and Watson, James; ''Philatelic Terms Illustrated'', Stanley Gibbons Publications, London (1978)

Usage

In most countries, the cost of sending a telegram was paid using normal

postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the fa ...

. These can often be identified by their distinctive telegraphic cancels or punched holes. In some countries and at some times, special telegraph stamps were produced or postage or revenue stamps overprinted to pay the fee (e.g. Nicaragua, Ecuador). Private companies also issued telegraph stamps in countries where the telegraph network was in private ownership. The first telegraph stamps issued might be those of the

English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, released in 1853. The first government-issued telegraph stamps were issued in India in January 1860. Occasionally postage stamps ran out and telegraph stamps were used for letter postage as an emergency measure, for example in Spain in 1879.

Collecting

Telegraph stamps are regarded by many philatelists as collectable. They are listed in most country specific catalogues though not usually in general stamp catalogs. The French Yvert & Tellier and the latest

Stanley Gibbons The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and philat ...

catalog of British Commonwealth stamps do list these stamps. ''Telegraph and Telephone Stamps of the World'' by S.E.R. Hiscocks (1982) and ''Telegraph Stamps of the World'' by

John Barefoot John Barefoot (born April 1948) is a British philatelist, stamp dealer, and publisher, best known for his catalogues of revenue stamps which are known collectively as the "Barefoot catalogue". Barefoot has collected stamps since he was a boy an ...

(2013) are the only catalogues which list worldwide telegraph stamps. American telegraph stamps are also listed and described in detail in ''United States Telegraph Stamps and Franks'' by George Jay Kramer. The first American telegraph stamps were issued by the New York City and Suburban Printing Telegraph Co., probably in 1859. The

Royal Philatelic Collection The Royal Philatelic Collection is the postage stamp collection of the British royal family. It is the most comprehensive collection of items related to the philately of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with many unique pieces. ...

of Queen Elizabeth II has many telegraph stamps as George V was an enthusiastic collector. It includes examples of British and Commonwealth stamps as well as private companies such as Bonelli's Electric Telegraph Co. Ltd., the

Electric Telegraph Company The Electric Telegraph Company (ETC) was a British telegraph company founded in 1846 by William Fothergill Cooke and John Ricardo. It was the world's first public telegraph company. The equipment used was the Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph, ...

and the

British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company The British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company (also called the Magnetic Telegraph Company or the Magnetic) was founded by John Brett in 1850. The Magnetic was the principal competitor to the largest telegraph company in the United Kingdom, ...

The Stock Exchange forgery

One sideline to the story of telegraph stamps is the '' Stock Exchange Forgery of 1872-73'' which was discovered in 1898 by

Charles Nissen Charles Nissen (c.1880Profile at Who Was Who in British Philately.

when examining used stamps from telegraph forms. The stamps were found to be forged due to the absence of a

watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...

and because they had impossible corner lettering. It is believed that a clerk in the

Stock Exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for th ...

Post Office, London had been using forged one shilling green stamps on the forms instead of genuine stamps and keeping the fees. The culprit was never identified, but examples of the forgery are now sold for many times the price of the genuine stamps.

Demise

The telegraph was superseded by the

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

, and

mobile telephone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

text message Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

s. The last telegraph stamps are thought to have been issued in 1993 by

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

."Collecting Telegraph Material" by Steve Hiscocks & Andrew Higson, ''Gibbons Stamp Monthly'', London, January 2007.

References

External links

The Road Less Travelled: Telegraph Stamps by Rick Miller.

The Post Office Telegraph Stamps of Great Britain.
Telegrams Philatelic terminology Cinderella stamps