PORTUGUESE COLONIES STAMPS

The Portuguese issued stamps for their colonies in Africa plus Macao, Azores, Madeira & Portuguese India. In all, depending on what's included there are around 25 different colonies and areas where you could collect the stamps and/or postal history. As great travellers, these areas had been under Portuguese control or influence from the 14th or 15th Century but the first stamps created for overseas territories were those Portuguese stamps overprinted for Azores & Maderia in 1868. Then the unique designs for Portuguese India were first issued in 1871, and the most utilized first issue ‘Crown’ types appeared in the early 1870s.

These wonderful stamps were copiously overprinted and surcharged around the turn of the 19th Century, earlier issues with differing levels of complexity display shades, perforation changes and much else. Later we see the emergence of beautiful pictorial stamps, the most famous being the Nyassa Company 1901 Animals set with inverted centres! A simply fabulous philatelic area to collect there is arguably nothing better than a comprehensive stamp album of Portuguese Colonial stamps and covers. We recommend the excellent stamp listings in the Stanley Gibbons, alternatively the Afinsa catalogues.

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