Stamps from France

France, like England, has had stamps for a long time.  And like England, they started doing them with images Emperor Napoleon (Napoleon III, not the first Napoleon).  But they quickly ditched that theme and went to more symbolic images.

Our oldest French stamp is from 1878, Scott 92, which shows "Peace and Commerce".

I'm not sure why there is the difference in color.  Since the stamps are over 100 years old, let's just assume one lightened as it aged.

The symbolic theme continues with the 1901 Scott 113 showing "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity",

 This continues with the 1927 Scott 129 showing "Liberty and Peace".

There was a series of stamps called "The Sower" starting in 1903 that lasted decades. Scott 138 is postmarked 1906.

Scott 159, 162, 168 are from 1907, while the slightly more detailed image of Scott 146 is  1926.

Again, we have two stamps that appear to be the same (Scott 168), but differ in color and detail.

We also see this in the 1936 Scott 267 ("Peace with Olive Branch") which certainly seem to be different shades of red.

The 1944 Scott 383 shows an image of Iris.

The 1945 Scott 534 shows an image of Ceres.  Ceres is on stamps all the way back to 1870.

In 1945, there was a series of stamps showing an image of "Marianne", the French national symbol.

A 1954 stamp, Scott 708, shows a "Farm Woman"

Back to Marianne in 1955, Scott 753, 755, 756.

This continues, with Marianne and the Ship of State, in 1959, with Scott 927.  This image was reprinted in 1960 in different colors.

But, again, there seems to be a different printing, variant colors and detail, for the Scott 927.

There is another series of stamps showing the "Coat of Arms" of various French cities.  We have Scott 739 (from Saintonge, 1954), Scott 902 (from Lille, 1958), and Scott 1095 (from Paris, 1965).

France, of course, also has a large number of colonies.  For many of these, France provided postal stamps.  For example, after World War II, France took control of Saarland, an area on the border of Germany and France.  1n 1949, they issued a Saar stamp.

Saar eventually (1955 or so) became a part of Germany (again).

The French occupied, and administered, part of Libya called Fezzan and Ghadames, issuing stamps in 1946.

In terms of colonies, French Equatorial Africa in 1946 issued Scott 166

French Guiana, in 1947 issued Scott 193

French Morocco, in 1947 issued Scott 221.

 Reunion, in 1947, issued Scott 249.

French Polynesia, issued Scott 183 in 1958.

French Southern & Antarctic Territories, had Scott 2 in 1955 (Rockhopper Penguins) and Scott 13 in 1959 (Skuas).

But also, France was occupied by the Germans for much of World War II.  During that time, the Vichy government issued stamps (but apparently not postage stamps) honoring a volunteer regiment that fought against the Russians.

Stamps from The Netherlands

Our first stamp from the Netherlands is from 1898 -- Scott 55, 56, 60.  Not very interesting, just a design and a number for its value.

But at the same time, they were starting to issue stamps of Queen Wilhelmina who was Queen from 1890 to 1948

Scott 65 is from 1898, but Scott 147, 148 are from 1924.

Still there were non-royal images.  Scott 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171 (1927) and the later Scott 243C, 243E (1941) is a sea gull.

During the war, there was a strange overprinting of these older designs, such as Scott 227, 228 (1940).

Still Queen Wilhelmina was also on stamps of this period.  Scott 216, 216B, 217, 218 (1940)

Queen Wilhelmina was a popular design, with special stamps on milestone anniversaries of her reign.  Scott 127 (1923), 210 (1938), and 302 (1948).

But there were many other designs too.  1943 saw Scott 245, 246, 247, 248, 251 which were like bas-relief.

There were also stamps more like Old Masters, such as Scott 252, 253 (1944).

But by the end of the war, back to Queen Wilhelmina (Scott 266) and a stamp showing a Rampart Lion (probably representing the Queen) fighting a dragon (representing Germany?), Scott 277 (1945).

By 1946, a very utilitarian set of stamps was issued.  Scott 283, 285.  These were continued in 1953 with Scott 341, 343.

These were very long lasting stamps; we have an envelope with Scott 283, 285 postmarked from 1960, which is about as late as this batch of stamps go.

In 1947, they brought out a new set of stamps of Queen Wilhelmina, Scott 286, 287, 289, 291, 294.

We have one problem with these stamps.  The Scott catalog says that the 6 Cent stamp (Scott 287) is "brown black".  In 1948, it was reissued as "gray blue" (Scott 301).  But we have one that seems sort of in-between.  Maybe it's just a 301 that has darkened with age.

But the trouble with doing stamps of the Queen, is she stops being Queen, and you get a new Queen, and have to change your stamps.  In 1948, Queen Juliana took over. Scott 304.

And by 1949, a whole new set of stamps with Queen Juliana appear. Scott 306, 307, 308, 310, 311, 312, 313.

But they did other things too; for example Scott 323 and 328 in 1950.

But by 1953, they are back with Queen Juliana.  Scott 344, 346.

 Of course, The Netherlands was also one of those European Colonial Powers, so there were colonies, with their own stamps, such as these two, Scott 217 for the Netherlands Antilles (1950) of Queen Juliana, and Scott 22 for the Netherlands New Guinea (1954) on a Bird of Paradise.

Stamps from Mexico

We do not have a lot of stamps from Mexico.  But our oldest one is from 1935, the Cross of Palenque (Scott 712).

Then we skip forward to 1944 for Scott 790, "Liberty".

Both of these stamps seem really "muddy", lacking in clarity.

Notice the blue stamp with the 790.  This is Scott RA14 (1939) or RA16 (1944) or RA19 (1947).  It was a special stamp, costing 1 cent, that had to be added to all postage to raise money to fight malaria, showing a man being attacked by a mosquito.

Contrast the style of the art for that with the art for Scott 862 (1950)

Or the art on Scott 879 (1954) This could also be Scott 861 (1950), but with a postmark of 1958, it seems likely it would be the later stamp.

But most of our stamps from Mexico are air-mail stamps (Correo Aereo Mexico).

Scott C186, C236, C189, C191, C193, C194, C195, C196 from 1950 to 1956


And then also two later ones, from 1956, Scott C233 and C234.

Stamps from Japan

Japan has a very long history, but it was more or less isolated from the rest of the world until Perry landed there in 1853.  As a result stamps were only used from about 1872.  Our oldest is Scott 80 from 1888.  It's the only stamp with English on it, saying both "Imperial Post" and "Japanese Post".

By the turn of the century (1900), we have Scott 92, 93, 97

By 1913, they have a larger set of stamps (Scott 116, 117, 119, 121)

These same designs were continued for decades.  Sometimes there were minor changes, like the 3 Sen stamp (Scott 119) 1913 which could also be Scott 131 (1914) or Scott 131b (1924).  The 7 Sen stamp (Scott 135) is from 1930.

Scott 194 (1926) and Scott 197 (1937) start to show landscape images.

Japan started expanding, leading up to World War II.  We have a stamp from 1937 for Manchukuo (Scott 86), which was the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria, which went back to being part of China after the war.

Japan itself continued with landscape images, but also some military figures, like General Maresuke Nogi (Scott 259) and General Heihachiro Togo (Scott 261).

General Togo was upgraded from 4 sen to 5 sen in 1942 (Scott 331).

By 1944, Japanese stamps become "imperforate" -- that is, they have no perforations, as seeen in Scott 358 (Coal Miners).  Maybe the machines to perforate the stamps were damaged in the war?

This helps identify some stamps.  For example, I first thought this was Scott 275, but that stamp has perforations.  Since our stamp has no perforations, we think it is Scott 361.

 This lack of perforation continues thru 1947, with Scott 362, 363, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 372.

Scott 372 might be Scott 370 (or even 388) -- I'm not sure how to tell.

And there are other quality issues.  Note the color difference in the following two stamps

This seems to be recognized in the Scott catalog as being 364a and 364b.

By 1947, things are back to more normal, at least in terms of stamps, with Scott 391 and 393.

The following stamp could be Scott 405 or 515A

This stamp is "First Geese" by Hokusai from 1952 (Scott 512A)

And finally we have two stamps, slightly different.  Scott 516 (1951) is 10.00 yen, but Scott 580 (1953) is simply "10".