Postage stamps and postal history of Mauritius
The postal history of Mauritius dates back to the 17th century and is the stamp issue of the Red and Blue Mauritius and non- philatelists a term.
Beginnings of the postal system
The originally uninhabited island of Mauritius was an important supply station for water and fresh food on the sea route from Europe to India. Left behind in the early 17th century crew members -starting Ships messages in bottles and jugs, which they hung on exposed trees near convenient anchorages.
During the period of French colonial rule, the first official postal service was established in 1772 on what was then called Ile de France island in the capital Port Louis. The service included the distribution of mail and a local newspaper by hand and the acceptance of letters overseas, which were forwarded to outgoing ships. In 1811 the island was a British colony and the postal service was further expanded. Especially the regular connections to Europe, India and the Cape Colony, as well as a mail route between Port Louis and Mahebourg formed a significant improvement.
Postal Reform and first stamps
In 1842, Sir William Maynard Gomm governor of the island. At this time, the postal service was in a poor state. There was no delivery service and the letters of incoming ships were only for pickup at the post office kept ready. The post took letters to the transport ship, but was so unreliable that the inhabitants of the postal monopoly mostly dealt with their mailing handed over to the ship captains personally. Gomm had Rowland Hills Postal reforms met in the UK and now began to reform according to a similar pattern of the postal system in the colony. In December 1846, the Ordinance No. was. 13 adopted the newly arranged the postal service and providing for the issuance of postage stamps. The tariffs for letters of the first weight step was added to 1 penny for post within Mauritius and 2 pence for post to Rodrigues and other parts of the British Empire, including the mother country set. 1847 James S. Brownrigg was appointed Postmaster General and charged with the establishment of a postal network on the island and the preparation of the first stamp issue. Brownrigg opened within a short time post offices in the towns of Mahebourg, Flacq, Pamplemousses, Souillac, Black River, Curepipe, Grand Baie, Moka, Plaines Wilhems, Poudre d'Or Village and Bague, thereby also a post for the rural areas was assured. The postal service overseas was maintained by ships of the P & O-Line.
With the engraving of the printing plate for the first stamps Joseph Osmond Barnard (1816 - 1865) was a miniature painter and engraver commissioned. He should create stamps on the British model with the portrait of Queen Victoria in the value stages 1 Penny and 2 pence, which should show the name of the colony in addition, to distinguish them from the mother country can Stamps. Barnard established a single printing plate, which consisted of the back of a small copper plate already used for printing a business card. Since both stamps were engraved next to each other and should have different colors, each brand had to be printed separately. The edition was 500 copies for each value. These brands came on September 21, 1847 sale and sold out in a few weeks. For collectors, the two brands were known until 1864, and since at that time no information was available about the history, they were held for misprints because instead of specifying postpaid, as on the left sidebar of the second edition to 1 Penny and 2 pence, the inscription post Office contributed. Ever since the rediscovery of the original printing plate in 1912 and other documents on the genesis of this presumption is rebutted.
The 2 Pence 1848
A one penny of the printing plate from 1848. Later printing of the Very heavily worn plate.
A two pence from the Robert Sherwin 1859 nachgestochenen plate of 1848.
Already on May 2, 1848 Barnard had engraved printing plates for a second edition. The values were unchanged, with the exception of the lettering postpaid in the left margin and the number of stamps per sheet. To ensure efficient production, 4 stamps were engraved for the red one and the blue penny 2 pence separate plates with 3 ×. These two values were printed in at least five runs with a total number of 50,000 copies per value and remained until 1859 in use. The printing plates were at the end so worn that the design was only dimly visible.
1859 appointed Postmaster General of the engraver Robert Sherwin nachzustechen the printing plates. Only 2 pence plate was completed and used to print a new edition, the 1 Penny plate was no longer used.
Brands with the Britannia motif
Already 1848 the Postmaster-General, Stamps ordered from the Crown Agents in London, which commissioned the printing Perkins, Bacon & Petch with the production. The first delivery of the new brands was 1849. The design shows a harbor scene with the seated Britannia, armed with lance and shield, in front of a stack of goods. This motif, which should symbolize trade and valor, showed no indication of value. The face value could only be determined by the color, thereby reducing the manufacturing costs were reduced because all value stages only a printing form was still needed. The same motif was introduced with corresponding names of the colonies in Trinidad and Barbados. From now unknown reasons, this system of color coding was not accepted by the Postmaster General and the printed sheets disappeared first in the archive. 1858 were overprinted with the word FOUR PENCE, as this denomination were required for letters to overseas 10,000 copies of the green Britannia. In the same year a new delivery of stamps in the denomination value to 6 pence and 1 shilling came to Mauritius, although these brands had a declaration of value, but in Sans Serif, which did not harmonize with the held in serif lettering MAURITIUS. 1860 was the third delivery, this time the colors were changed. The fourth and final delivery of 1861 contained the first toothed stamps for Mauritius.
Red-brown 1 shilling mark issued in 1859
2 pence the issue of 1859, the so-called " dog's head ", J. Stecher Lapirot
One Penny on December 12, 1859, Draft LA Dardenne
Latest local spending
Between 1849 and 1859 the 1 Penny and 2 pence postpaid brands of the second edition were delivered despite the Britannia brands in use. Only a red-violet Britannia without a value has since been used as one penny stamp, because the old printing plate of the second edition was too worn out. 1859 awarded the Postmaster General a contract for the subsequent engraving of 2 pence printing plate to Jules Lapirot, a French-born actor after the nachgravierte Sherwin plate was worn again. Lapirot afforded, after five months, the pressure plate with new engraving from. The now very coarse fancy stitch showed no similarity more with Queen Victoria's portrait on, among collectors, this brand dog's head or monkey head is called. Despite the apparent lack of execution stamps were printed from the plate and used.
In the same year was another Frenchman, Louis Adolphe Dardenne, commissioned to design new printing plates 1 and 2 pence. Dardenne created for each value of a printing plate to 72 brands. The top title bar bears the name of the colony appears below the value of the brand. The marginal ridges are occupied by a meandering and thus resemble contemporary French Ceres stamps. The stamps were printed in lithography process with a circulation of 70,000 copies each.
Victoria 's expenditure of De La Rue
From 1860, the British Printing De La Rue took over the production of stamps for Mauritius. It was made in a medallion in the book printing process, a uniform design with a profile view of the queen. From 1863 the brands appeared on watermarked paper. This portrait of the Queen remained until 1895, but with changing framework in use. Since 1878 a currency conversion from pounds sterling to the Mauritian Rupee was done, Big Brand Surplus with new currency values had to be overprinted. The postal region of Mauritius comprised in this time, the Seychelles, Rodrigues and the Chagos Archipelago.
In this period, the construction of a rail network was in Mauritius, the first railway line was opened in 1864. Each station received a post office and the trains were equipped with railway mail cars. This service lasted until 1956.
Reorganization of the postal area and development to independence
In 1890 the post area of the Seychelles from Mauritius was separated, although the island group formally until 1903 administratively belonged to Mauritius.
From 1895 a new postage stamp series bearing the arms of the colony was introduced. These brands also served as tax purposes, as can be seen by the inscription Postage & Revenue. This very high value steps were necessary, the special security features required. To complicate removal of the canceller, a slightly soluble specialty paint was used, the purple only in the tones and green was available. The stamps were printed in these colors on colored paper. As a further safety measure in 1904 for the first time coated paper was supported by the De La Rue printing used.
To reduce costs for stamp production of the vast British Empire, De La Rue used from 1879 called Keyplates containing free fields for the name of the colony and the face value. This information could then be in a second operation, usually imprinted in different colors. From 1910, these plates were first introduced for Mauritius for use. The system of Keyplates was used until 1938 for postage stamps, the printing plates were replaced when changing the sovereign.
In the 1930s the output program of special stamps was standardized by so-called omnibus spending, ie Brands with the same motifs on the same occasion in the entire British Empire issued. This practice was continued until the independence of Mauritius.
On November 10, 1933, the first airmail from Réunion arrived in Mauritius. The first direct airmail connection to Europe in 1937 was established.
Independent State
The independence of Mauritius in 1968 had an impact on the Postal Service of the island groups which were still under British administration. In 1965, the colonial administration had the islands Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches from the Seychelles colony split off and combined with the Chagos Archipelago, which previously belonged to the post area of Mauritius to the British Indian Ocean Territory, which formed an independent postal area from January 1968.
Until March 1992 Mauritius was a monarchy in the Commonwealth of Nations with Queen Elizabeth II as monarch. Many stamps from this period show a small portrait of the Queen in the upper right or left corner. After changing the form of government in a republic a small coat of arms was printed in its place, but this practice was abandoned after 2000.
25c mark from the definitives from 1938 with the portrait of George VI.
5c brand from the landscape series from 1954 with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II
Stamp of 1970 with the main post office in Port Louis