Philately

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This thread is for those who share a passion for postage stamps.

My main passion for stamps is with the stamps that were issued in Madagascar in 1895 by the British Merchant community; the so called British Inland Mail stamps.

There were two issues.

The first set were issued on January 1st and resembled old fashioned city bus tickets. They were actually printed by the London Missionary Society.

The set comprised 6 stamps, with no images, were rather dull in color, and remarkably contained 2 errors (which rank among the most affordable of errors)

One error spelled the word FOUR as 'FUOR' (no unused examples seem to have survived and it sells for about USD 1,500)
Second error had the 2 on the Two Pence stamp written in italics like this 2 (unused examples sell for around USD 200)

The second set was issued in March 1895 and are a beautifully colorful set of 6 stamps known as the Malagasy Runners carrying images of the indiginous runners who used to literally carry the mail by hand across a country the size of Britain.

The British Inland Mail postal service was supressed by the French on September 30 1895 when they entered the capital as a prelude to colonization.

I have a beautiful first edition book written by a native Malagasy about the fascinating history of the island.

Some stamps issued under French occupation, particularly the earlier issues included quite beautiufl depictions of wildlife on what was and remains a very beautiful island.

I have no connection with Madagascar other than my love of the 1895 British Inland Mail stamps.

If you aren't a philatelist and you are still reading................I did warn you

What are your philatelic special interests

Not really keen on postage stamps, but I have compiled list after list of postal codes.

I thought that I MIGHT not be the only philatelist, but this thread seems to be going down in flames, despite having 90 'views'

This will be my last post here, if no one else responds.............lest............any think I am 'bumping' my own (going down in flames) thread

Bump. There ya go.