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Nyassa - Definitives (3rd
series)
1 August 1901
13 values in total, 7 values featuring giraffe
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The first giraffe-related stamps ever issued were those which
make up the majority of the 3rd series of Nyassa Definitives.
Nyassa was a Portuguese colony in what is now Mozambique,
administered by the Nyassa Company, which had the right to issue
its own postage stamps. After a shaky start (more on which can be
read in a contemporary article here), it issued its first two sets of definitive
stamps in 1897 and 1898, although in both cases these were just the
then extant stamps of Mozambique overprinted set.
In 1901, however, Nyassa issued its own stamps, a set of 13 values,
the lower seven of which featured a giraffe standing under two palm
trees, with the remaining 6 values featuring two camels. The stamps
wered designed by Robert Edgcumbe, engraved in taille-douce by
Herbert Bourne, and printed in bi-colour by Waterlows in London on
white-wove un-watermarked paper in sheets of 50 stamps. The upper
left corner features a portrait of King Carlos I of Portugal, the
upper right corner the Portuguese Royal Arms, and the bottom
corners the values of the stamps. Although old, they are not
necessarily rare - as a result they have catalogue values of around
£19.00 for a mint set, and £12.00 for a fine used set, and are
frequently available on eBay for substantially less than those
figures.
All the stamps in this series are found with inverted centres. To
take advantage of a buoyant philatelic market Waterlow & Son,
in collusion with the Nyassa Company, deliberately ‘manufactured’
these and outlet them straight onto the philatelic market in
London. They were never postally used, although five clandestine
covers are known to have been sent out to Nyassa by a London dealer
and mailed back genuinely through the post.
There might have been a genuine printing error in 1905 which led to
a sheet of 50 stamps of the 150r value with inverted centres being
printed by mistake, but it was no accident that during the next 4
years all the other values appeared on the market with inverted
centres. Such was the philatelic demand that in 1922 Waterlow &
Son made new plates and re-printed 20 sheets (1,000 stamps) of all
13 values with inverted centres - an overwhelming proportion of
inverted examples on the market today were printed as a result of
this "deliberate" mistake.
If you would like to know more about the stamps of Nyassa and the
Nyassa Company then you may be interested in our sister site,
Nyassa
Stamps.
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Nyassa - Definitives (4th series)
(Local overprint)
1 May 1903
5 values in total, 2 values featuring giraffe
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See description for larger versions
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In 1903, standardisation of postal rates and stamp colours,
meant that new stamps were required and, pending their arrival
which never came, five existing values were overprinted /
surcharged - initially locally, and subsequently by Waterlow &
Son in London.
The 15r and the 25r giraffe values, for the Colonial and Foreign
postcard rates respectively, were overprinted “PROVISORIO”,
vertically in small capitals . These local overprints are scarce
and forgeries exist. Genuine local overprints must be on the 1st
printing of the stamps (there are seven printings in total) and a
genuine example of the 15r value can been seen here, and a genuine
25r value can be seen here. The 1st
printing sent to Nyassa in 1901 for sale in Post Offices included
4,000 sheets of the 15r (200,000 stamps), and 3,000 sheets of the
25r (150,000 stamps).
Used examples of the genuine local overprints have only been
recorded with postmarks dated between April and October 1903 –
after which the Waterlow & Son London overprint (covered in the
entry below) had been delivered to the Nyassa post office for usage
in place of the local overprint.
The 80r, 150r and 300r camel values were locally surcharged 65r,
115r and 130r for foreign letters (65r), registered foreign letters
(65r+50r) and double foreign letters (65r+65r) respectively, and
can be seen by clicking here,
here and here. The surcharges are
horizontal with the word "réis" in lower case letters. Genuine
local surcharges are rare and are always on the 1st printing. Most
examples found are forgeries on the 5th printing, made around 1910,
with surcharges which are often indistinguishable from the original
- our sister site, Nyassa Stamps, has more information on the
forgeries here.
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Nyassa - Definitives (4th series)
(London overprint)
1 May 1903
5 values in total, 2 values featuring giraffe
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The Waterlow & Son overprints and surcharges, generally
referred to as London overprints, can be distinguished by the
different type face. For the 15r and 25r giraffe values the
PROVISORIO was printed horizontally in large capitals (see here and here). For the three
camel values the surcharge and the word "REIS" are both in large
capitals (as shown here, here and here).
These are considerably easier to come by than the local overprints,
and the complete set of 5 overprints catalogues at around £6.00 for
a mint set and £4.50 for a used set.
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Nyassa - Definitives (5th
series)
17 December 1909
2 values in total, 1 featuring giraffe
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Despite what the contemporary article (which can be found
here) says, these two overprinted and surcharged
stamps were fabricated by Waterlow & Son and released solely
for the philatelic market. There was no postal requirement for them
as 5 and 50 reis stamps were already available, they were never
sent to Nyassa for postal use and are never found on cover.
Both mint and used stamps are found, but always cancelled to order
with a blue cancel by Waterlow & Sons. Whilst this would
technically make them cinderellas under my definition, it is
probably more accurate to consider them as "spurious", and I
include them here as the various issues from Nyassa are traded
frequently on eBay and other stamp websites, and collectors should
be aware of the truth behind their status.
I am indebted to John Dahl FRPSL for making available the findings
and conclusions of his 40 years of research into the stamps of
Portuguese Nyassa. This has entailed plating studies of the
Waterlow & Son archived ‘File copy’ sheets which led to the
discovery of the seven printings. Recognition of the printings
found on covers has enabled the identification of those printings
which were sent to the Nyassa post office and those which were made
solely for the philatelic market. John intends to publish a book in
due course and I acknowledge and thank him warmly for kindly
providing access to his collection and sharing his findings, on
which the above information is based. Until its publication you may
find more information about the stamps of Nyassa and the Nyassa
Company then you may be interested in our sister site, Nyassa
Stamps.
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Nyassa - Republica Series (King
Emanuel)
1911
12 values in total, 3 values featuring giraffe
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Upon the assassination of King Carlos in 1908 King Emanuel (or
Manuel) ascended to the throne - although little did he know that
he wasn’t going to be there for very long. A new set of
definitives, featuring his portrait and similar designs to the
preceding series, was therefore prepared, with the camel design on
the lowest three values, a zebra design on the next three, the
typical giraffe design on the next three and a ship on the final
three of the set.
For some reason these were not issued until after the 1910
revolution - as a result the stamps were overprinted in Lisbon with
“REPUBLICA” in red, running diagonally from bottom left to top
right. They catalogue at around £20.00 for the mint set, and £14.00
for the used set - complete scans and information can be found on
our sister site, Nyassa Stamps.
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Nyassa - Republica Series (King
Carlos)
1918
13 values in total, 7 values featuring giraffe
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Following the abolition of the real (along with the monarchy)
as the official currency of Portugal and its replacement by the
escudo, the values of the Nyassa stamps required updating. For
reasons which are not entirely clear, however, rather than do this
to the King Emanuel set issued in 1911, this was done by reissuing
the 3rd Series (featuring King Carlos) and overprinting them
locally, rather than in Lisbon. In consequence these are much rarer
than the 1911 series, cataloguing at around £470.00 for a mint set
and £350.00 for a used set, although these figures inflated
somewhat by the unusually high catalogue values of the lowest three
values in the set, which account between them for 95% of the price,
the reasons for which I cannot ascertain.
The 13 values of the 3rd series were therefore reissued, again,
overprinted with “REPUBLICA” in black horizontally, along with its
new value. Unlke the revalued King Emanuel Republica series which
was to follow it in 1921, the old and the new values for this
series bore a logical relationship - 2.5r became .25c, 5r became
.5c, 10r became 1c, and so on up to the 300r which became 30c. Full
details are in the complete list,
or alternatively on oursister
site.
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Nyassa - Republica Series (King
Carlos) (Provisorio local overprint)
1918
5 values in total, 2 values featuring giraffe
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The 1918 Republica Series above overprinted the existing 3rd
series featuring King Carlos with “REPUBLICA” and its new value. In
addition to this, however, the stamps that had been locally
overprinted as part of the 4th series also needed to be updated.
Having already been overprinted once, these were now overprinted
again - so the lowest of the series featured a 15r giraffe stamp
from the 3rd series overprinted with “Provisorio” from the 4th
series and now overprinted again with “Republica” and its new value
of 1.5c - likewise the 80r value camel stamp from the 3rd series,
which had already been overprinted “65 reis” in the 4th series was
now overprinted again with the first overprinting struck through,
and a fresh overprinting of “Republica” and its new value of 40c.
For full details on the overprintings see the complete lists or the series' entry on
our sister site - bar the 80r value these are not
pariticularly rare stamps, and they therefore catalogue at around
£30.00 for a set of mint stamps, and slightly less for a fine used
set.
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Ethiopia - Animals and
Royalty
16 June 1919
15 values in total, 1 value featuring giraffe
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Enter the first set of non-Nyassan giraffe-related postage
stamps for this period in history. Issued in June 1919, designed by
Walter Plattner and engraved and printed (by lithography) at the
Busag Works in Berne, Switzerland, in sheets of 100 (10x10), this
set had a total of 15 values, from 1/8g to $10, of which one value,
the 1/4g, featured giraffes. Whilst more precise details about the
contents of this set can be found here, in brief the stamps are relatively
common, and catalogue values are approximately £30.00 for a mint
set, and about the same for a used set. For an enlarged view of the
giraffe value only, click here.
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Nyassa - Republica Series (King
Emanuel) revalued
1921
12 values in total, 3 values featuring giraffe
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As with King Carlos’ definitives before him, the Republica
series issued for King Emanuel in 1911 required updating to reflect
the abolition of the real and the introduction of the escudo. As
before, these were overprinted in Lisbon with “REPUBLICA” in red
running diagonally from bottom left to top right, with the new
value in centavos in the bottom right hand corner, in black for all
but two values, on which it is in red`.
For some reason, however, the stamps failed to follow the sensible
logical relationship between the old value and the new value that
they had introduced with the King Carlos series, and for some
values they appear to have pulled the financial conversion out of a
hat - if you’d like more detail then have a look at the complete list or our sister
site.
The stamps were overprinted in both London and Lisbon - the former
in greater quantities with an eye more to the collectors' market,
the latter in small quantities for actual postage usage in Nyassa.
In consequence the stamps are not expensive to acquire, cataloguing
as they do at around £7.00 for a mint or a used set of the London
overprints, but a little than that for the Lisbon overprints.
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Nyassa - Definitives (7th
series)
1921
20 values in total, 4 values featuring giraffe
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Understandably, by 1921 most people in Nyassa were scratching
their heads at the numerous surcharges, revaluations and
overprintings, both local and international, that had taken place,
so despite only recently having introduced yet another new set of
revalued stamps, someone figured it would be sensible to start
over.
This was done with the 1921 definitives series, which featured a
total of 20 values over 5 designs (the by-now obligatory giraffe
eating a palm tree on the lowest four values, Vasco da Gama on the
next five, a sailing ship on the next five, a zebra on the next
four and a different sailing ship on the final two). They were the
first Nyassan stamps not to feature an image of the King, and were
headed “Companhia do Nyassa”, rather than the more straightforward
“Nyassa” of all previous stamps, and bear more than a passing
similarity to the Mozambique Company “Indigenous designs” set which
was to appear in 1937 and which is covered below.
The complete list contains full
details of the values, colours, designs and prices, and our
sister site has full scans and more information, but in
short a complete set bears a catalogue price of around £24.00 or so
mint, and £20.00 used - you can expect to pick them up for
substantially less than this.
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Ethiopia - Animals and Royalty
(overprint)
1922
1 value featuring giraffe
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Proving that it wasn’t just Nyassa which couldn’t go a couple
of years without revaluing or surcharging their stamps, in 1922
Ethiopia got in on the act too. In this case, however, it wasn’t
because of the assassination or overthrow of a King, it was as a
result of post-war inflation.
Postal rates had to increase to keep up, and rather than create new
stamps the values which were need more were simply printed onto
values which were needed less. As a result, in 1922 (the precise
date is unknown because all postal records were destroyed when the
Italians invaded Addis Ababa), the series was overprinted at the A.
Desvages Printing Press in Addis Ababa, and as part of that
overprinting the .25g value (featuring the giraffes) was
overprinted with the 1g value and reissued. The giraffe value
catalogues at around £1.40, mint or used.
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Tanganyika - Definitives
1922
19 values in total, all featuring giraffe
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As with Mozambique and Nyassa, the first postage stamps of
Tanganyika were merely existing issues from the East Africa and
Uganda Protectorates overprinted “G.E.A.” (standing for “German
East Africa”). Following German defeat in World War I the majority
of the country was passed to British rule under the Treaty of
Versailles, a move confirmed by a 1922 League of Nations
Mandate.
Following the transition Tangayika issued its own first set of
definitive stamps, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson, with the giraffe
featuring on each of the 19 values. The stamps were denominated in
pounds, shillings and cents (with 100 cents to a shilling and 20
shillings to a pound).
The cent values each featured the denomination of the stamp, in
figures, in the top right and bottom two corners, the denomination
in words (pounds, shillings, cents, etc.) running along the bottom
of the stamp, and the image of a giraffe’s head, surrounded by the
words “Tanganyika Postage & Revenue”, in the remainder of the
stamp. The shilling and pound values featured the giraffe’s head in
the center of the stamp, with the value in figures to its left and
right, and the denomination in words underneath those values (for
the shilling values) and underneath the giraffe’s head (for the
pound value).
Full details of the colours and values are in the complete list - unlike the majority of
giraffe stamps from this period, these are rare and expensive,
cataloguing at around £275.00 for a mint set, and £560.00 for a
fine used set, with the £1.00 value from the set making up over
half of each of those figures alone. That explains why I presently
have scans of only two available.
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Nyassa - Postage Dues
1924
9 values in total, 2 values featuring giraffe
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Notable primarily for the fact that they are triangular, this
was a set of 9 postage due stamps, marked “Porteado a receber”, The
lowest two values, the .5c and the 1c, feature the obligatory
giraffe, the remaining values featuring (in ascending order) the by
now obligatory zebra, ship and Vasco da Gama designs. It is likely
that these were issued solely for the benefit of stamp collectors -
certainly they are not rare, cataloguing at around £23.00 for a
mint set, and £19.00 or so for a fine used set, although as ever
these figures are considerably higher than what one would expect to
pay on eBay or another auction website. Full scans and details can
be found on our sister site
The good news (for those who are getting thoroughly confused by
Nyassa’s stamp-related machinations) is that this is the last set
of giraffe-featuring-stamps issued by Nyassa. With the termination
of the Niassa Company’s concession on 27 October 1929, Nyassa
ceased to exist, bar one final flourish - the 1 centavo value from
this set was resurrected in 1985 for a Mozambique stamp issue
featuring the stamps of its consituent companies, details of which
can be found on this
page.
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Tanganyika - Definitives (colour
change)
1925
4 values in total all featuring giraffe
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Following on from the 1922 Definitive issue covered a little
further up this page (here), four
values were reissued in new colours. The 5c was reissued in black
and green, the 10c in black and yellow, the 25c in black and blue
and the 30c in black and purple. All other aspects remained the
same.
The 1922 and the 1925 issues both had the “Crown and Script CA”
watermark upright - the six highest of the 1922 values (1, 2, 3, 5
and 10 shillings and £1.00) had all also been issued in 1922 on
sideways watermarked paper, but as this distinction is marginal
(unlike the 1925 colour change) they are not considered to be “new”
giraffe stamps. The four values have a catalogue value of around
£15.00 mint, £23.00 used.
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Northern Rhodesia -
Definitives
1 April 1925
17 values in total all featuring giraffe
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Larger picture not yet available
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1925 saw the turn of another British colony in Africa, Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia) , which had been under British control since
its creation in 1911 out of the combination of North West Rhodesia
and North East Rhodesia, to follow Tanganyika’s lead in the
creation of a set of definitive stamps by featuring the same
giraffe (and elephant) design on each of them. Barring changes of
portrait as the monarchs changed, these would remain in issue until
1959.
Printed by Waterlow and Son Limited in London, the series features
the same picture seventeen times over in varying colours and
denominations from .5d to 20 shillings. For full details of the
values and colours see the complete
list - broadly speaking a complete mint set catalogues at
around £450.00, and a used set £570.00 (the top three values
contribute around half of those figures between them).
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Southern Rhodesia -
Silver Jubilee
6 May 1935
4 values in total all featuring giraffe
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Not to be outdone by its northern neighbour, in 1935 Southern
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) issued a series of four stamps to celebrate
the Silver Jubilee of King George V.
The stamps, which were also printed by Waterlow and Sons Limited in
London, all featured the same design - a giraffe, elephant, lion
and sable antelope at Victoria Falls alongside an image of King
George V taken from a photograph of him by Vandyck. Whilst complete
details of prices, values, colours and catalogue numbers are
available in the complete list,
the set catalogues at around £22.00 mint and £32.00 used.
Interestingly, the specimen stamps for the issue were drawn up in
different colours - a 1d value in red, brown and blue, a further 1d
value in purple, a 2d value in green and purple and a 3d value in
purple and green-brown. These were never issued for distribution
for postal purposes, but specimens overprinted as such (with
“Waterlow & Sons Ltd Specimen” and a security hole punched
through) are available on the market at around £300.00 mint.
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Mozambique - Indigenous
designs
1937
19 values in total, 1 value featuring giraffe
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Although the Nyassa Company may have ceased to exist in 1929,
Mozambique itself didn’t (clearly) and it continued to be run by
the Mozambique Company, which had stamp issuing rights.
Issued in 1937, the indigenous designs series featured 19 values,
more details of which can be found in the complete list. As with the Nyassa Company
stamps, the stamps were printed by Waterlow and Sons Limited of
London based (in the case of the giraffe value) on an original
drawing by J. Webb. The full set catalogues for around £10.00 mint
and £6.00 used, which reflects its relative availability - parts or
complete sets are almost always up for auction on eBay and other
auction websites.
The giraffe image from the 1c value crops up some 65 years later on
the front cover of the first edition of Alexander McCall Smith’s
novel “The Tears of the Giraffe”.
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Northern Rhodesia -
Definitives
1938
21 values in total all featuring giraffe
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Following the death of George V, and the abdication of Edward
VIII (fortunately no-one had thought to print new stamps on his
accession, otherwise they’d have been left with a fair few out of
date ones), George VI ascended to the throne of England, a event
which necessitated a new set of definitives.
For reasons unknown (perhaps to see if he was going to stick around
longer than Edward VIII) these new definitives were not issued
until 1938. The same format, but different colours and values, were
used as for the 1922 issued, although the new King’s head faced in
the opposite direction, and the words “Postage & Revenue” were
omitted. As before the stamps were printed by Waterlow and Son
Limited in London, They used exactly the same format as the 1925
definitive issue, just with different colours and values, for full
details of which please see the complete list. The definitives remained
in issue until 1952, with the advent of Queen Elizabeth II, and
catalogue at around £200.00 for a mint set or £110.00 for a used
set.
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Also rans between 1950 and 1959
I am not aware of any issues between 1900 and 1949 where the
inclusion of a giraffe was so ancillary as to not merit inclusion
in the above list. If you know of any, please email me.
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As far as I am aware, the information on this page is complete
and accurate, and there are were no other giraffe-related stamps
issued between 1900 and 1949 (inclusive). If you spot any missing
issues, errors, inaccuracies, or have any information that could be
added to that contained in these pages then please don’t hesitate
to email me at info@giraffestamps.co.uk.
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